Yikpabongo (stone-circle burial mound)
Archaeological site in northern Ghana's Upper West Region and the principal excavated locality of the Komaland terracotta tradition; characterised by earthen burial mounds delimited by surface stone-circle settings.
Yikpabongo, situated in the Upper West Region of northern Ghana, is the type-site and most extensively excavated locality of the Komaland archaeological terracotta tradition. James Anquandah's fieldwork beginning in the 1980s established the site's stratigraphic character: low earthen mounds, typically a few metres in diameter, are marked at the surface by roughly circular settings of laterite stones and contain single or multiple human burials accompanied by terracotta figures, ceramic vessels and, in some cases, iron objects. The stone circles are the diagnostic surface feature that distinguishes Komaland mortuary contexts from other northern Ghanaian archaeological deposits.
Subsequent work led by Benjamin Kankpeyeng at Yikpabongo and related sites has refined the chronological framework through thermoluminescence dating and expanded the documented typological range of the terracotta corpus. The site has suffered severe looting since the mid-1980s, which has destroyed stratigraphic context for the majority of circulating market pieces. The University of Ghana's programme of controlled excavation and documentation at Yikpabongo represents the primary source of scientifically contextualised comparative material against which provenanced and unprovenanced market pieces must be assessed.