Gao-Saney

Gao-Saney is a large settlement mound seven km distant from the royal town of Gao, and is thought to be the site of the ancient trading center.

[8] Their shapes include cylinder, oblate, sphere, tube, ellipsoid, bicone, and disc, and colors range from red to blue to yellow.

[8] Gao Saney participated in regional and long-distance trade, indicated by extensive glass compositions sourced in the Middle East, and non-local items such as carnelian, flint, and granite grinding stones.

However, at the moment, data indicates that the region surrounding Gao was involved in trade networks that moved imported glass and copper from distant sources, beginning by 400 CE.

Excavations at Gao Saney show its involvement in the trade networks in the eighth through tenth centuries on a scale only exceeded by Igbo Ukwu among known sub-Saharan sites.

During the late eight century CE, Ibadimerchants established the earliest recorded contact with Gao, corresponding to the same time that dry-stone architecture, wheat, and glass appear in the area.

According to McIntosh, "throughout this period, the spread of Islam, literacy, a common language, and Sharia law contributed to increased efficiency, trust, financing, and security within more expansive trade networks.

[1] Gao-Saney became well known among African historians when French administrators in 1939 discovered, in a cave covered with sand, several finely carved marble stelae produced in Almeria in Southern Spain.

From the dates of their deaths it appears that these kings of Gao ruled at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries CE, and represent a transition in leadership.