Semliki harpoon

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The Semliki harpoon refers to complex harpoon heads carved from bone. It is from an archaelogic site on the Semliki River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) which dates back 90,000 years. [1]

It seemed to substantiate that fishing and an "aquatic civilization" was likely in the region across eastern and northern Africa during the wetter climatic conditions of the early to mid-Holocene, as shown by other evidence at the lakeshore site of Ishango.[2]

Originally, the stone age was thought to have occurred only 26,000 years ago, but this pushes the time frame of development of tools back significantly.

Since that time, 700,000 year old flint tools have been found in Pakefield, Suffolk, UK, at a time when the climate there was much warmer. Human activity was thought to have been in Southern Europe 780,000 years ago.[3] H

The archaelogic site coincides with the range of the Efé Pygmies, which have been shown by mitochondrial dNA analyses to be one of the oldest races still existing on earth.

[edit] References

  1. ^ A middle stone age worked bone industry from Katanda, Upper Semliki Valley, Zaire. Science 268 (5210): pp. 553-556 (American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C., USA (1995-04-28).
  2. ^ Ishango revisited: new age determinations and cultural interpretations. African Archaelogic Review 5 (1): 65-78 ( Springer Netherlands) (1987-12).
  3. ^ Tools unlock secrets of early man. BBC News, London, UK (2005-12-14).