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L-R. [1]. View of the derelict Ain Abu Zaidan site. [2]. Al-Khamis Mosque with area of 2001 excavations in the foreground. [3]. The mihrab inside the shrine at Abu Zaidan (photos. T. Insoll).

As part of a project involving constructing a new Islamic Archaeological Museum at the the Al-Khamis Mosque (see Completed Field Projects) in co-operation with the Ministry of Culture and Information, Bahrain, renewed archaeological fieldwork, following on from a survey in April 2010, will take place. This will involve extending excavation units in the mosque precincts completed in 2001 (see Bahrain 3), and in other locations in Bilad al-Qadim, such as at the important well and associated shrine of Ain Abu Zaidan as part of a projected heritage trail in the area. The complexities of identities - caste, gender, sectarian - evident in the archaeological record (see Publications) will again be the focus of analysis and ultimately, interpretation and display. As part of tourism development and heritage preservation and presentation An Archaeological Guide to Bahrain has also been completed under the patronage of the Crown Prince of Bahrain (see Publications).

L-R. [1]. Block of figurines being removed for analysis. [2]. Examples of figurine fragments recovered. [3]. Figurines in-situ and sampled for analysis (photos. T. Insoll).

Following an invitation from Dr Ben Kankpeyeng of the University of Ghana I participated in the Komaland project that he has directed since 2007. The focus of my contribution to the research has beenthe excavation of part of a 'shrine' mound at Yikpabongo, Northern Region, and sampling and surveying figurine distributions. This had the two fold aims of retrieving figurines for residue analysis and mapping the distribution of figurines and figurine parts across the mound so as to attempt to reconstruct ritual behaviours in relation to libations (medicines, blood, other substances) and, potentially, concepts of personhood as represented by the whole and fragmentary figurines (see Publications). Both aims were fulfilled with the recovery of 229 figurines and figurine fragments (see Ghana Koma). CT scanning of a sample of the figurines has also been completed in co-operation with the Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility, Manchester Materials Science Centre, University of Manchester. A radiocarbon date was obtained from the mound of 970+/-40 BP (CAL AD 1010 to 1170). This agrees with radiocarbon dates previously obtained from neighbouring mounds that suggest an overall chronology for this material of AD 600-1200 (Kankpeyeng and Nkumbaan 2009). The material is currently being analysed and will be published with Kankpeyeng in due course.

KANKPEYENG, B.W. and NKUMBAAN, S.N. 2009. Ancient Shrines? New Insights on the Komaland Sites of Northern Ghana. (In), Magnavita, S. et al (eds.). Crossroads/Carrefour Sahel. Frankfurt: Africa Magna Verlag, pp. 193-202.

3) ‘The Archaeology of Ritual, Shrines, and Sacrifice among the Tallensi of Northern Ghana’. 2004 - Ongoing.

L-R. [1]. Map of Ghana. [2]. Close-up of shrine, Tongo Hills. [3]. Survey in progress, Tongo Hills, July 2006. [4]. One of the last cotton spinners, Tongo Hills, March 2008. [5]. Excavations at Zandoya, base of Tongo Hills, March 2008 (photos. T. Insoll).

The specific research objectives that this project seeks to address are described on the current research page and need not be repeated (see Current Research). Instead some background on the fieldwork will be provided. As can be seen in the photo galleries, the Tongo Hills are a small chain of hills in northern Ghana (c.5km x 3km) occupied by the Tallensi ethno-linguistic group. The latter were made famous, anthropologically speaking, via the research and writings of the British anthropologist Meyer Fortes (e.g. 1945, 1949). Although brilliant in many respects, Forte’s work was generated from a Functionalist perspective and this means that it lacks, to a certain degree, both a chronological or historical, and material culture dimension (see Publications). The limited historical record has recently been comprehensively assessed (Allman and Parker 2005), but for written sources this is non-existent before the latter part of the nineteenth century. 'Prehistory' here is hence late, and archaeology offers the means to begin to attempt to reconstruct both the occupation sequence and ‘historical’ trajectories in the Tongo Hills in the absence of historical sources. Nonetheless, undertaking this in an area where, to the best of our knowledge, no legitimate archaeological excavations had been completed before 2004, is difficult, as comparative materials are almost wholly lacking.

