Across Forests and Savannas: Later Stone Age Assemblages from Ituri and Semliki, Democratic Republic of Congo

This article characterizes Later Stone Age quartz industries from several sites in the rainforests and woodland-savanna mosaics of the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with an emphasis on various reduction strategies that include simple debitage, bipolar percussion, discoidal centripetal percussion, Modes 4 and 5, pebble tools, flaw propagation, and formal tools. Comparisons between forest and woodland-savanna sites establish strong similarities among them over time, determine deliberate cultural choices as to raw material selection and overall reduction strategies, provide further evidence for an early inception of the Later Stone Age across tropical Africa, and show that ecologically distinct or highly specialized extractive technologies were not required to settle rainforests.