Bilan en 1977 des recherches archéologiques à Tegdaoust et Koumbi Saleh (Mauritanie)

Abstract

This article was written in 1977 by the archaeologists who organised and conducted the archaeological expeditions on the sites of Tegdaoust, Kumbi Saleh and Azugi. It presents a global view, –based on field realities and facts–, of research on medieval sites at that time, in the 1970s. This text was written prior to the defense and publication of several dissertations on Tegdaoust and of the one on Kumbi Saleh. It reflects the immediate field data brought up by excavations units in operation at the same time. This ’horizontal’ overview places us right at the heart of the construction and the building up of the perception and comprehension of each site (an example of how such acquisition of knowledge may have been done). Moreover, it transcribes the various research hypotheses suggested by excavation in progress as well as the efforts in the correlation between the excavated areas. Together with these, the text provides the opportunity to release precise archaeological data on the great mosque of Kumbi Saleh and on its relation to its surrounding neighbourhood.

Keywords

• urbanism
• mosque
• Middle Ages