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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Early smoking pipes in the north-western Central African Republic |
Author: | Zangato, Etienne |
Year: | 2001 |
Periodical: | Africa: rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione |
Volume: | 56 |
Issue: | 3 |
Pages: | 365-395 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Central African Republic |
Subjects: | archaeology smoking pipes chronology |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/40761552 |
Abstract: | Archaeological research in western and central Africa has found some thousand smoking pipes up to now. They come from both surface collections and excavations at more than 150 sites. According to the available datings, there appear to have been two periods when pipes were in use: a recent period, between the 10th and the 19th century AD, documented by numerous findings, and an earlier period, from the 7th to the 2nd century BC, documented only by a limited number of artefacts from Tsé-Dura in Benin, in the Niger delta. No pipe findings from the intermediate period have been found so far. This article presents new data, based on archaeological research carried out in the Bouar region in the northwestern Central African Republic (CAR). The data were obtained through excavation of three categories of sites - villages, nonfunerary monuments and megalithic tombs - whose stratigraphic and cultural levels were well-defined. These sites span a long chronological sequence from the 10th century BC to the sub-present period. The data show a continuity in the use of pipes in this region and partly fill the gap observed between the two sets of 'ancient' and 'recent' African pipes. Bibliogr. |