The Knapping of Quartz Crystals during the Later Stone Age at Matupi Cave, Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of Congo

ABSTRACT

Matupi Cave, located in the Ituri rainforest, northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has been long considered an early example of Later Stone Age quartz microlithism in equatorial Africa from >40,700 BP. We reassessed the lithic collection of Matupi to provide a new description of specific technical behaviors, namely, the use of quartz crystals. This newly described technical behavior can act as an anchor point for future micro-regional comparative studies of Later Stone Age quartz microlithic assemblages in the equatorial belt of Africa. The knapping of quartz crystals occurs before 25 ka BP and is observed until Holocene times. It reflects mainly bladelet production but also the manufacture of specific tool implements. Based on techno-functional and “chaîne opératoire” approaches, we describe the crystal extraction process and their use as core- and tool-blanks. We also characterize the flaking and retouch goals. Finally, we discuss our results in terms of technical convergences and techno-cultural continuity and we suggest a possible technological determinism in knapping possibilities due to crystals specific volumetric patterns.

KEYWORDS:

• Quartz crystal
• volumetric structure
• chaîne opératoire
• Matupi
• Later Stone Age
• Central Africa

Acknowledgments

I’m thankful to the PRETROP research team of the UMR7194 of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle and the Fyssen Foundation for their financial support and to Alexander Vral and Els Cornelissen for their assistance during the lithic study at the Africa Museum in Tervuren. I also thank Alice Leplongeon and Yuduan Zhou for their help and Ted Mark and the second anonymous reviewer for their important comments and edits in improving the content of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fondation Fyssen; Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.

Notes on contributors

Isis Isabella Mesfin

Isis Isabella Mesfin obtained her PhD at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris and is currently a postdoc fellowship at the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia de Benguela (Fyssen Foundation). Her work focuses on technical identities and population dynamics through the Pleistocene in Central Africa.