Eight hundred-year-old human remains from the Ituri tropical forest, Democratic Republic of Congo: the rock shelter site of Matangai Turu Northwest.
Little is known about human prehistory in the central African lowland tropical forest due to a paucity of archaeological evidence. Here we report results from our archaeological investigations of a late Holocene site in the northeast Congo Basin, with emphasis on a single skeleton from the rock shelter site of Matangai Turu Northwest, in the Ituri Forest, Democratic Republic of Congo. The skeleton dates from approximately 810 BP (1235 calibrated AD) and is associated with Later Stone Age lithics, animal bone and shell remains from wild taxa, fruit endocarps from forest trees, phytoliths from tropical forest plants, Late Iron Age ceramics, and a single iron artifact. Phytolith analysis indicates that the habitat was dense tropical forest, without evidence of domesticated food.
Mercader
J
J
Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. madrid@gwu.edu
Garralda
M D
MD
Pearson
O M
OM
Bailey
R C
RC
D000328:Adult; D000885:Anthropology, Physical; D001827:Body Height; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D015023:Democratic Republic of the Congo; D003817:Dentition; D004032:Diet; D004777:Environment; D006801:Humans