Ancient site · City
Djenné-Djenno
Also known as Jenne-Jeno
The mound of 'old Djenné', 3 km from the modern town in the Inner Niger Delta of Mali. Settled around 250 BCE by people who grew African rice, kept animals and fished, it grew into an occupation mound of about 33 hectares, up to 6 metres high, linked to long-distance trade.
It proved that towns and trade networks arose in West Africa on their own, before traders crossed the Sahara. It was abandoned around 1400. Part of the Old Towns of Djenné World Heritage Site.
- Dates
- c. 250 BCE – 1400 CE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- UNESCO World Heritage
- Yes
- Location
- 13.89° N, 4.54° W
How we know
No writing survives from the site; it is dated by radiocarbon from excavations by Roderick and Susan McIntosh from 1977.
Nearby sites
- Ounjougou oldest pottery c. 9400 BCE
- Dhar Tichitt c. 2000–300 BCE
- Taruga c. 600–200 BCE (iron smelting c. 4th–3rd century BCE)
- Nok c. 1500 BCE – 1 CE; terracottas from c. 900 BCE
- Gobero c. 7700–6200 and 5200–2500 BCE
- Shum Laka used from c. 30,000 years ago to c. 400 years ago; burials c. 6000 and 1000 BCE