Vessel: Footed Base 13th century Tellem peoples The Tellem are believed to have arrived at the rocky Bandiagara Escarpment in present-day southern Mali sometime during the eleventh century A.D. By the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries, the Tellem population was devastated, possibly due to famine caused by drought or Songhai and Mossi slave raids. Their cultural legacy, however, profoundly influenced the Dogon, a people who succeeded them and continue to populate the Bandiagara to this day. Although the origins of the Dogon remain unclear, they are not direct descendents of the Tellem, who appear to have left no distinct ancestors. The name by which they are remembered, "Tellem," is a Dogon word signifying "We found them."Three- and four-footed pottery bowls like this one have been found in caves directly below Tellem burial caves in the Bandiagara cliffs. Stylistically distinct from other forms of Tellem pottery, this type of bowl is believed to have been made specifically for funerary