A Dueppen
Biographic Data
| ID | 18149 |
|---|---|
| NAME | A Dueppen |
| GIVEN NAMES | A |
| FAMILY NAME | Dueppen |
| SIGNATURE | DUEPPEN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oregon |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6617-1393 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 104 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Creation by fire
Fire-hardened walls, burned floors and completely burned structures are common features of archaeological sites in central West Africa, often forming distinct strata in sites that developed into large mounds, or tells. Despite their ubiquity, the presence of burning on architectural remnants plays a very minor role in archaeological interpretations. We suggest that burned features are frequently the result of different forms of sacrificial burnin…
Reconnecting the Forest, Savanna, and Sahel in West Africa
Collectivism and new identities after the Black Death Pandemic
Networked Farmers, Ancestral Rituals, Regional Marketplaces, and Salt
Understanding Archaeological Tells
Tell sites are central to archaeological interpretation in many world regions due to their lengthy sequences of stratified deposits. However, the cultural choices that create architectural remnants and associated materials are more poorly understood, as are the ways that previous layers situate the living community above. This article calls for agentive understandings of tell-formation processes through examination of archaeological sites in Burk…
Dola Angèle Aguigah
Alcohol, ancestors, and the house
Bridging House to Neighborhood
Important aspects of the social, economic, and political lives of large villages, towns, and cities are spatially situated within neighborhoods. In ethnohistoric central West Africa, identities derived from multi-family social "houses" with large membership frequently intersected neighborhood identities. Drawing from archaeological and ethnohistoric examples, this chapter explores how transformations in the nature of houses over time enabled the …
Recognizing plague epidemics in the archaeological record of West Africa
Many archaeological sites in the central West African savanna were either abandoned or reduced in size between the 14th and 15th centuries CE. Explanations have tended to invoke the effects of climate change (increasing aridity), political transformations, and religious conversion. However, more recently scholars have increasingly suggested that this regional pattern could be in part the result of plague epidemics. In this paper we explore the me…
The Archaeology of Shea Butter ( Vitellaria paradoxa ) in Burkina Faso, West Africa
Shea butter, a vegetal fat derived from the nuts of the shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa), is a critical component of the diet for societies in the savanna belt of West Africa. This paper presents the results of an analysis of the longest continuous single site sequence of shea butter production and use yet known, spanning ca. 100–1500 CE, at the well-preserved archaeological site of Kirikongo, located in western Burkina Faso. Drawing on the ethnog…
The Archaeology of West Africa, ca. 800 BCE to 1500 CE
Recent archaeological research has transformed our understandings of events and processes in West Africa between the beginning of iron‐use ca. 800 BCE and the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century CE, forcing reinterpretations of older narratives that were derived from unbalanced archaeological coverage and over‐privileging of the limited textual record. During this period, economic experimentation and transformation were common in West Africa…
Changing Crafts in the Spaces Between States
African memory in danger — Mémoire africaine en péril
Expressing Difference
While many studies of inequality focus on the role that specialized craft production plays in the emergence of elite identities, variations in non-specialized crafts can also provide insights into political trajectories as they may reflect diverse choices made by multiple social segments whose socio-political roles are in transition. This article examines non-specialized potting during a time of increasing inequality in the first-millennium ad co…
Hunting on the margins of medieval West African states
Leather, animal skins and ivory were important components of the economies of medieval West African societies. Despite the prominent role of hunters in diverse oral histories throughout the region, little is known about the actual production of animal products, in particular those derived from wild animals. This paper presents a preliminary examination of the zooarchaeological record of Diouboye, an eleventh- to fourteenth-century AD settlement l…
Adopting agriculture in the West African savanna
Temporal Variability in Southeast Asian Dragon Jars
