Research Expedition to Senegal

A group of specialists from the Archaeology Department of the Faculty of Arts USB and the archaeobotanical and paleoecology laboratory of the Faculty of Science USB are going to the West African Senegal.

In the next two weeks the expedition is going to collect the material for ethnoarchaeological and ethnobotanical research in the national park Niokolo-Koba. The botanist Jan Novák is going to observe vegetation of savannah within vanished native villages. For the archaeologist Tereza Majerovičová, who is a member of this expedition too, is this topic also very interesting, because she is elaborating it within her individual grant GAJU at the University of South Bohemia. The expedition includes a postgraduate student Idrissa Manka from the university in Dakar and Ladislav Šmejda from the Department of Anthropology of the West bohemian University. Their aim is the dendrological research of large hallowed trees, baobabs and Ceiba trees that are always an important part of the village life and they have very significant meaning for the local people. The expedition is planning to visit the living villages by the Senegal-guinea borders, where they can still experience the traditional African style of life.