Ounjougou

Ounjougou, located in the Upper Yamé Valley on the Bandiagara Plateau in Mali, is a significant archaeological complex encompassing over a hundred sites. It is crucial for understanding settlement patterns in West Africa, particularly due to its rich stratigraphic sequences that span from the Lower Paleolithic to the present. Notably, Ounjougou is the site of the earliest pottery found in Africa, dating back to around 9400 BCE. The site provides insights into early human adaptation to environmental changes, with evidence of diverse lithic industries, early Neolithic pottery, and proto-agricultural economies. The region's archaeological record includes successive cultural phases, illustrating human occupation and technological innovation in response to climatic shifts over thousands of years.