Early or Middle Stone Age? The lithic assemblage of Capangombe – Santo António, Namibe Province (Angola)

Abstract

Capangombe – Santo António is an open-air site located 596 m a.s.l. at the foothill of Morro Santo António, Namibe Province (southwest Angola). The inselberg of Santo António is associated to the Chela escarpment developing from the Marginal Mountain range parallel to the Atlantic Ocean, separating the Angolan inland plateau from the coastal semi-arid to arid plain. A dissected valley formed by the Leba-Capangombe stream exposed a conglomerate with abundant stone tools assigned to the Early Stone Age (ESA). The site was discovered in 1966 by Miguel Ramos, who collected a total of 1776 lithic artifacts, and further published a small report about the assemblage in 1971. In this preliminary analysis, Ramos focused on cleavers using the “French school” typology for the “hachereaux” in Northern Africa and concluded that there are several morphotypes identified in Capangombe-Santo António with specific features, suggesting the occurrence of a local tradition for the Late ESA/Middle Stone Age (MSA). The study presented here is a new analysis of the lithic assemblage curated at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. A sample of 1017 artefacts was analyzed for this project applying an extended descriptive methodology to characterize lithic raw material procurement, reduction sequences and typological classes. The chrono-cultural model initially proposed for the site is revised thanks to recent advances in Stone Age studies.