By Yunus S Saliu
At least dozen of Tour Guides from Wassu and Kerr Batch Stones Circle Sites were over the weekend received a one-day training on archaeological significance of Stones Circles from Dr. Adrien Devloye, an archaeologist at University of Geneva, Switzerland, and World Authority on the Ethnoarchaeology of the Stone Circles of Senegambia.
On a voluntary base, Dr. Adrien Devloye trained the tour guides on significance, purpose, funerary culture, quarry, and culture of the circles during the day session held at Kerr Batch Stones Circle Site in Nianija, Central River Region.
The training among other things aimed at widens their horizon about the circles to be able to give new information to visitors like tourists, Gambian school children, and it was attended by 12 tour guides including two NCAC staff.
Commenting on the training, Hassoum Ceesay, Director General of National Centre for Arts Culture (NCAC), disclosed that the aim of the training was to refresh the guides knowledge on the latest research on the Stone Circles, and “Dr. Adrien has published latest research work on the megalithic sites especially there link to human habitation.”
During the training, Dr. Adrien started by a PowerPoint slide show on the burial and funerary practices of the Stone Circles, thereby underlining to the guides that until now all the research knowledge on the circles point out to them been burial sites, Hassoum stated.
He added that the trainer also took the guides through the link between the circles and human habitation and also the quarry sites and ended by explaining to them that the archaeological research on the megalithic sites remain work in progress and as guides they should always explain that to visitors.
There was an interesting questions and answers during session one and it was followed by a tour of the Kerr Batch site where Dr Adrien explained the V-shaped stone and also the impact of weathering on the circles.
Session two of the training was a trip to the Stone Circles sites of Sangule also in Ninai Maru, which also interested the guides very much.
Generally, the training met its goal of refreshing the guides’ knowledge on the ever evolving Stone Circles research.