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Phytoliths from Archaeological Sites in the Tropical Forest of Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Julio Mercader ,
Freya Runge ,
Luc Vrydaghs ,
Hughes Doutrelepont ,
Corneille E. N. Ewango  and
Jordi Juan-Tresseras
Julio Mercader
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, 2110 G Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20052, E-mail: madrid@gwu.edu
Freya Runge
Affiliation:
Universitat Paderborn, FB1, Physische Geographie, D-33098, Paderborn, Germany, E-mail: arung@hrz.nw.uni-paderborn.de
Luc Vrydaghs
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Palaeontology, Gent University, Krigslaan, 281/S8, B-9000, and Lab of Wood Biology and Xylarium, RMCA, B-3080, Tervuren, Belgium, E-mail: mphytor@africamuseum.be
Hughes Doutrelepont
Affiliation:
Lab of Wood Biology and Xylarium, RMCA, B-3080, Tervuren, Belgium
Corneille E. N. Ewango
Affiliation:
Cefrecof, P.O. Box 21285, Nairobi, Kenya, and Epulu via Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo
Jordi Juan-Tresseras
Affiliation:
Departament de Prehistòria, Història Antiga i Arqueologia, Facultat de Geografia i Història, Universitat de Barcelona, Baldiri i Reixac, s/n Torre B, p. 11, E-08028, Barcelona, Spain E-mail: Juan@trivium.gh.ub.es
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Abstract

Phytoliths record late Quaternary vegetation at three archaeological sites in the Ituri rain forest. The oldest deposits, dated to ca. 19,000 to 10,000 14C yr B.P., contain abundant phytoliths of grasses but also enough arboreal forms to show that the landscape was forested. The late-glacial forests may have had a more open canopy than today's. Younger phytolith assemblages show that the northeast Congo basin was densely forested throughout the Holocene. Archaeological materials among the phytoliths show that people lived in this region during the Pleistocene. Therefore, Pleistocene and Holocene prehistoric foragers probably inhabited tropical forests of the northeast Congo basin many millennia before farming appeared in the region.

Keywords

IturiDemocratic Republic Congocentral AfricaphytolithsLater Stone Age foragerslast glacial maximumvegetation dynamics“refugia.”
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , July 2000 , pp. 102 - 112
Copyright
University of Washington

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