Floodplain Geomorphology and Human Occupation of the Upper Inland Delta of the Niger

A preliminary reconstruction is presented of the geomorphological evolution and patterns of human occupation since c. 20 000 bp in the upper Inland Delta of the Niger River. Field survey in 1977 focused on a 1100 km2 region in the hinterland of the historical town of Jenne, in which several ethnic groups today occupy a complex mosaic of landforms. The region has long been modelled by an active false-deltaic hydrology, with several interruptions by periods of dune erection. The paper examines questions of local structural instability, evidence of the presence until recent times of a vast lake ('Palaeo-Debo') and the problem of apparent avoidance of the region by Stone Age populations. During the Iron Age, however, density of rural villages far exceeded that of today and the size of the principal settlement of Jenne-jeno exceeded 12 ha by the second century AD. The recent decline in settlement density can in part be attributed to effects of fluctuations in the highly unpredictable climate and flood regime, as well as to political and social events affecting the entire Western Sudan

Cartography · Delta · Floodplain · Geography · Geomorphology · Geotechnical engineering · Hydrology (agriculture · Niger delta · Parana river · Physical geography · Flood Risk Assessment and Management · Geological formations and processes · Geology · Geophysics and Gravity Measurements

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