LEEMBOUW ARCHITECTUUR IN DE BINNENDELTA VAN DE NIGER, MALI

Samenvatting

During the 2000/01 campaign af the 'Archaeo­logical Project Dia' in the inland Niger delta of Mali, 41 house plans were studied in the town of Dia. Several ethnic groups, most of them full-time specialists, use the same area for their subsistence and live intermingled in town. All of them, except the Fulani, use the same type of square mudbrick house with a flat roof and inner court­yard of the Soudan type. Although we did not observe the movable material culture we were able to identify same indicators for interpreting archaeological house plans. There is a distict relationship between size af the compounds, Jamily composition and profession. Use of the vestibule may indicate occupation by a full-time artisan. While the exavators established long-term occupation of the area, we were able to use the direct historical approach. Nevertheless we should be aware that meanwhile Islam was em­braced in this region, which probably induced uniformfly in building tradition among the ethnic groups in habiting the area.