Recherches archéologiques à Dungo (Angola)

Abstract

The sites of Dungo IV and V, southward of Baia Farta, in the Benguela Province (Angola) yielded a new knowledge of the stratigraphy of the Lower Palaolithic industries of that part of Angola. The digging of a large whale (Balaenoptera sp.) skeleton at Dungo V showed the presence of numerous lithic artefacts intimately mixed with the animal’s bones. Such a discovery gives clear indication of a stranded large marine mammal exploitation for scavenging by a human coastal population during an ancient stage of the Palaeolithic period. In a geological context without any volcanic rock, radiodating was not possible. We utilized the method of determinating the burying age of lithic industry by quantity determination of the two cosmogenic nucleids 26Al and 10Be, which gave a burying age of one to two Ma for some artefacts of Dungo IV.

Keywords

• Paleolithic
• scavenging
• chronology
• time of burying