KRAKÓW, POLAND—Science & Scholarship in Poland reports that a team of Polish researchers has been investigating archaeological sites in northern Burkina Faso, an area inhabited by the Kurumba people for the past several hundred years. The researchers found flint tools on the surface of the ground that could range in age from 15,000 to 50,000 years old. “This is one of the oldest known traces of human presence in this country,” said Krzysztof Rak of Jagiellonian University. The team also examined the remains of a settlement known as Damfelenga Dangomde, which was abandoned in the late nineteenth century, when the Kurumba people moved to their current capital of Pobé-Mengao. The site is likely to have been inhabited before the arrival of the Kurumba. The team also identified a necropolis near the Damfelenga Dangomde tell that had been thought to be the remains of an ancient village. “The mounds of stone and earth that we have studied are approximately 1,300 years old,” Rak said. To read about another recent discovery in Burkina Faso, go to “World Roundup.”
