Home Region:  West Africa (Africa)

West Burkina Faso Red IV

G SC New WA  bf_west_burkina_faso_red_4



Preceding:
[continuity; West Burkina Faso II and III] [continuity]   Update here
Add one more here.

Succeeding:
No Polity found. Add one here.

No General Descriptions provided.

General Variables
Identity and Location
Utm Zone:
30 N  
Original Name:
West Burkina Faso Red IV  
Capital:
none  
Temporal Bounds
Duration:
[1,401 CE ➜ 1,500 CE]  
Political and Cultural Relations
Suprapolity Relations:
none  
Relationship to Preceding Entity:
continuity  
Preceding Entity:
UNCLEAR:    [continuity]  
Degree of Centralization:
quasi-polity  
Language
Linguistic Family:
Niger-Congo  
Religion
Religious Tradition:
Voltaic Religions  
Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Hierarchical Complexity
Settlement Hierarchy:
2  
Religious Level:
[1 to 2]  
Administrative Level:
0  
Professions
Professional Priesthood:
unknown  
Bureaucracy Characteristics
Law
Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Market:
inferred absent  
Irrigation System:
inferred absent  
Food Storage Site:
inferred absent  
Drinking Water Supply System:
inferred absent  
Communal Building:
inferred present  
Utilitarian Public Building:
inferred absent  
Symbolic Building:
inferred absent  
Knowledge Or Information Building:
inferred absent  
Entertainment Building:
inferred absent  
Transport Infrastructure
Special-purpose Sites
Special Purpose Site:
inferred present  
Other Special Purpose Site:
inferred present  
Information / Writing System
Information / Kinds of Written Documents
Information / Money
Token:
inferred absent  
Precious Metal:
inferred absent  
Paper Currency:
inferred absent  
Indigenous Coin:
inferred absent  
Foreign Coin:
inferred absent  
Article:
inferred absent  
Store Of Wealth:
inferred absent  
Debt And Credit Structure:
inferred absent  
Information / Postal System
Information / Measurement System
Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Fortifications
Military use of Metals
Projectiles
Handheld weapons
Animals used in warfare
Armor
Naval technology
Religion Tolerance Nothing coded yet.
Human Sacrifice Nothing coded yet.
Crisis Consequences Nothing coded yet.
Power Transitions Nothing coded yet.

NGA Settlements:

Year Range West Burkina Faso Red IV (bf_west_burkina_faso_red_4) was in:
Home NGA: None

General Variables
Temporal Bounds
Duration:
[1,401 CE ➜ 1,500 CE]

"Red IV (ca. 1400–1500 CE)" [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 131)


Political and Cultural Relations
Suprapolity Relations:
none

Relationship to Preceding Entity:
continuity

"At the end of Red III, several mounds at Kirikongo were abandoned and for the first time in its history the site declined in size. The spatial patterns of Red IV ceramics presented in this paper indicate that the shrinking of formerly large communities may have been part of regional trends, as several nearby settlements also experienced a loss of population or were abandoned starting in the early fifteenth century CE. These population decreases could result from outmigration or perhaps from plague epidemics, which have been invoked for abandonments of other settlements inWest Africa in the fourteenth-fifteenth centuries (Chouin 2013; Huysecom et al. 2015). At the same time, it could also reflect a regional reorganization into smaller communities. This corresponds to patterns in oral histories described by ethnographers, who have argued that prior to the nineteenth century, societies in the Mouhoun Bend and neighboring parts of western Burkina Faso lived in dispersed hamlets rather than large villages, and that the aggregated communities (métropoles) observed in the twentieth century developed in response to political instability during the late precolonial and early colonial periods (Capron 1973; Cremer 1924; see also Rémy 1981)." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2016: 133)


Preceding Entity:
West Burkina Faso II and III

"At the end of Red III, several mounds at Kirikongo were abandoned and for the first time in its history the site declined in size. The spatial patterns of Red IV ceramics presented in this paper indicate that the shrinking of formerly large communities may have been part of regional trends, as several nearby settlements also experienced a loss of population or were abandoned starting in the early fifteenth century CE. These population decreases could result from outmigration or perhaps from plague epidemics, which have been invoked for abandonments of other settlements inWest Africa in the fourteenth-fifteenth centuries (Chouin 2013; Huysecom et al. 2015). At the same time, it could also reflect a regional reorganization into smaller communities. This corresponds to patterns in oral histories described by ethnographers, who have argued that prior to the nineteenth century, societies in the Mouhoun Bend and neighboring parts of western Burkina Faso lived in dispersed hamlets rather than large villages, and that the aggregated communities (métropoles) observed in the twentieth century developed in response to political instability during the late precolonial and early colonial periods (Capron 1973; Cremer 1924; see also Rémy 1981)." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2016: 133)


