The Upper Inland Delta of the Niger is a classic example of the false-deltaic hydrology resulting from alternating periods of fluvial modeling and deposition by channels of the Niger and Bani rivers and of aeolian deposition during dry spells of materials of fluvial origin. Prior work suggested both the paleoclimate and associated palaeohydrogeological trends of this region. That work established the relative sequence of fluvial activity in various palaeo-channels and establishment of erg (dune field) blockages to river channels resulting in major lakes or channel migration. The author conducted a 1100 km² regional survey of the hinterland of historic Jenne, bordered by the Bani. The survey involved walking sample sites to establish settlement characteristics recorded by landforms and soil types of the locale, and to collect surface artifacts to compare against a master pottery sequence from Jenne-jeno. The research involved systematic random sampling of 20% of transects on highland landforms and 20% of permanent floodplain settlement sites, chosen by simple random sampling,. The new palaeogeomorphological interpretation calls in to question the presence of the Palaeo-Debo (a early Holocene huge lake). Survey suggests that Late Stone Age populations are not in evidence due to overly wet and, thus, disease-prone conditions, and establishes a geomorphological pattern of abandonment of settlements in the hinterland. Beginning around the start of the present millennium, settlements in the deeper back-swamp regions were first abandoned, followed by those of the higher, sandier soils near the presently-active channels. Settlement more recently has shifted dramatically to highland levees and dunes, and from clustered (multicomponent) communities to fewer, larger isolated villages. These settlement changes may have been linked to dramatic depopulation in the first centuries of the present millennium.