This article presents the results of a detailed analysis of four dragon jar groups found in the Guthe Collection at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology. Dragon jars are a class of decorated stoneware storage vessels that were employed in trade throughout Southeast Asia during the second millennium a.d . The jars in this study, recovered from mortuary contexts, are a unique data set due to their wide deposition throughout the souther…
From Kin to Great House
Archaeological models of increasing sociopolitical complexity have over-privileged processes of centralization in comparison to decentralization. In western Burkina Faso, ethnologists have long been intrigued by several 'village societies,' with complex communities characterized by heterogeneous populations (in kin and ethnicity), endogamous socioeconomic specialist groups, diverse ritual systems, and strong village autonomy. Rather than structur…
Cattle in the West African savanna
Early evidence for chickens at Iron Age Kirikongo (c. AD 100-1450), Burkina Faso
An excavated sequence from Burkina Faso shows that the Asian jungle fowlGallus gallus, also known as the chicken, had made its way into West Africa by the mid first millennium AD. Using high precision recovery from a well-stratified site, the author shows how the increasing use of chickens could be chronicled and distinguished from indigenous fowl by both bones and eggshell. Their arrival was highly significant, bringing much more than an additio…
Switching mortuary codes and ritual programs
This paper addresses a number of connected issues revolving around mortuary practices in the Senegambian megalithic traditions, through the lenses of the intriguing double-monolith-circle #27 of Sine-Ngayene, also known as Diallombere. Despite more than a century of archaeological investigation, the diversity of Senegambian megalithic features is still very poorly understood. Most of the cases investigated so far have been claimed to feature sing…
Characterizing the Stoneware "Dragon Jars" in the Guthe Collection
This paper presents a multifaceted study of a collection of stoneware ceramic vessels in the Guthe Collection of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. These vessels, recovered in the Philippines but manufactured in multiple production sites across East and Southeast Asia, provide insights into premodern economic interactions and maritime trade. Our study of this collection drew on multiple approaches to identify coherent groupings o…
Griot Potters of the Folona
Reluctant landscapes
From Kin to Great House
Archaeological models of increasing sociopolitical complexity have over-privileged processes of centralization in comparison to decentralization. In western Burkina Faso, ethnologists have long been intrigued by several 'village societies,' with complex communities characterized by heterogeneous populations (in kin and ethnicity), endogamous socioeconomic specialist groups, diverse ritual systems, and strong village autonomy. Rather than structur…
Hunting on the margins of medieval West African states
Leather, animal skins and ivory were important components of the economies of medieval West African societies. Despite the prominent role of hunters in diverse oral histories throughout the region, little is known about the actual production of animal products, in particular those derived from wild animals. This paper presents a preliminary examination of the zooarchaeological record of Diouboye, an eleventh- to fourteenth-century AD settlement l…
Characterizing the Stoneware "Dragon Jars" in the Guthe Collection
This paper presents a multifaceted study of a collection of stoneware ceramic vessels in the Guthe Collection of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. These vessels, recovered in the Philippines but manufactured in multiple production sites across East and Southeast Asia, provide insights into premodern economic interactions and maritime trade. Our study of this collection drew on multiple approaches to identify coherent groupings o…
Alcohol, ancestors, and the house
Changing Crafts in the Spaces Between States
Early evidence for chickens at Iron Age Kirikongo (c. AD 100-1450), Burkina Faso
An excavated sequence from Burkina Faso shows that the Asian jungle fowlGallus gallus, also known as the chicken, had made its way into West Africa by the mid first millennium AD. Using high precision recovery from a well-stratified site, the author shows how the increasing use of chickens could be chronicled and distinguished from indigenous fowl by both bones and eggshell. Their arrival was highly significant, bringing much more than an additio…
Cattle in the West African savanna
The Archaeology of West Africa, ca. 800 BCE to 1500 CE
Recent archaeological research has transformed our understandings of events and processes in West Africa between the beginning of iron‐use ca. 800 BCE and the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century CE, forcing reinterpretations of older narratives that were derived from unbalanced archaeological coverage and over‐privileging of the limited textual record. During this period, economic experimentation and transformation were common in West Africa…
