Echoes from an Abandoned Drum: Ethnoarchaeological Insights into Cordyla pinnata and Spiritual Culture in South-eastern Senegal

Abstract

This study presents an interdisciplinary investigation into a fragmentary wooden drum found in the abandoned village of Sibi Kili, located in the Niokolo Koba National Park in Senegal. Combining ethnobotanical and ethnoarchaeological research, qualitative ethnographic interviews and wood anatomical analyses, the study offers new insights into the material and spiritual culture of Mandinka communities. Drum-related information emerged through open-ended and follow-up conversations during fieldwork in villages near the park. The drum – historically used as a communicative and ritual instrument – was identified through microscopic analysis and ethnographic evidence as being crafted from Cordyla pinnata, a culturally significant and increasingly endangered tree species. The study reveals the material’s durability, symbolic resonance, and ecological context. More than a musical object, the drum served as a medium of spiritual, social, and political communication, deeply embedded in rites of passage, community mobilisation, and traditional authority. This case highlights the importance of ephemeral artefacts in African archaeology and calls attention to the preservation of wooden cultural materials as repositories of intangible heritage. The findings affirm the value of integrative research approaches for understanding the long-term human-environment interactions and the cultural biographies of objects.