An unadulterated report on the results of excavations and surveys in the area around Gao, Mali in western Africa. This volume should be studied alongside the report on earlier work at the site ( Islam, Archaeology and History: The Gao Region of Mali BAR S647, 1996), and focuses on the environmental and artefactual remains: botanical evidence, fauna, molluscs, fish bones; beads, lithics, spindle whorls, metal and miscellaneous finds. This project has brought a better understanding of this area of Africa and of the importance of Gao as a trade centre in the early second millennium AD.