New insights on the first Neolithic societies in the Horn of Africa: The site of Wakrita, Djibouti

Abstract

The site of Wakrita is a small Neolithic establishment located on a wadi in the tectonic depression of Gobaad in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. The 2005 excavations yielded abundant ceramics that enabled us to define one Neolithic cultural facies of this region, which was also identified at the nearby site of Asa Koma. The faunal remains confirm the importance of fishing in Neolithic settlements close to Lake Abbé, but also the importance of bovine husbandry and, for the first time in this area, evidence for caprine herding practices. Radiocarbon dating places this occupation at the beginning of the 2nd millennium b.c., similar in range to Asa Koma. These two sites represent the oldest evidence of herding in the region, and they provide a better understanding of the development of Neolithic societies in this region.

Keywords:

• Djibouti
• Holocene
• Neolithic
• herding practices
• pottery

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the University of Paul Valéry-Montpellier III, by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (“Premières sociétés de production dans la Corne de l’Afrique” program), by the French Embassy in Djibouti and by the association ARCA (Archéologie de la Corne de l’Afrique). We would like also to thank the CERD (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches de Djibouti) and especially its general director, Jalludin Mohamed as well as the director of Social and Human Sciences Institut, Salah Zakaria, for their support and the delivery of the research permit. We acknowledge Sally Reynolds for her help with language editing as well as the three reviewers for their helpful comments on the manuscript.

Xavier Gutherz (HDR 2003, EHESS Paris-Toulouse) is an archaeologist and Professor at the University of Montpellier III-Paul Valery (UMR 5140). His main area of research concerns the Neolithic of the South of France and the Horn of Africa. Since 1999, he has led the research program “Premières Sociétés de Production dans la Corne de l’Afrique” and has conducted several excavations in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Somaliland.

Joséphine Lesur (Ph.D. 2004, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) is an archaeozoologist and Lecturer at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. Her research focuses on the beginning of herding and its patterns of diffusion, as well as on the exploitation of animal diversity during the Holocene in North-eastern Africa (Horn of Africa and Egypt), and Namibia.

Jessie Cauliez (Ph.D. 2009, University of Aix-en-Provence, France) is a CNRS researcher in Toulouse (UMR 5608). She studies societies of the northwestern Mediterranean basin during the end of the Neolithic period and processes of neolithization in the Horn of Africa. Her research, based on the characterization of the systems of pottery production, aims at a better restitution of the processes of establishment and diffusion of the Neolithic cultures. She conducted ethnographical investigations aiming at analyzing networks of production, and distribution of the manufactured pottery productions in Ethiopia.

Vincent Charpentier (DEA 1983, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) is a prehistorian (UMR 7041, Nanterre) who has worked in France, the North American Arctic, Iraq, Sultanate of Oman. and United Arab Emirates. Since 2010, he has been the Director of the French Archeological Mission to the Sultanate of Oman entitled “The shores of Arabian Sea between 10000 and 2000 BCE.” He is also Partnerships & Media Relations Manager for the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP, based in Paris), as well as a journalist and scientific broadcaster for France Culture (Radio France, Paris).

Amélie Diaz (M.A. 2009, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3) is a Ph.D. student in prehistory (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 - UMR 5140). Her main area of research is on the stone tools industries from the first societies of production in the Horn of Africa, especially those from the Gobaad basin of Djibouti.

Mohamed Omar Ismael is a former technician at the Institut of Social Science of the CERD (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches de Djibouti). He participated as an official representative of the CERD and as an excavation worker during the 2005 and 2006 Wakrita excavations.

Jean-Michel Pène is an archaeologist working at the Regional Archaeological Service of Languedoc-Roussillon (DRAC, Ministry of Culture). In the Horn of Africa, he has participated for 15 years in the research program “Premières Sociétés de Production dans la Corne de l’Afrique” which conducts excavation and survey in Djibouti and Somaliland.

Dominique Sordoillet (Ph.D. 1999, University of Burgundy) is a geoarchaeologist and engineer at the preventive archaeological research national institute (INRAP) in Besançon. Her research focuses on anthropogenic sedimentation processes and landscapes dynamics from the Neolithic to the Middle Age.

Antoine Zazzo (Ph.D. 2001, University Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6) is a geochemist and CNRS researcher at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris (UMR 7209). His research focuses on the reconstruction of animal individual history based on stable isotope analysis and radiocarbon dating of skeletal remains.