West African Palaeolithic history: New archaeological and chronostratigraphic data from the Faleme valley, eastern Senegal

摘要

For more than a century, Senegal has yielded abundant Palaeolithic finds, in particular on the Atlantic coast as well as in the Faleme Valley, but the lack of reliable and integrated chrono- cultural data has limited the possibilities of interpretation. These gaps were one of the main factors leading to the launch of a new research programme in the Faleme Valley (eastern Senegal). Its objective since 2012 has been to establish a new archaeological reference sequence in West Africa complementary to that of Ounjougou (Mali). Its more southerly location gave us the opportunity to obtain data to address the issue of human settlement and mobility in relation to changes in aridity and the position of the South-Saharan limit, along the north-south axis of the Faleme Valley.