Africa's Iron-Age Healers?

Abstract

![Figure][1] CREDIT: TIM INSOLL Last month, archaeologists working at a site in northern Ghana uncovered the most detailed evidence yet of a highly sophisticated and previously unknown Iron Age society. A team led by Benjamin Kankpeyeng of the University of Ghana in Legon excavated part of an earthen mound containing 92 whole and broken terra-cotta figurines of humans and mythical creatures. Radiocarbon dates from similar mounds in the region place the time between 600 C.E. and 1200 C.E. The mound, which miraculously escaped decades of heavy looting in the region, may have served as an ancient shrine. Team co-director Timothy Insoll of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom says the figurines have what appear to be libation holes to hold ritual drinks for a deity. There's also a ritually arranged human skull: “The jaw was removed, the skull was turned face-down, and the teeth were snapped out and placed nearby,” Insoll says. The finds open a major window on ritual life in West Africa before the Islamic era, says Christopher DeCorse, an archaeologist at Syracuse University in New York state: “It's analogous to the discovery of Upper Paleolithic rock art in Europe.” The deposits, which included grindstones for pulverizing plants, could be related to “traditional healing practices,” Kankpeyeng notes. The team hopes to find further clues from the nearby remains of ancient riverbank settlements. The group has been excavating the site of Yikpabongo, first discovered in 1985, since 2007. [1]: pending:yes