Between the Saloum and the Gambia, along about 350 km of the north bank, lie more than a thousand stone circles of dressed laterite pillars over burials (Wassu, Kerbatch, Wanar, Sine Ngayene and hundreds of lesser sites).
They were raised from the late first millennium BC to the sixteenth century AD, most in the later first and early second millennium; the double circle at Wanar is dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century. On 1 January 1200 the people of this country are still burying their dead among the stones and raising new circles. Iron spears and copper bracelets in the graves point to warrior or chiefly families.
Who they were, and what they called themselves, is not known.
Who holds it
- Title
- Lineage heads and the dead they honour (no rulers known)
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
No source names these people. Wolof and Fula tradition credits the Serer; the Serer credit the Soos, 'the men from the beginning of Kaabu', whom some historians take for early Mande-speakers who came from Wagadu late in the first millennium (Wikipedia: Senegambian stone circles).
How things stand that morning
Self-governing communities, known only from their monuments.
Customs
Burial under mounds, then circles of standing stones and frontal stones; secondary burials and offerings (Sine Ngayene); funerary houses (Wanar).
Where the sources disagree
- The builders are disputed (Serer, Soos/old Mande, Jola, or earlier peoples); do not name them as fact.
Evidence: Archaeology only, but well dated at several sites.
On the map: The zone of the monuments, which is not necessarily the limit of one people.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.