Archeaological research highlighted many evidences of an Early Anthropocene. Shell middens and settlement mounds ("Tells") are especially numerous and well documented.

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Saloum Delta (Sénégal)

The Saloum Delta UNESCO site (Sénégal) comprises brackish channels encompassing over 200 islands and islets, mangrove forest, an Atlantic marine environment, and dry forest.

The site is marked by 218 shellfish mounds, some of them several hundreds metres long, produced by its human inhabitants over the ages. Burial sites on 28 of the mounds take the form of tumuli where remarkable artefacts have been found. They are important for our understanding of cultures from the various periods of the delta's occupation and testify to the history of human settlement along the coast of West Africa.

The region of the Saloum Delta is a remarkable testimony to the synergy between a natural environment with extensive biodiversity and a style of human development that is still present albeit fragile. Sustainable shellfish gathering and fishing practices in brackish water, and the processing of the harvest for its preservation and export was developed here. The shell mounds and the tumulus mounds form specific and exceptional cultural landscapes.

All the shell mounds built up over a 2,000 year-long cultural process have formed a physical structure of stable islets and reclaimed land within the Saloum Delta. The resultant cultural landscapes are exceptional and illustrate a long period of the history of human settlement along the West African coast.

Djenné-Jenno (Mali)

The cultural property “Old Towns of Djenné” is a serial property comprising four archaeological sites, namely Djenné-Djeno, Hambarkétolo, Kaniana and Tonomba, along with the old fabric of the present town of Djenné covering an area of 48.5 ha and divided into ten districts. The property is an ensemble that over many years has symbolised the typical African city. It is also particularly representative of Islamic architecture in sub-Saharan Africa.

Djenné-Djeno, along with Hambarketolo, Tonomba and Kaniana bears exceptional witness to the pre-Islamic civilizations on the inland Delta of the Niger. The discovery of many dwellings on the site of Djenné-Djeno (remains of traditional brick structures (djénné ferey), funerary jars) as well as a wealth of terra cotta artifacts and metal make this a major archaeological site for the study of the evolution of dwellings, industrial and craft techniques.

Inhabited since 250 B.C., Djenné became a market centre and an important link in the trans-Saharan gold trade. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it was one of the centres for the propagation of Islam. Its traditional houses, of which nearly 2,000 have survived, are built on hillocks (toguere) as protection from the seasonal floods.