Holocene Climate Change and Cultural Adaptation: Case Study from the Saloum Delta, Senegal, West Africa Volume 7 - Issue 5

Augustin F. C. Holl*

• Department of Anthropology and Ethnology, Xiamen University, PR China

Received:February 01, 2023;   Published: February 21, 2023

Corresponding author:Augustin FC Holl, Africa Research Center, Belt and Road Research Institute, Department of Anthropology and Ethnology, School of Sociology and Anthropology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, PR China

DOI: 10.32474/JAAS.2023.07.000273

 

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Abstract

Islands and coastal areas tend to be hyper-sensitive to climate change at different magnitude and time scales. Building on previous research conducted from the first half of the 20th century to the present, the Saloum Delta anthropological archaeology project launched in 2017 aims to investigate the onset and development of intensive exploitation of deltaic resources as well as patterns of cultural adaptation in the context of global Holocene climate change along coastal West Africa. The Saloum delta is located in coastal Senegal at the western end of West Africa. It is today the northernmost mangrove along the West African coast, a UNESCO listed mixed biological preserve and world Heritage site, with birds’ sanctuaries and hundreds of shell-middens.

Hypothetically, fluctuating species compositions of the collected shells’ samples may have reflected the interplay between anthropic action and natural phenomena triggered by climate change. Middens size differences and location are key cultural variable to be investigated. For the first time some activities areas, beside burials, were recorded in one of the tested midden. Complete shells size (length and width) is relied upon to monitor cycles of exploitation in the largest tested midden of Oudierin – Boumak and used as proxy for either climate or anthropic induced changes. The formation of the tested midden spans the entire Holocene period from 8500 BCE to 1350 CE, visited intermittently for short periods of intensive shellfish processing followed by long periods of abandonment. This paper investigates the most probable causes of the documented punctuated nature of shellfish exploitation and by extension the formation of the shell-midden under consideration.

Keywords:Shell-middens; mangrove; delta; shellfish exploitation; bloody cockles; mangrove oysters; holocene; climate change; cultural landscape; senegal; West Africa

Abstract| Introduction| The Data Base| Patterns During the Holocene| The Early Holocene| The Mid-Post Holocene: 500-1000 CE| The Late Post Holocene: 1000-1500 CE| Conclusion| Acknowledgements| References|