Azaghvana E-Book 2003 - Flipbook - Page 83
early involvement of the Wandala of Kirawa in the development of the DGB sites as chiefly
places. There is also the forementioned aspect of a ritual overseeing, which shows itself
topographically in that all sites are positioned so they can oversee each other, and at the same
time all are positioned on the northern slopes of the Oupay massif (Figure 5). The latter
implies a general orientation towards Kirawa, but still, whether the once pagan rulers of
Wandala received a ritual blessing from them, we do not know.
We do wonder here, whether the expression diy geɗ biy represents a linguistic survival of a
Wandala chiefly involvement from early Kirawa, but we have only circumstantial
ethnographic evidence for such a hypothesis. Our Dghweɗe oral history retold aims to
contribute to that circumstantial evidence. There is also the architectural centrepiece of the
DGB complex, represented by the two main sites, DGB1 and DGB2, together with the high
retaining wall interconnecting them (Plate 12b). These are impressive as an architectural
expression of status, and it is very difficult to imagine that the labour needed to build them
was not inspired by some form of chiefly input, locally or regionally. Considering that the
Gwoza hills are geographically sandwiched between Kirawa and the DGB complex, we will
learn that the Dghweɗe have not only strong legendary links to the Wandala, but that they
also have strong material similarities with some of the key findings from the DGB sites.
Figure 5: A three dimensional perspective of the northwestern Mandara Mountains
During a shared field visit in 1986, I introduced Nic David from the Mandara Archaeological
Project (University of Calgary) to my discovery of smaller DGB sites, which developed it into
a DGB complex rather than just two main sites. In 2000 Nic and I did a plane table survey of
DGB1 and DGB2, and we discovered additional smaller sites together. At the time, we were
able to establish that every site had not only very smooth dry stone walling, but also that each
of the sites had surface finds of broken necks of pots with small apertures. In 2002 I
participated in the first excavation as ethnographer and area specialist, which concentrated on
DGB2 in Mondouza, and DGB8 in Mtskar. Nic David published the results in 2008, to which
I also contributed.
Figure 5 above, and Plates 12a and 12b below, try to give an overview of the topographical
situation, and show the architectural remains of the two largest DGB sites with the
interconnecting terrace wall. Figure 5 shows the Oupay massif, and north of its summit, just
south of the Moskota river, the area of the DGB complex. We can see that they face the
intramountainous eastern plain, with the Gwoza hills to the west and the Moskota hills to the
east. The Kirawa river cuts northwards through the eastern plain, with Kirawa and the
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