Home Region:  West Africa (Africa)

West Burkina Faso Red II and III

1100 CE 1400 CE

G SC New WA  bf_west_burkina_faso_red_2



Preceding Entity: Add one more here.
701 CE 1100 CE West Burkina Faso Red I (bf_west_burkina_faso_red_1)    [continuity]

Succeeding Entity:
No Polity found. Add one here.

No General Descriptions provided.

General Variables
Social Complexity Variables
Warfare Variables (Military Technologies)
Fortifications
Military use of Metals
Projectiles
Handheld weapons
Animals used in warfare
Armor
Naval technology
Religion Tolerance Coding in Progress.
Human Sacrifice Coding in Progress.
Crisis Consequences Coding in Progress.
Power Transitions Coding in Progress.

NGA Settlements:

Year Range West Burkina Faso Red II and III (bf_west_burkina_faso_red_2) was in:
Home NGA: None

General Variables
Identity and Location
Utm Zone:
30 N

Original Name:
West Burkina Faso Red II and III

Capital:
None (Absent Capital)

Temporal Bounds
Duration:
[1100 CE ➜ 1400 CE]
 

Political and Cultural Relations
Suprapolity Relations:
none

Succeeding Entity:
West Burkina Faso Red IV

Relationship to Preceding Entity:
continuity

"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)


Preceding Entity:
701 CE 1100 CE West Burkina Faso Red I (bf_west_burkina_faso_red_1)    [continuity]  
 

"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)


Degree of Centralization:
quasi-polity

Language
Linguistic Family:
Niger-Congo

Religion
Religious Tradition:
Voltaic Religions

"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. 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)



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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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.
Coding in Progress.
Coding in Progress.
Power Transitions
Coding in Progress.