Degree of Centralization:
quasi-polity

Language
Linguistic Family:
Niger-Congo

Religion
Religious Tradition:
Voltaic Religions


Social Complexity Variables
Social Scale
Hierarchical Complexity
Settlement Hierarchy:
2

levels. (1) Larger settlements, (2) smaller settlements. "Dueppen (2012a, pp. 311–313) has argued that while village communities had become internally decentralized in Red II, relations between communities throughout Red III may have been more contentious, as smaller communities may have asserted ritual and/or political independence from larger settlements such as Kirikongo. More research is needed at a regional level to evaluate this theory." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2016: 133)


Religious Level:
[1 to 2]

levels. The following quote suggests at least one level. "The political power formerly residing at Mound 4 during Red I and Early Red II was largely disseminated within the community; however, their role as village founders who maintain the community’s relations with the local and ancestral divinities, as well as their symbolic position as the external face of the village community, remained unchanged and was simply detached from the iron cult." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Administrative Level:
0

levels. "Shortly after the start of Red II a drastic and rapid egalitarian revolution took place, a turning point in Kirikongo’s developmental trajectory. Social inequalities were rejected in a process of nonvertical social differentiation of houses coupled with increasing interhouse communalism." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Professions
Professional Priesthood:
unknown

The following quote suggests the existence of some kind of priesthood, but it does not seem that the data clearly suggests whether or not priests were true full-time specialists. "The political power formerly residing at Mound 4 during Red I and Early Red II was largely disseminated within the community; however, their role as village founders who maintain the community’s relations with the local and ancestral divinities, as well as their symbolic position as the external face of the village community, remained unchanged and was simply detached from the iron cult." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Bureaucracy Characteristics
Law
Specialized Buildings: polity owned
Market:
absent

Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31)


Irrigation System:
absent

Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31)


Food Storage Site:
absent

Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31)


Drinking Water Supply System:
absent

Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31)


Communal Building:
present

Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "Specialized iron production shifted from the inhabitants of Mound 4 to those at Mound 11, and iron smelting remained set at a distance from the settlement, but now 250 m to the west of Mound 11. Red II also marks the starting point of specialized potting by the inhabitants of Mound 11, where both pottery decoration tools and kilns were excavated. [...] A significant change in spatial organization involved the merging of formerly discrete mounds into elongated pairs of contiguous mounds. By at the latest Red III (and likely Red II), structures atop mounds were organized as composite buildings, combining circular and rectangular cells to form room blocks topped with paved terraced roofs. Activities, including food preparation such as grinding, shifted to exterior unpaved surfaces. This transformation indicates the appearance of a built environment focused more on extra-household interactions, as opposed to the discrete but enclosed setting of earlier periods." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Utilitarian Public Building:
absent

Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31)


Symbolic Building:
absent

Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31)


Knowledge Or Information Building:
absent

Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31)


Entertainment Building:
absent

Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 31)


Transport Infrastructure
Special-purpose Sites
Special Purpose Site:
present

Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "Specialized iron production shifted from the inhabitants of Mound 4 to those at Mound 11, and iron smelting remained set at a distance from the settlement, but now 250 m to the west of Mound 11." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Other Special Purpose Site:
present

Inferred from the following, which pertains to the immediately preceding period. "Specialized iron production shifted from the inhabitants of Mound 4 to those at Mound 11, and iron smelting remained set at a distance from the settlement, but now 250 m to the west of Mound 11." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Information / Writing System
Information / Kinds of Written Documents
Information / Money
Token:
absent

The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. "By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Precious Metal:
absent

The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. "By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Paper Currency:
absent

The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. "By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Indigenous Coin:
absent

The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. "By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Foreign Coin:
absent

The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. "By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Article:
absent

The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. "By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Store Of Wealth:
absent

The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. "By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Debt And Credit Structure:
absent

The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. "By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies." [1]

[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30)


Information / Postal System
Information / Measurement System

Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Fortifications
Military use of Metals
Projectiles
Handheld weapons
Animals used in warfare
Armor
Naval technology

Human Sacrifice Data
Human Sacrifice is the deliberate and ritualized killing of a person to please or placate supernatural entities (including gods, spirits, and ancestors) or gain other supernatural benefits.
- Nothing coded yet.
- Nothing coded yet.
Power Transitions
- Nothing coded yet.