Essouk-Tadmakka is the ruins of a significant early trade stop on the caravan trail that made up the trans-Saharan trade route, and an early center of the Berber and Tuareg cultures. The Berbers and Tuareg were nomad societies in the Saharan desert who controlled the trade caravans in sub-saharan Africa during the early Islamic era (ca AD 650-1500). Evidence at Essouk has led to a reconsideration of the breadth and importance of trans-Saharan trade in West Africa.
Based on Arabic historical texts, by the 10th century AD and perhaps as early as the ninth, Tadmakka (also spelled Tadmekka and meaning "Resembling Mecca" in Arabic) was one of the most populous and wealthy of West African trans-Saharan trading cities, outshining Tegdaoust and Koumbi Saleh in Mauritania and Gao in Mali.
The writer Al-Bakri mentions Tadmekka in 1068, describing it as a large town ruled by a king, occupied by Berbers and with its own gold currency. Beginning in the 11th century, Tadmekka was on the route between the West African trading settlements of the Niger Bend and northern African and the Mediterranean Sea. The Almoravid Berbers seized control of the trade in the late 11th century, and Tadmakka continued as a trade center throughout the 12th and 13th centuries. By the 14th century, Tadmakka is described in Arabian histories as an important location for Tuareg pastoral groups, but no longer a trade center.
Chronology at Essouk-Tadmakka
- Period 1, pre AD 750, initial settlement indicated by post-holes likely marking tent stakes or mat-and-pole structures, evidence for iron-working and cattle pastoralism; rock art
- Period 2, 750-950, first permanent dry-stone architecture with plaster coating, long distance trade with Niger Bend exhibited with large quantities of glass beads and vessels, three grains of imported wheat, gold coin production late in the period
- Period 3a 950-1100, rebuilding and expansion of the town, trans-Saharan trade shown by large quantities of vessel and bead glass, gold, copper and ceramics including Chinese Song Dynasty sherd; cereals including wheat, camels, chickens and gazelles
- Period 3b 1100-1300), construction of luxury buildings and trade goods, including large quantities of sub-saharan imported pottery, limited North African material cultural imports; cotton seeds, sheep/goat outnumber cattle
- Period 4 1300-1400, continued permanent architectural occupation, decreased evidence for trade, changes in architecture (dry stone but no plaster), material culture and faunal remains suggest an occupation of the city by nomadic Tuareg Berbers.
Archaeobotany
Archaeotanical evidence at Essouk-Tadmakka supports the suggestion that the trade center function began at the end of Period 1 (ca 750). At the time of the first settlement of the site, the residents relied on pearl millet, small legumes and wild plants. By the beginning of Period 2, the residents were using wheat (Triticum durum/aestivum), with pearl millet and legumes continueing. Cotton appears in Period 3b, and pearl millet is absent. The last period, when archaeologists believe Tadmakka was occupied by Almoravid Berbers, Archaeology at Essouk-TadmakkaEssouk, located in the mountains of the semi-autonomous Tuareg region of northeast Mali, at the edges of the Sahel desert is believed to be the ruins of Tadmakka, which have been tied to the historic city by epigraphic research conducted by Moraes Farias. The site includes about 50 hectares of stone buildings, including houses and commercial buildings and caravanserais, mosques and numerous early Islamic cemeteries including monuments with Arabic epigraphy. The ruins are in a valley surrounded by rocky cliffs, and a waid runs through the middle of the site.
Essouk was first explored in the 21st century, much later than other trans-Saharan trade cities, in part because of civil unrest in Mali during the 1990s. Excavations were held in 2005, led by the Mission Culturelle Essouk, Malian Institut des Sciences Humaines, and the Direction Nationale du Patrimoine Culturel.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Islamic civilization, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Nixon S. 2009. Excavating Essouk-Tadmakka (Mali): new archaeological investigations of early Islamic trans-Saharan trade. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 44(2):217-255.
Nixon S, Murray M, and Fuller D. 2011. Plant use at an early Islamic merchant town in the West African Sahel: the archaeobotany of Essouk-Tadmakka (Mali). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 20(3):223-239.
Nixon S, Rehren T, and Guerra MF. 2011. New light on the early Islamic West African gold trade: coin moulds from Tadmekka, Mali. Antiquity 85(330):1353-1368.
