Abstract : . The presence of metallurgy represents one of the more striking aspects of the archaeological structures in Sincu-Bara. Among the more frequent artefacts, one notices scoria of an unusual morphology, often out of context, but reputed to come from direct reduction and more rarely from iron items. These two categories of items which are to be found both up and down stream from the iron operating chain offer excellent possibilities of observation aiming at a more precise allocation of the scoria of reduction and at an assessment of the quality of the heat treating processed on iron items. The metallographic observations made on two cylindrical scoria and on an iron item show a good skill of the mechanisms of the reduction by oxygen as well as of those of heat treatments which are consistent with the supposed functions of the iron item.

Co-auteurs Ablaye KANE, Malick DIOP

 Les tumulus de Rao, nouvelles recherches archéologiques

Résumé : Les fouilles entreprises ces dernières années à Mboyu (Sénégal) ont permis de renouveler considérablement nos connaissances sur les structures tumulaires (mbanaar) du Sénégal aussi bien du point de vue de la chronologie que de celui des inférences induites par l’étude du matériel. Dans le domaine de la chronologie le site-échantillon fouillé se situe dans la première moitié du premier millénaire, voire avant, ce qui les place dans une séquence plus ancienne que ce qui était généralement admis. Quant à l’étude du matériel, la présence de perles phéniciennes en pâte de verre et peut-être du cheval ouvrent des perspectives de recherche inédites sur les relations entre l’Afrique du Nord et l’Afrique Sub-saharienne durant l’Antiquité.

 The tumulus of Rao, new archaeological researches

Abstract : The excavations carried out these last years at Mboyu (Senegal) allowed to renew deeply our knowledge on the tumulary structures (mbanaar) of Senegal on point of view of chronology as well as the material culture. Concerning the chronology, the sampling site excavated belongs to the first half millennium, maybe before, then at period which is more ancient than it is admitted generally. In the field of the material culture, the presence of Phoenician pearls made of glass clay and peharps the presence of the horse open the new research perspectives on the relationships between the North Africa and the Sub-Saharian Africa during the Antiquity.