PPT Slide
Macrolithic and Microlithic Artifacts from the Birimi Site:
The Case for the Middle Stone Age in Northern Ghana
At the Birimi Site in Northern Ghana a substantial Kintampo
Occupation is underlain by a Middle Stone Age (MSA)
The Kintampo occupation dates to around 4000-3000 BP and
consists of a large scatter of Kintampo artifacts and structural
features on the edge of a seasonal stream bed. While most
of the Middle Stone Age material has been found on the surface
of the site, material has been found in situ in a yellow-buff,
rocky sediment approximately one metre below the surface
at the most intact part of the site.
Our excavation of the MSA deposit has been limited because of
its position under extensive, rich, Kintampo deposits. Our
characterization of the MSA is based on a sample recovered
from the surface where it occurs mixed with Kintampo artifacts.
Because we rely on surface material from a multi-component site,
the possibility exists that we are confusing MSA and Kintampo
Distinguishing between the two components can sometimes
be difficult and we depend, in part, on known technological
and typological attributes of Kintampo and MSA assemblages
1. The Kintampo people were prodigious diggers of pits. It is most likely that in the course of pit digging the MSA level was penetrated, bringing MSA materials to the surface and incorporating them into the fill of the pits. Recent
erosion has brought them to the surface.
2. Erosion on the sloping surface of the site has exposed the MSA levels. Gravity and slope wash has concentrated MSA and Kintampo artifacts onto the same surface below.
The Kintampo chipped stone assemblage is characterized by these diagnostic types:
But the majority of the assemblage is chipped quartz and silicious mudstone
knapped using bipolar technology. Some of the pieces have been visibly
The late MSA is poorly known in West Africa, but based on analogy with the MSA elsewhere we expect to find unifacial scrapers and denticulated
tools, basally thinned tools and possibly bifacial tools
Reduction was by freehand percussion.
Cross-section of the Birimi Site
How did MSA and Kintampo artifacts wind up on the same surface?
Preliminary analysis suggests
the use of discoidal reduction.