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• Comprehensive remote sensing survey of the monumental funerary landscapes of SE Mauritania. • Characterisation of three newly documented prehistoric tumulus fields. • A size-based classification system for simple stone tumuli in the Sahara is presented. • First application of Gini coefficients to the study of prehistoric funerary landscapes. • Discussion of socio-economic dynamics in the pre-Islamic Sahara-Sahel ecotone. The archaeological record of southeastern Mauritania has considerable potential to contribute to longstanding anthropological debates in world prehistory, such as early cereal domestication or the emergence and organization of complex societies, although research remains limited. The archaeological study of funerary rites offers invaluable insights into cultural attitudes towards the dead and the socio-economic dynamics of the living. The materiality of remembrance is a political statement, rooted on the ability of different social agents to mobilize labor pools and networks of obligations within a given cultural framework. As such, understanding the spatial distribution and size variability in burial monuments within funerary landscapes provides insights into the social energetics of ancestor memorialization. To that end, this paper first presents a size-based classification system for pre-Islamic conical tumulus cairns in the highlands of southeastern Mauritania, West Africa, that has much wider applicability within prehistoric Saharan archaeology. Through the first application of Gini coefficients to the study of funerary landscapes, the paper then analyses the spatial distribution and degree of monument size variability within large, spatially bounded clusters ("tumulus fields") in Dhar Tichitt in order to contextualize the socio-economic dynamics of labor mobilization at three previously undocumented tumulus fields in the western Tagant Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tabarit-East tumulus field is a large cluster of funerary monuments in the western Tagant (south ern Mauritania), where fieldwork has long been restricted by security and logistical concerns. In this paper, we use photogrammetry derived from very high-resolution satellite stereo imagery to measure the volumetric geometry of these funerary monuments, in order to quantify labour energetics and calorific intake associated with construction efforts. This is the first time such a study has been attempted on archaeological structures of this size (>3.5m in diameter). Our results indicate that while the smaller tumuli could have been constructed by nuclear family members within a very short time span, the largest monuments would have demanded greater coordination, as we estimate them to have required the mobilisation of more than 200 person/days and over a million kilocalories. We contextualised how past communities may have engaged with these monuments through spatial analyses, such as least-cost pathways and viewsheds. This combined approach demonstrates the potential of remote sensing techniques to facilitate a deeper understanding of cultural heritage in dryland ecosystems. Furthermore, we aim to integrate these desk-based approaches with collaborative, community-centred fieldwork as soon as this becomes a viable option for this region of Mauritania. • First study to use very high resolution satellite imagery to model volumes of small funerary monuments (>3.5m in diameter). • Volumetric data were used to calculate labour energetics and comparative metrics of inequality. • This approach is useful for studying past cultural landscapes where fieldwork is not possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]