Sijilmasa: Medieval City of Gold
Sijilmasa is located in southeastern Morocco in the oasis of the Tafilelt, immediately to the west of the modern town of Rissani. In early Arabic literature, it is associated with the source of West African gold. The archaeological record is gradually being discovered by a joint Moroccan-American Mission which has completed five seasons of study at the site in southeastern Morocco. Satellite images, aerial photographs, a surface survey, and the excavation of fifty-four trenches have combined with the historical record and oral tradition to reveal much about the medieval city from pre-Islamic times, through four stages of Islamic development. The Mission has learned much about land use around the city, about the city's agriculture and its system of irrigation. There is abundant evidence of a thriving ceramics industry as well as commercial contacts with the Islamic Mediterranean world and with the West African kingdoms which supplied gold in the trans-Saharan gold trade.