However, in pursuit of fulfilling the project aims, the Tongo Hills have been intensively surveyed and both test and larger scale excavations completed in various locations. Occupation in one rock-shelter, Hyena’s cave, provided an assemblage of quartz lithics without accompanying ceramics that was initially thought indicative of occupation in the Late Stone Age, but remains undated. Two OSL dates have been obtained from contexts above this layer providing dates of AD 584-794 and AD 364-724 (see Ghana Tallensi 6). Elsewhere, survey has indicated that the landscape was intensively settled, with a retraction having occurred to the south and centre of the Hills, as evident by shifting patterns of farmland use, and areas of abandoned settlements and dry-stone agricultural terracing which were recorded. Excavations in March-April 2008 focussed upon three of these abandoned settlement areas; Gaaraug and Touwang in the Tamboog section of Tengzug, and Zandoya near Yinduri at the bottom of the Tongo Hills (see below and Ghana Tallensi 6). Various OSL dates were obtained from these sites with occupation dated at Touwang to AD 1523-1623 and AD 1463-1553, and at Zandoya to AD 1513-1613, AD 1248-1408, and AD1193-1313.

Excavation has also been focussed within shrines, including Gaaraugnaab in Tamboog, but especially in one of the largest Tallensi shrines, the Earth shrine, Nyoo (see Ghana Tallensi 1). This shrine, survey indicated, was far from being a ‘natural’ sacred grove but instead was an enshrined archaeological site comprising an extensive area of stone arrangements infilled with smashed and deliberately deposited ceramics, an active sacrificial area, and a zone covered with standing stones, both erect and recumbent, of which over 180 have been counted to date (see Publications). Excavations below one of the standing stones indicated that they had served a ‘ritual’; purpose. Although an often misused term (see Insoll 2004), ‘ritual’ would appear apt in this context to apply to the materials recovered, such as the iron bracelets and complete ‘capped’ pots interred below each standing stone. These share resemblances but not exact parallels with contemporary Tallensi ritual deposition practices in relation to shrines (see Ghana Tallensi 1). Similarly, with the excavated stone arrangements, exact parallels do not exist, certainly for the pottery deposition patterns associated with these features. What these meant is uncertain, though it can be suggested that the pots as products of the Earth, manifest through their materiality, i.e. the clay from which they were made, were perhaps being ritually returned to the medium from which they came, the Earth. However, although the pottery deposition evidence in Nyoo differs from anything generated by extant Tallensi ritual activities, the stone arrangements themselves do bear comparison with contemporary stone settings used as seating places by Tallensi elders during the pre-farming season Golib or Gologo festival (see Publications and Ghana Tallensi 4).

The standing stones with associated 'ritual' pots excavated in the Nyoo shrine (photo. T. Insoll).

Nyoo would thus appear to be what could be described as a ‘reservoir’ of ritual practices, not all of which still exist (see Publications). This is of significance for the three OSL samples processed from Nyoo thus far provided dates of AD 650-895 and AD 80-430 for the standing stone site, and AD 955-1155 for the area of stone arrangements. Amongst the finds recovered from the latter site was a .303 rifle bullet which had been fired into a stone arrangement. Although not chronologically linked with the primary use of this site, it is of interest in perhaps being linked with one of the historical 'trajectories' of the Tongo Hills. Specifically, the British conquest of the Hills in 1911 (see Allman and Parker 2005: 65-70 for details).

.303 rifle bullet. The rifling grooves suggest it was possibly fired from an Enfield rifle (N. MacPherson pers. comm., photo. Gten).

Other excavations have been completed adjacent to the entrance of the Tongnaab Yaane shrine. One unit close to the area where 'witches' possessions and clothing are discarded prior or subsequent to their being cured of witchcraft provided an OSL date of AD 1514-1624 (see Ghana Tallensi 7). This date is conceivably linked with the operation of the shrine and perhaps begins to historically contextualise its operation for franchising purposes, that are today achieved via the agency of boarchii and boarbii (see Ghana Tallensi 7). Another date obtained from excavations east of the shrine entrance provided an OSL date of 726-256 BC. This is almost certainly not linked with the operation of the shrine but relates to earlier primary occupation linked with the rockshelter that much later formed the shrine.

