BÉNIN  
Projet benino-danois d'archéologie (BDArch)

The moat of Abomey was - according to the oral tradition - constructed by King Houegbadja (1645-1685), who moved his palace and capital to Abomey and surrounded it in a rectangular (European) manner with ramparts and moat. As site for excavation a locality was chosen just west of the main market place - the oldest part of the city - where one might expect to discover a particularly rich sample of artefact types.

Fig. 10. The Excavation site at the moat of Abomey.

The edges of the moat turned out to be eroded. Ancient deposits were appearing 2.60 m below the edges. In the course of the excavation it was established that the original dimensions of the moat were 12 m in width and 6.6 m in depth. The length of the moat is 13 km; in other words, more than one million m3 hard laterite soil - at least the same in number of man-days - were originally excavated.

The antiquarian laws in Benin have no protective effect on the preservation of the moat that currently is quickly disappearing, filled with garbage or covered by novel construction sites. A part of the moat and rampart in Kétou city (on the Nigerian border), actually in the territory of the main local sanctuary, serves a fine example visualising the original appearance of the Abomey moat.

Fig. 11. The moat of Ketou serves a fine example to visualise the original dimensions of the now partly filled-up moat of Abomey.

More than three meters of deposits were recorded in a course of the excavation of the moat of Abomey. The analysis of the layers supplemented with finds of European glass provided a good framework for interpreting the history of the moat and for correlating local ceramics with European imports. Several samples for C14 dating have also been collected (dating pending).

Fig. 12. Fragmented gin case bottle dated to the period 1770-1800.

The bottom of the moat was notably level, and evenly cut in the hard clayey soil allowing to create a rather stable form with angles of the sides close to 90 degrees. The lowest layers revealed that much care was been taken of the moat during the initial phases of its use, and that it was cleaned regularly. Around 1750 the moat lost its significance and was, at an increasing rate, used as a waste dump. Large amounts of local shards, found in association with European glass bottles, human bones and charcoal, were subsequently deposited in the moat.