This research, funded by the Swiss National Foundation, aims to investigate the dynamic of what life was during pre-colonial times for pre-ldogon and early dogon people from the Bandiagara Escarpment in the Republic of Mali. The work forma part of a large body of research led by the Laboratory "Archaeology and Population in Africa" (APA) at the University of Geneva, concerned with the reconstruction of settlement history and the emergence of social complexity during the last two millenia.