Boarbii - "The Shrines Child", Dagomba franchised shrine from Tongnaab Yaane, Yiran's House, Bonchiog, October 2008 (photo. T. Insoll).

Besides archaeological excavations and survey, both botanical and geological surveys of the Tongo Hills have been completed. The botanical surveys in shrines indicated that plants and trees useful to humans predominate even within so-called ‘natural’ sacred groves (see Ghana Tallensi 3). Extensive inventories of medicinal plants have also been completed (see Ghana Tallensi 8). Thirty one plant based medicines were recorded and a separate survey of twelve non-plant based medicinal substances was also undertaken. The results of the geological survey attested to the movement, albeit primarily in the local context, of rock in the landscape, as with the standing stones and the materials forming the stone arrangements in the Nyoo shrine (see Ghana Tallensi 5). The latter, interestingly, perhaps also arranged with regard to colour importance and perhaps reflecting the widely found African red-white-black triumvirate (e.g. Turner 1966). The possible importance of colour patterning is perhaps also manifest at another site investigated, Zandoya, near Yinduri at the base of the Hills. Here, two mounds were recorded, one of white quartz, the other of (black) slag (see Ghana Tallensi 6). Potentially an intra-site colour statement is manifest in the white mound at one end of the site and the black mound at the other. This is of course conjecture, but the mound was, seemingly, deliberately constructed, edged with stone, and with pottery and masses of flat quartz flakes deposited on a stone rubble platform. Besides the potential for exploring the ritual or symbolic significance of colour, the slag mound has also allowed an investigation of iron smelting technology. This industrial evidence supplements the finished iron objects already obtained from archaeological contexts (see Ghana Tallensi 1) in allowing an examination of iron technology in the region which has recently been completed.

A further component of the field research has involved mapping and planning the shrines of the Tongo Hills, and recording the associated sacrifices as a means of assessing their possible archaeological implications (see Ghana Tallensi 2). Besides Nyoo, the important shrines of Yaane/Tonna'ab and Bonaab have been surveyed, as well as smaller shrines such as Kusanaab and Gaaraugnaab. Complimenting the detailed body of data compiled on shrines and sacrifices is another element of the field project which is looking at how shrines are franchised, what substances are used in these processes, and again what the possible associated archaeological implications are (see Publications). This research is funded by the Wellcome Trust and is allowing the archaeological and analytical study of the use of shrines for medicinal purposes. Hence the use of lithics, including the so-called 'thunderstones' (e.g. polished stone axes and enigmatic bored quartz spheres - see Togo - Lome Fetish Market), clays, ochres, fats, and plant materials are all being collected and analysed.

The Honourable Chief and Golibdaana of Tengzug, John Bawa Zuure (photo. T. Insoll).

The fieldwork has only been made possible through the kindness and co-operation of the Tallensi themselves, and especially through the efforts of the Chief and Golibdaana, Honourable John Bawa Zuure. Permission has been negotiated with the Tallensi communities, their Earth Priests and elders, and via sacrifice with the shrines themselves (see Publications and Ghana Tallensi 2). The research is being completed in co-operation with Dr Ben Kankpeyeng of the University of Ghana, Legon, who is concentrating on architecture and heritage, and Dr Rachel MacLean also of the University of Manchester, who has focussed upon survey. The fieldwork and post-excavation analysis has been funded by the British Academy (2004-2008), the University of Manchester (2006), the British Institute in Eastern Africa (2005), and from 2008 by the Wellcome Trust.

This field and research project is ongoing and updates will be posted on this website as necessary.

ALLMAN, J. and PARKER, J. 2005. Tongnaab. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

FORTES, M. 1945 (1969). The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi. Oosterhout: Anthropological Publications.

FORTES, M. 1949 (1967). The Web of Kingship among the Tallensi. Oosterhout: Anthropological Publications.

TURNER, V. 1966. (1985). Colour Classification in Ndembu Ritual. (In), Banton, M. (ed.), Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion. London: Tavistock, pp. 47-84.