Stone circles of Senegambia
Círculos megalíticos de Senegambia
- Date
- c. 750-1000 · confidence low
- Place
- Sine Ngayène, Kaffrine, Senegal
- Credited to
- Peoples of Senegambia (unidentified)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
More than a thousand circles of dressed laterite pillars, grouped in 93 sites in Gambia and Senegal, mark burial grounds with tumuli. They form the largest megalithic complex in West Africa and prove a complex society preceding the great Sahelian empires.
Dates range from the 3rd century BC to the 16th century AD; most excavated tumuli at Wassu (Gambia) and Sine Ngayène fall around AD 750-1000. Who built them is unknown.
What it led to
- UNESCO World Heritage listing (2006)
- evidence of ironworking and funerary rituals
- debate on laterite quarrying technology