The high grasslands and valleys of the interior.
Pollen and charcoal show widespread cultivation by at least the thirteenth century; the earliest dated villages (Ankadivory, 1-2 hectares within small ditches for cattle, thirteenth to fourteenth century, with imported sgraffiato and Chinese stoneware) belong to the Fiekena phase. Before about 1200 there is no secure archaeological evidence of highland settlement. Merina and Betsileo tradition remembers the Vazimba as the first people of the highlands; the kingdoms of Imerina and the Betsileo are of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and after.
On 1 January 1200 the highlands are being settled, perhaps from the eastern forests; whether anyone farms there yet is not pinned.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known: no leader is named for this date
- Title
- Heads of lineages, villages and clans
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
How things stand that morning
Thinly settled or just being settled.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- Through 1200No dated event is known.
Where the sources disagree
- The English Wikipedia says there is no archaeological evidence for highland occupation until about 1200; Dewar and Wright put cultivation by at least the thirteenth century.
Evidence: Pollen and a few excavated villages (Wright, Dewar); tradition of the Vazimba.
On the map: Drawn from modern language areas, physical geography and a few dated sites; the 1200 extent is a rough guess.
Sources and studies
- Dewar and Wright, The culture history of Madagascar, Journal of World Prehistory 7 (1993)
- Wikipedia, History of Madagascar (no archaeological evidence for highland occupation before about 1200; zebu about 1000)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.