Monumental funerary landscapes of Dhar Tagant (south-eastern Mauritania): Towards ethical satellite remote sensing in the West African Sahel

The remembrance of the dead is a ubiquitous dimension of most human societies, and the spatial dimension of mortuary practices actively constitutes an essential element of the cultural significance of certain places in the landscape. The visual prominence of stone-built funerary monuments in dry upland areas is particularly conducive to their multiscalar study through above-ground remote sensing methods. In this paper, we characterize the nature and distribution of Late Holocene drystone funerary monuments in the Dhar Tagant region of south-eastern Mauritania using freely available, very high-resolution (VHR) satellite imagery. We contextualize them in relation to the monumental mortuary records of Senegal and Mali within the West African Sahel, exploring their similarities and differences with other monumental funerary landscapes in semi-arid environments. Ethical considerations and a self-reflective attitude must be at the forefront of archaeological research, and we discuss the ethics of remote sensing research in the study of funerary practices in Africa, as well as the opportunities and challenges for remote collaborative engagement with local communities in the context of fieldwork restrictions.

Automated summary

This paper explores the nature and distribution of Late Holocene drystone funerary monuments in the Dhar Tagant region of south-eastern Mauritania, comparing them with the monumental mortuary records of Senegal and Mali in the West African Sahel. The study emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations in archaeological research and discusses the opportunities and challenges of remote collaborative engagement with local communities in the context of fieldwork restrictions.