Daima (Lake Chad Mound)
Daima · Mound Daima · Lake Chad tell
Neolithic to Late Iron (1800 BCE–1500 CE)·Hadjer Lamis / Kotoko ancestral·🇳🇬 Borno State (Lake Chad historic shoreline), Nigeria
About
About Daima (Lake Chad Mound)
Chad paleolake Firki plain 3-m tell 115×85 m trenched by Graham Connah 1964–66 establishing Chad Basin stratigraphy: 6 phases I–III (Neolithic polished axe, bone points) 1800 BCE, IV–V Iron Age (c.350 CE furnaces, bronze spirals, figurines) to VI Islamic glazed wares. Sequence anchor for central Sahelian agriculture iron spread. Later Kotoko-like pits with human burial jar. Daima over mound for 2,000 years sequential. Cross-dated Haladu.
Why it mattersType stratigraphy for Chad Basin Neolithic-to-Iron transition using Daima mound phasing.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Neolithic axe 1800 BCE introduction route
- 02Bronze spiral source import
Theories
- 01Firti plain salinated-field agriculture (Connah)
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- Occupied from c.1800 BCE (early Pastoral), iron arrival c.350 CE
- Period
- Neolithic to Late Iron (1800 BCE–1500 CE)
- Culture
- Hadjer Lamis / Kotoko ancestral
- Builders
- Chadic speakers
- Purpose
- Lake-shore tell farming and fishing community on firki vertisol
- Rediscovered
- 1964 Connah
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
Occupied from c.1800 BCE (early Pastoral), iron arrival c.350 CE
Initial construction
c. 1034 CE
Rediscovery
On the ground
Structures & features
11.8167° N · 13.5833° E · 330 m · 1 mapped feature
Tell Stratigraphic Trench
tell6-phase cut 3 m deep
11.8167° N · 13.5833° E