Tellem

The Tellem are people which lived with the Mali, in the Falaise of Bandiagara. In the rock cells of this red cliff, clay constructions shelter bones of Tellem as well as pilot vestiges of their civilization, quite former to that of the Dogon S. the arrival of Tellem goes back to the 11th century. The archaeological excavations made it possible to find many bones but also objects like fabrics, basket making, pearls, potteries… They lived in Troglodyte S, their houses built in cliff. Of small size, they resembled to the Pygmies. They lived fishing, gathering, agriculture with the hoe, breeding and hunting for the arc.

In the Necropolis S, they placed the offerings at the sides of late, sometimes in their clothing (the women carried a braided fiber mask-sex) or sometimes wrapped in covers. The scattered skeletons lying, obviously the skins were gradually moved in order to spare space for new burials. In order to be able to prove the biological identity of the population tellem, these skeletons were examined. They belong all to only one group, in recognizable anthropometric matters, whose genetic composition did not change much during the 5 centuries of its existence.

At the 14th century, the Dogons, coming from the country Mandé and which flees Islamization, arrive in cliffs. Tellem flee in their turn to take refuge towards the south, with the Burkina Faso. The drynesses, the famines and the diseases will involve their disappearance.

The old houses of Tellem, located in height along cliff, will be used as cemetery for Dogons which hoist the bodies of their deaths using cords.

Random links: