Birimi is an archaeological site associated with the Kintampo Complex, located in northern Ghana between the towns of Gambaga and Nalerigu, [1] which was occupied during the Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age, and Iron Age. [1] [2]
Birimi is an archaeological site associated with the Kintampo Complex, located in northern Ghana between the towns of Gambaga and Nalerigu, [1] which was occupied during the Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age, and Iron Age. [1] [2]
Birimi is an archaeological site that was discovered in the northern regions of Ghana. [3] The site lies on the Gambaga escarpment, about 3.5 kilometers to the northwest of the town of Nalerigu. [3] Excavations of the site begun in the year 1987, led by Francois Kense. [1] These were also the first excavations in the wider area around this site. [1] The Birimi site is situated primarily within a system of seasonal stream channels, which are covered with lithic artifacts and show signs of extractive activities. [1] During research and excavation campaigns at Birimi, samples were taken to learn about the site and its broader region; [1] [2] [3] [4] these samples included pottery, burned daub, sediment, charcoal and palaeobotanical remains for stylistic, archaeometry and/or dating purposes. [1]
The earliest occupation phase of Birimi has been dated to the Middle Stone Age. [1] [2] The material finds consist of a variety of different stone artifact forms including Levallois flakes and cores, disk cores, blades, bifaces, notches, denticulates and retouched flakes and blades. [2] In situ, artifacts can be found 1 meter below the surface level of the ground. [3] However, these are not easily linked to other contemporaneous cultures of the Middle Stone Age [1] [2] due to Middle Stone Age sites of West Africa not being well understood. [2]
The Later Stone Age occupation phase of Birimi, which is associated with the Kintampo Complex [1] and the origin of agriculture in sub-Saharan West Africa, [1] [4] has been dated between 3500 and 3000 BP. [1] This former habitation makes for a very ceramic-rich layer on the site. [4] This is the occupation layer of the site that has been investigated the most based on the clear presence of the Kintampo complex. [4] Charred plant remains from Birimi show evidence of the cultivation of pearl millet, which may have allowed the Kintampo people to be sedentary and establish a village; [4] there are indications for wattle and daub structures, as well as evidence of multiple building techniques present, resulting in multiple structures of varying sizes, which has been found at other Kintampo sites. [1]
The Iron Age occupation phase of Birimi occured in its western region. [1] Kintampo settlement sites are often found near Iron Age sites. [1] However, no Iron Age habitations have been found near the smelters. [1] The ironworking activities can be found in the forms of multiple slag mounds and furnaces throughout the western region of Birimi. [1]
The Kintampo complex, also known as the Kintampo culture, Kintampo Neolithic, and Kintampo Tradition, was established by Saharan agropastoralists, who may have been Niger-Congo or Nilo-Saharan speakers and were distinct from the earlier residing Punpun foragers, between 2500 BCE and 1400 BCE. The Kintampo complex was a part of a transitory period in the prehistory of West Africa, from pastoralism to sedentism in West Africa, specifically in the Bono East region of Ghana, eastern Ivory Coast, and Togo. The Kintampo complex also featured art, personal adornment items, polished stone beads, bracelets, and figurines; additionally, stone tools and structures were found, which suggests that Kintampo people had both a complex society and were skilled with Later Stone Age technologies.
The Tsodilo Hills are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), consisting of rock art, rock shelters, depressions, and caves in southern Africa. It gained its WHS listing in 2001 because of its unique religious and spiritual significance to local peoples, as well as its unique record of human settlement over many millennia. UNESCO estimates there are over 4500 rock paintings at the site. The site consists of a few main hills known as the Child Hill, Female Hill, and Male Hill.
Mumba Cave, located near the highly alkaline Lake Eyasi in Karatu District, Arusha Region, Tanzania. The cave is a rich archaeological site noted for deposits spanning the transition between the Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age in Eastern Africa. The transitional nature of the site has been attributed to the large presence of its large assemblage of ostrich eggshell beads and more importantly, the abundance of microlith technology. Because these type artifacts were found within the site it has led archaeologists to believe that the site could provide insight into the origins of modern human behavior. The cave was originally tested by Ludwig Kohl-Larsen and his wife Margit in their 1934 to 1936 expedition. They found abundant artifacts, rock art, and burials. However, only brief descriptions of these findings were ever published. That being said, work of the Kohl-Larsens has been seen as very accomplished due to their attention to detail, especially when one considers that neither was versed in proper archaeological techniques at the time of excavation. The site has since been reexamined in an effort to reanalyze and complement the work that has already been done, but the ramifications of improper excavations of the past are still being felt today, specifically in the unreliable collection of C-14 data and confusing stratigraphy.
Enkapune Ya Muto, also known as Twilight Cave, is a site spanning the late Middle Stone Age to the Late Stone Age on the Mau Escarpment of Kenya. This time span has allowed for further study of the transition from the Middle Stone Age to the Late Stone Age. In particular, the changes in lithic and pottery industries can be tracked over these time periods as well as transitions from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a herding lifestyle. Beads made of perforated ostrich egg shells found at the site have been dated to 40,000 years ago. The beads found at the site represent the early human use of personal ornaments. Inferences pertaining to climate and environment changes during the pre-holocene and holocene period have been made based from faunal remains based in this site.
The Windust Caves (45-FR-46) are a series of nine caves eroded into a basalt cliff on the north side of the lower Snake River in Franklin County, southeastern Washington. The caves were excavated from 1959 until 1961 by a crew led by Harvey S. Rice. The site contains cultural artifacts dating back over 10,000 years and is culturally associated with other sites in the Columbia Basin.
Border Cave is an archaeological site located in the western Lebombo Mountains in Kwazulu-Natal. The rock shelter has one of the longest archaeological records in southern Africa, which spans from the Middle Stone Age to the Iron Age.
Songo Mnara is a historic Swahiili settlement in located on Songo Mnara Island in Pande Mikoma, Kilwa District in Lindi Region of Tanzania. The island is home to a Medieval Swahili stone town. The stone town was occupied from the 14th to 16th centuries. Songo Mnara has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with nearby stone town Kilwa Kisiwani. In total, archaeologists have found six mosques, four cemeteries, and two dozen house blocks along with three enclosed open spaces on the island. Songo Mnara was constructed from rough-coral and mortar. This stonetown was built as one of many trade towns on the Indian Ocean. The site is a registered National Historic Site.
Dhar Tichitt is a Neolithic archaeological site located in the southwestern region of the Sahara Desert in Mauritania. It is one of several settlement locations along the sandstone cliffs in the area. Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Walata, Dhar Néma, and Dhar Tagant are the sites which compose Tichitt culture. The site was first discovered in the 1910s as a result of an expedition by the French Colonel Charles Roulet during the colonization of the region. The cliffs were inhabited by farmers and pastoralists starting at around 4500 BP until around 2300 BP, or approximately 2500 to 500 BCE. This area is one of the oldest known archaeological occupation sites in West Africa. About 500 stone settlements littered the region in the former savannah of the Sahara. In addition to herding livestock, its inhabitants hunted, fished, collected wild grain, and grew bulrush millet. The inhabitants and creators of these settlements during these periods thought to have been ancestors of the Soninke people. Plateau settlements consisted of multiple stone-walled compounds containing houses and granaries/"storage facilities", sometimes with street layouts. Large livestock enclosures were erected in proximity of some sites. And around some settlements, larger stone common "circumvallation walls" were built, suggesting that "special purpose groups" cooperated as a result of decisions "enforced for the benefit of the community as a whole."
Leopard's Kopje is an archaeological site, the type site of the associated region or culture that marked the Middle Iron Age in Zimbabwe. The ceramics from the Leopard's Kopje type site have been classified as part of phase II of the Leopard's Kopje culture. For information on the region of Leopard's Kopje, see the "Associated sites" section of this article.
Boomplaas Cave is located in the Cango Valley in the foothills of the Swartberg mountain range, north of Oudtshoorn, Eden District Municipality in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. It has a 5 m (16 ft) deep stratified archaeological sequence of human presence, occupation and hunter-gatherer/herder acculturation that might date back as far as 80,000 years. The site's documentation contributed to the reconstruction of palaeo-environments in the context of changes in climate within periods of the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. The cave has served multiple functions during its occupation, such as a kraal (enclosure) for animals, a place for the storage of oil rich fruits and as a hunting camp. Circular stone hearths and calcified dung remains of domesticated sheep as well as stone adzes and pottery art were excavated indicating that humans lived at the site and kept animals.
Matupi Cave is a cave in the Mount Hoyo massif of the Ituri Rainforest, Democratic Republic of the Congo, where archaeologists have found evidence for Late Stone Age human occupation spanning over 40,000 years. The cave has some of the earliest evidence in the world for microlithic tool technologies.
Porc-Epic Cave is an archaeological site located in Dire Dawa,Oromia, Ethiopia. Dated back to the Middle Stone Age, the site contains extensive evidence of microlithic tools, bone, and faunal remains. The lithic assemblage reveals that inhabitants at the time were well-organized with their environment. There is also rock art and strong evidence for ochre processing. The site was first discovered in 1920 by H. De Monfreid and P. Teilhard De Chardin. H. Breuil and P. Wernert performed the first excavation in 1933, followed from 1974 to 1976 by J. Desmond Clark and K.D. Williamson. Succeeding this was an excavation in 1998. Porc-Epic Cave provides insight into the behavior and technical capability of modern humans in eastern Africa during the Middle Stone Age.
The Riadino-5 Site is an archaeological site located on a terrace within the Šešupė River Valley in the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Federation. Unlike most other sites near this area, the Riadino-5 site is one of the first sites of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transitional period to have been found in the Baltic region, which includes Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and areas of the Russian Federation. Even when compared to other sites of similar age, the Riadino-5 site is still one of the northernmost sites to have been occupied in the Central European region. This makes it one of the oldest sites documenting human habitation, dating back all the way to the Marine Isotope Stage 3, approximately ca 57-26 thousand calendar years ago. The site itself was occupied during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic period within that era between 50 and 44 ka. Upon discovery, the site measured 200 meters by 80 meters. The approximate aging of the site was supported by findings of flint artifacts, using luminescence IRSL dating based on potassium-feldspar sample size and Carbon-14 dating of charcoal and ash layers from the site. At the moment, the exact culture and society of the site occupants has yet to be determined, and is currently undergoing comparative analysis to other similarly dated sites in the vicinity to uncover some answers.
Panga ya Saidi is an archaeological cave site located in Kilifi County, southeastern Kenya, about 15 km from the Indian Ocean in the Dzitsoni limestone hills. The cave site has rich archaeological deposits dating to the Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age, and Iron Age. Excavated deposits preserve an unusually long record of human activities, from around 78,000 years ago until around 400 years ago, a chronology supported by radiocarbon dating and optically stimulated luminescence dating. This sequence puts Panga ya Saidi alongside other key sites such as Enkapune ya Muto, Mumba Rockshelter, and Nasera Rockshelter that are important for understanding the Late Pleistocene and the Middle to Later Stone Age transition in eastern Africa.
West African hunter-gatherers, West African foragers, or West African pygmies dwelled in western Central Africa earlier than 32,000 BP and dwelled in West Africa between 16,000 BP and 12,000 BP until as late as 1000 BP or some period of time after 1500 CE. West African hunter-gatherers are archaeologically associated with the West African Microlithic Technocomplex. Despite its significance in the prehistory of West Africa, the peopling of various parts of Western Africa from the Sub-Saharan regions of coastal West Africa and the forests of western Central Africa often goes overlooked.
The prehistory of West Africa spans from the earliest human presence in the region until the emergence of the Iron Age in West Africa. West African populations were considerably mobile and interacted with one another throughout the population history of West Africa. Acheulean tool-using archaic humans may have dwelled throughout West Africa since at least between 780,000 BP and 126,000 BP. During the Pleistocene, Middle Stone Age peoples, who dwelled throughout West Africa between MIS 4 and MIS 2, were gradually replaced by incoming Late Stone Age peoples, who migrated into West Africa as an increase in humid conditions resulted in the subsequent expansion of the West African forest. West African hunter-gatherers occupied western Central Africa earlier than 32,000 BP, dwelled throughout coastal West Africa by 12,000 BP, and migrated northward between 12,000 BP and 8000 BP as far as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania.
The Mlambalasi Rock Shelter is a historic site located in Iringa District of Iringa Region in southern Tanzania, 50 km away from Iringa City. Excavations in 2006 and 2010 by the Iringa Region Archaeological Project uncovered artifactual deposits from the Later Stone Age (LSA), the Iron Age, and the historic periods, as well as external artifacts from the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Direct dating on Achatina shell and ostrich eggshell beads indicates that the oldest human burials at Mlambalasi are from the terminal Pleistocene. Mlambalasi is characterized by interment LSA and Iron Age periods, as well as by cycles of use and abandonment.
Ghana was initially referred to as the Gold Coast. After attaining independence, the country's first sovereign government named the state after the Ghana Empire in modern Mauritania and Mali. Gold Coast was initially inhabited by different states, empires and ethnic groups before its colonization by the British Empire. The earliest known physical remains of the earliest man in Ghana were first discovered by archaeologists in a rock shelter at Kintampo during the 1960s. The remains were dated to be 5000 years old and it marked the period of transition to sedentism in Ghana. Early Ghanaians used Acheulean stone tools as hunter gatherers during the Early stone age. These stone tools evolved throughout the Middle and Late Stone Ages, during which some early Ghanaians inhabited caves.
Bosumpra Cave is an archaeological site situated on the Kwahu plateau, which forms part of the easternmost section of the Ashanti uplands. The plateau and uplands lie just north of the Akan lowlands, and run diagonally across south-central Ghana for c. 200 km from near the western border with Ivory Coast to the edge of the Volta basin. The site is actually a rock shelter, which is roughly 240 m² in extent and situated at an elevation of approximately 613 m above sea-level, northeast of the modern town of Abetifi. In the shelter itself, the floor is lowest in the center and slopes upwards towards the northern and southern edges. The rock shelter is also situated in the Bono East region of Ghana, which is archaeologically important because of the large distribution of prehistoric Kintampo-sites here.