The August issue of the globally respected British journal Antiquity published an informative article by a Czech-Senegalese team from the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice and the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar about the archaeological and ethnobotanical research they have been conducting in Niokolo-Koba National Park in southeastern Senegal since 2018. The article, whose main author is Tereza Majerovičová, a doctoral student at the Institute of Archaeology of the Faculty of Arts of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, describes the intention and first comprehensive information on the research of extinct villages in the tropical deciduous forest and tree savannah zone of the national park, which was established in 1957 and resulted in the displacement of a number of villages and their inhabitants outside the park.
The research team focuses on addressing the questions of what material and ecological footprint the extinct villages and their agricultural facilities left behind and compares the archaeological evidence with contemporary villages in the vicinity of the park. These villages live a traditional life in harmony with the surrounding nature. The people there use building materials that have been tried and tested for centuries. A special chapter of the research is sacred trees, especially baobabs and kapok trees, whose massive trunks and broad crowns are protected and worshipped by the local people in rituals called 'djalan'. Archaeologists and botanists search for such surviving trees in the park using satellite imagery and study them using anthropological and dendrological methods. Areas of vanished villages are then studied using remote Earth surveys and environmental archaeology methods.
The Covid epidemic has interrupted the team's work in Senegal for a few years, but the team is currently preparing for an expedition planned for 2023. At the same time, further scientific studies are being prepared. One of these, which takes a holistic view of plant use in traditional Senegalese villages, was presented at the June IWGP Archaeobotany Conference in České Budějovice. The Czech-Senegalese cooperation includes a number of study stays of students and researchers at the University of South Bohemia and the University of Dakar under the Erasmus plus programmes.
Jaromír Beneš, Tereza Majerovičová
Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Palaeoecology, USB Faculty of Science, and Institute of Archaeology, USB Faculty of Arts.
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