Expressing Difference
While many studies of inequality focus on the role that specialized craft production plays in the emergence of elite identities, variations in non-specialized crafts can also provide insights into political trajectories as they may reflect diverse choices made by multiple social segments whose socio-political roles are in transition. This article examines non-specialized potting during a time of increasing inequality in the first-millennium ad co…
Switching mortuary codes and ritual programs
This paper addresses a number of connected issues revolving around mortuary practices in the Senegambian megalithic traditions, through the lenses of the intriguing double-monolith-circle #27 of Sine-Ngayene, also known as Diallombere. Despite more than a century of archaeological investigation, the diversity of Senegambian megalithic features is still very poorly understood. Most of the cases investigated so far have been claimed to feature sing…
Networked Farmers, Ancestral Rituals, Regional Marketplaces, and Salt
Bridging House to Neighborhood
Important aspects of the social, economic, and political lives of large villages, towns, and cities are spatially situated within neighborhoods. In ethnohistoric central West Africa, identities derived from multi-family social "houses" with large membership frequently intersected neighborhood identities. Drawing from archaeological and ethnohistoric examples, this chapter explores how transformations in the nature of houses over time enabled the …
Recognizing plague epidemics in the archaeological record of West Africa
Many archaeological sites in the central West African savanna were either abandoned or reduced in size between the 14th and 15th centuries CE. Explanations have tended to invoke the effects of climate change (increasing aridity), political transformations, and religious conversion. However, more recently scholars have increasingly suggested that this regional pattern could be in part the result of plague epidemics. In this paper we explore the me…
Temporal Variability in Southeast Asian Dragon Jars
This article presents the results of a detailed analysis of four dragon jar groups found in the Guthe Collection at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology. Dragon jars are a class of decorated stoneware storage vessels that were employed in trade throughout Southeast Asia during the second millennium a.d . The jars in this study, recovered from mortuary contexts, are a unique data set due to their wide deposition throughout the souther…
Collectivism and new identities after the Black Death Pandemic
Characterizing the Stoneware "Dragon Jars" in the Guthe Collection
This paper presents a multifaceted study of a collection of stoneware ceramic vessels in the Guthe Collection of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. These vessels, recovered in the Philippines but manufactured in multiple production sites across East and Southeast Asia, provide insights into premodern economic interactions and maritime trade. Our study of this collection drew on multiple approaches to identify coherent groupings o…
Switching mortuary codes and ritual programs
This paper addresses a number of connected issues revolving around mortuary practices in the Senegambian megalithic traditions, through the lenses of the intriguing double-monolith-circle #27 of Sine-Ngayene, also known as Diallombere. Despite more than a century of archaeological investigation, the diversity of Senegambian megalithic features is still very poorly understood. Most of the cases investigated so far have been claimed to feature sing…
Cattle in the West African savanna
Early evidence for chickens at Iron Age Kirikongo (c. AD 100-1450), Burkina Faso
An excavated sequence from Burkina Faso shows that the Asian jungle fowlGallus gallus, also known as the chicken, had made its way into West Africa by the mid first millennium AD. Using high precision recovery from a well-stratified site, the author shows how the increasing use of chickens could be chronicled and distinguished from indigenous fowl by both bones and eggshell. Their arrival was highly significant, bringing much more than an additio…
From Kin to Great House
Archaeological models of increasing sociopolitical complexity have over-privileged processes of centralization in comparison to decentralization. In western Burkina Faso, ethnologists have long been intrigued by several 'village societies,' with complex communities characterized by heterogeneous populations (in kin and ethnicity), endogamous socioeconomic specialist groups, diverse ritual systems, and strong village autonomy. Rather than structur…
Adopting agriculture in the West African savanna
Temporal Variability in Southeast Asian Dragon Jars
