Archaeology

Ghana’s history would be incomplete without considering the presence of Europeans on its coast. To ease their trading purposes, many lodges, forts and castles were built by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the English and the Danes on its 500km shores from the 15th to 17th centuries. The only fort that was established by the Europeans (Dutch) in the interior of the Gold Coast was Fort Ruychaver located at a place called Awudua Dada which is about 87km north of the Ankobra River. This study investigates the nature of interactions that existed between Africans and Europeans at Awudua Dada. The objective was to gather archaeological data that would inform
on how the presence of the Dutch and other Europeans impacted the people of the community and their culture. Secondly, the artifacts retrieved helped to establish a chronology of the site of Awudua Dada. Finally, the activities of gold mining in Awudua Dada and surrounding towns
were examined.  An eclectic approach involving the gathering of oral traditions, documentary and archival records, ethnographic and archaeological data was adopted in this study. The results revealed various levels of interactions; economic, social and political between Africans and Europeans in the area. The main reason for these interactions is attributed to gold and its production in the area.  This research therefore, provides insights into interactions in an inland European fort in Ghana. It
also derives its significance from the fact that, no archaeological investigations have been conducted in the gold mining areas of south-western Ghana. This study therefore, would contribute as a basis for further study into the archaeology of mining in Ghana.

Abstract
Wood, or more often wood transformed into charcoal, has been the most important fuel for West African iron smelting. Severe environmental degradation due to over-exploitation has often been presumed. Huge metallurgical waste heaps characterize Fiko Tradition sites in the Dogon Country. The amount of waste points to excess iron production and radiocarbon dates as well as oral traditions indicate long-term use. In order to test a possible correlation of the indicated vegetation changes with the metallurgical activities, an interdisciplinary methodology (archaeology, anthracology and archaeometry) has been applied allowing estimating the magnitude of wood consumption for the whole Fiko Tradition area and throughout its entire long chronology with the help of slag-charcoal-wood conversion rates. The obtained results were compared to approximations of woody biomass reproduction in order to test if wood consumption was at the ecological threshold.

Résumé
En Afrique de l’Ouest, le combustible le plus utilisé en sidérurgie ancienne était le charbon de bois. Plusieurs recherches ont conclu que l’exploitation intensive de cette ressource naturelle avait entraîné l’actuelle dégradation du couvert végétal. Au pays dogon, les sites sidérurgiques de tradition Fiko se caractérisent par une production de longue durée (plus d’un millénaire) et intensive. Pour étudier l’exploitation des espèces ligneuses utilisées comme combustible dans le cadre de cette activité et détecter son impact environnemental, une démarche interdisciplinaire (archéologie, anthracologie et archéométrie) a été mise en place. Elle s’attache à identifier les essences boisées, à évaluer la quantité de bois nécessaire à la formation des amas de rejet et à prendre en compte la capacité régénérative des espèces afin d’estimer les conséquences écologiques de cette exploitation.