Sao Civilisation
The Sao civilisation flourished in Central Africa from the sixth century BC to as late as the sixteenth century AD after which the Sao were absorbed into the Bornu Empire. The Sao lived by the Chari River Around Lake Chad in territory that later became part of Cameroon and Chad. They were made up of several patrilineal clans who were united into a single polity. The polity were organized into ranked and centralized societies.
Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze, copper, and iron. Finds include bronze sculptures and terra cotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewelry, highly decorated pottery, spears, well-fired ceramic vessels, and fine personal ornaments in clay, copper, iron, alloyed copper and brass.
The Sao were recorded to have dwelt in small towns that were protected by moats and earthen ramparts, suggesting that they may have functioned as city-states.
Archaeological evidence shows that the Sao buried their dead. The tradition of placing a corpse in the fetal position inside of an earthenware jar was in practice from the 12-13th centuries AD.
Today, several ethnic groups of Nigeria, northern Cameroon and southern Chad, but particularly the Sara, Kotoko, claim descent from the civilization of the Sao.
You can read more @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sao_civilisation
Lost in the Mists of Time: The Ancient Sao Civilization in Central Africa
The Sao Civilization was an ancient culture located in Central Africa, in an area which is today partly owned by the countries of Cameroon and Chad. They settled along the Chari River, which is located to the south of Lake Chad. The modern Kotoko people, an ethnic group located in Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria, claim ethnic descent from the ancient Sao. According to their tradition, the Sao were a race of giants that used to inhabit the area to the south of Lake Chad, between the northern regions of both Nigeria and Cameroon.
Ancient Intriguing Sao People: “Men From Another Time” – One Of The Oldest Civilizations Of Central Africa
An ancient civilization was developed by the Sao people in the region of Southeast of Lake Chad, located in the far west of Chad and the northeast of Nigeria. The Sao civilization is identified by its use of stone and bone implements and construction of walled cities.
Archaeological Reconnaissance in Cameroon
In spite of its central location at the hinge of Africa, between the Congo basin and the West, the desert and the equatorial forests, the archaeology of Cameroon is unknown and virtually unexplored. There is a single exception, the Iron Age culture of the Sao in the extreme north around the southern shores of Lake Chad, which has been investigated for many years by Professors Griaule and Lebeuf.
Iron Age Beginnings at the Southwestern Margins of Lake Chad
Archaeological investigations conducted by the authors and other colleagues at a few sites north of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, Nigeria, now provide original information on the initial stages of the Iron Age occupation of the area. The research has revealed that this period started around the beginning of our era. It is characterised by the arrival of iron-using human groups bringing in a new pottery tradition and a diversified subsistence economy, presumably mainly based on the cultivation of plants, particularly sorghum. In part, they lived in extremely large, densely populated and, probably, fortied settlements, comparable to 16th – 20th century AD regional centres known from south of the lake. The paper presents the data collected at each of the sites studied and discusses the significance of the new evidence in a regional and supraregional context.
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