Sangoan

Stone tool industry or complex of Sango Bay in Uganda on Lake Victoria, a Mainly Middle Pleistocene series of assemblages containing heavy-duty picks (core axes), handaxes, scrapers, finely flaked lanceolate points, cleavers, and small specialized tools. The Sangoan may have developed from a late Acheulian basis, and which was roughly contemporary with the Mousterian of Europe, dating to 100,000-20,000 BP. The term is loosely applied to a rather heterogeneous group of industries in eastern and south-central Africa, and perhaps in West Africa, also. The most informative site for the composition and sequence of Sangoan industries is at Kalambo Falls, Zambia. In several regions of Zaire and neighboring countries, the Sangoan appears to mark the first human settlement of the low-lying country now occupied by the equatorial forest.

The name, derived from Sango Bay on Lake Victoria, Uganda, loosely applied to a rather heterogeneous group of industries in eastern and south-central Africa, and perhaps in West Africa also, following the final Acheulian. Its charactertistic artefacts are massive triangular-sectioned picks and coreaxes, together with flake scrapers. Probably the most informative site for an examination of the composition and sequence of Sangoan industries is at Kalambo Falls, Zambia. Well-documented occurrences are also known from river gravel deposits near Dundo in northern Angola. In several regions of Zaire and neighbouring countries the Sangoan appears to mark the first human settlement of the low-lying country now occupied by the equatorial forest. The age of the Sangoan has not been firmly established: it probably lies beyond the accurate range of radiocarbon dating, perhaps as far back as 100,000 to 80,000 bc. The earlier suggestion that the Sangoan tool-kit represents a reaction to a densely wooded environment is not borne out by recent investigations; indeed, the Sangoan may best be attributed to a relatively dry phase when the area of the dense equatorial forests was significantly reduced.