This article presents the results of a detailed analysis of four dragon jar groups found in the Guthe Collection at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology. Dragon jars are a class of decorated stoneware storage vessels that were employed in trade throughout Southeast Asia during the second millennium a.d . The jars in this study, recovered from mortuary contexts, are a unique data set due to their wide deposition throughout the souther…
Hunting on the margins of medieval West African states
Leather, animal skins and ivory were important components of the economies of medieval West African societies. Despite the prominent role of hunters in diverse oral histories throughout the region, little is known about the actual production of animal products, in particular those derived from wild animals. This paper presents a preliminary examination of the zooarchaeological record of Diouboye, an eleventh- to fourteenth-century AD settlement l…
Expressing Difference
While many studies of inequality focus on the role that specialized craft production plays in the emergence of elite identities, variations in non-specialized crafts can also provide insights into political trajectories as they may reflect diverse choices made by multiple social segments whose socio-political roles are in transition. This article examines non-specialized potting during a time of increasing inequality in the first-millennium ad co…
The Archaeology of Shea Butter ( Vitellaria paradoxa ) in Burkina Faso, West Africa
Shea butter, a vegetal fat derived from the nuts of the shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa), is a critical component of the diet for societies in the savanna belt of West Africa. This paper presents the results of an analysis of the longest continuous single site sequence of shea butter production and use yet known, spanning ca. 100–1500 CE, at the well-preserved archaeological site of Kirikongo, located in western Burkina Faso. Drawing on the ethnog…
The Archaeology of West Africa, ca. 800 BCE to 1500 CE
Recent archaeological research has transformed our understandings of events and processes in West Africa between the beginning of iron‐use ca. 800 BCE and the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century CE, forcing reinterpretations of older narratives that were derived from unbalanced archaeological coverage and over‐privileging of the limited textual record. During this period, economic experimentation and transformation were common in West Africa…
Changing Crafts in the Spaces Between States
African memory in danger — Mémoire africaine en péril
Recognizing plague epidemics in the archaeological record of West Africa
Many archaeological sites in the central West African savanna were either abandoned or reduced in size between the 14th and 15th centuries CE. Explanations have tended to invoke the effects of climate change (increasing aridity), political transformations, and religious conversion. However, more recently scholars have increasingly suggested that this regional pattern could be in part the result of plague epidemics. In this paper we explore the me…
Bridging House to Neighborhood
Important aspects of the social, economic, and political lives of large villages, towns, and cities are spatially situated within neighborhoods. In ethnohistoric central West Africa, identities derived from multi-family social "houses" with large membership frequently intersected neighborhood identities. Drawing from archaeological and ethnohistoric examples, this chapter explores how transformations in the nature of houses over time enabled the …
Alcohol, ancestors, and the house
Dola Angèle Aguigah
Networked Farmers, Ancestral Rituals, Regional Marketplaces, and Salt
Understanding Archaeological Tells
Tell sites are central to archaeological interpretation in many world regions due to their lengthy sequences of stratified deposits. However, the cultural choices that create architectural remnants and associated materials are more poorly understood, as are the ways that previous layers situate the living community above. This article calls for agentive understandings of tell-formation processes through examination of archaeological sites in Burk…
Griot Potters of the Folona
Reluctant landscapes
Reconnecting the Forest, Savanna, and Sahel in West Africa
Collectivism and new identities after the Black Death Pandemic
Creation by fire
Fire-hardened walls, burned floors and completely burned structures are common features of archaeological sites in central West Africa, often forming distinct strata in sites that developed into large mounds, or tells. Despite their ubiquity, the presence of burning on architectural remnants plays a very minor role in archaeological interpretations. We suggest that burned features are frequently the result of different forms of sacrificial burnin…
Geography (19 works) · Archaeology (18 works) · African Studies and Ethnography (11 works) · History (11 works) · History (10 works) · Ancient history (9 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · African Studies and Geopolitics (7 works) · Agriculture and Rural Development Research (7 works)