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作者

来源

JOURNAL OF URBAN HISTORY,Vol.45,Issue3,P.500-516

语言

英文

关键字

street networks; urban layout; Sub-Saharan Africa; pre-colonial urbanism; historical trade

作者单位

[Baumanova, Monika] Uppsala Univ, Uppsala, Sweden. [Baumanova, Monika] Univ Basel, Basel, Switzerland. [Baumanova, Monika] Univ West Bohemia, Plzen, Czech Republic. [Smejda, Ladislav] Czech Univ Life Sci, Prague, Czech Republic. [Ruther, Heinz] Univ Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa. Baumanova, M (reprint author), Uppsala Univ, Dept Archaeol & Ancient Hist, Engelska Pk,Thunbergsvagen 3H, S-75126 Uppsala, Sweden. E-Mail: monika.baumanova@uclmail.net

摘要

Present-day West African towns allow us to study how urban space developed in this region. The urban street networks and layout of residential quarters to some extent preserve the possible movement patterns of pre-colonial urbanites. Long-distance trade, in what is ultimately a liminal and transitory locale, linked the urban nodes on the "coast" of the Sahara. This article takes a closer look on the distribution of streets and quarters as a unique kind of material heritage, as well as major trade routes, which linked into the towns. Analyses of the historic towns of Timbuktu and Djenne in Mali are used to demonstrate how the relationships between trade and urban residents were enacted in space. The structuring of the two towns put them in context with the tradition of dual settlements in West Africa, also finding parallels with the role of urban quarters in merchant towns of the East African coast.