Le « Tombeau à Colonnes » de Koumbi Saleh (Hodh oriental, Mauritanie)

Abstract

The « Tombeau à colonnes » (the columned grave) known and partially excavated in the early days of the 20th cent., had never been examined and surveyed precisely. This article therefore presents for the first time, following an account of the history of the researches on the monument itself, a layout and a precise description of the walls and ground remains –graves, buildings, locations of previous excavations and remains heaps, all recording done in 1972. A small test pit gives a glimpse of a long and complex history of the monument and its enclosures. Within one of these enclosures, under an ordinary burial, a small funerary monument has been unearthed. Built on a paved ground with a ridge roof it contained a dessicated body. Thus, in this sole test pit, three periods have been evidenced: the construction of the small mausoleum, its embedding in the ground, and at a third stage, a burial dug in the filling. In the last part, this article gives an account of the vast necropolis associated to the monument of the « Tombeau à colonnes » and to the town of Kumbi Saleh, itself.

Keywords

• grave
• necropolis
• enclosures
• Ancient Ghana