A now-abandoned section of the trading center of Jenne in Mali, established by about the 3rd century BC. By late in the 1st millennium AD, Jenne-jeno had grown into a major urban center and it was important in trade for another 1000 years. Metal was one of the main commodities involved. The city itself appears was the center of a fertile and prosperous region that cultivated indigenous African rice. A series of elaborate anthropomorphic clay statuettes date from the early centuries of the 2nd millennium AD.