Étude fonctionnelle du matériel de broyage ancien des monts Alantika à la lumière d’un référentiel ethnographique (Nord-Cameroun)

Abstract

The objective of this work entitled '' Functional Study of Archeological Grinding of the Alantika Mountains in the Light of an Ethnographic repository (Northern Cameroon) is to build a repository of functional brands from the current grinding material which is then used to interpreted the millstones and archaeological grinders of the Alantika mountains. An ethnographic corpus comprising 17 cereal millstones, 09 condiment wheels, 37 cereal grinders and 10 condiments with spices from Bimlerou-Haut, Koallo and Bimlerou-Bas has been created. From this material, we have developed a repository of macroscopic functional indices crucial for the identification of archaeological grinding material. Three main macro-traces caught our attention. These are the state of the millstones and the grinders, the dimensions of the grinders and the morphology of their work surface. We then sought to determine the function of the old grinding material of Bimlerou-Haut in the light of this ethnographic frame of reference. This tool has proven to be particularly effective for the functional identification of 34 cereal wheels, 20 condiment wheels and the recognition of 14 cereal knobs and 06 with spices. It appears that ethnoarchaeology considerably improves the possibilities of reconstructing the function of objects in an archaeological context. The study also reveals the potential for historical information in this category of objects.