This article is a report of an archaeological investigation of the Laloi East Molluscs Site at Kpone, Greater Accra Region, Ghana. Although radiometric dates for this shell midden are currently unavailable, we believe that Laloi East dates to the Later Stone Age. If so, this site would be one of only two LSA sites in Ghana found and excavated along the coast rather than in the forested interior. This article examines shellfish exploitation and other major subsistence strategies of the population that settled the site in the past. The principal cultural materials recovered from the excavations comprised large quantities of molluscs’ remains belonging to a variety of species, other faunal remains, pottery, palm kernel nuts, charcoal, stone slabs, and lithic tools. The combined evidence indicates that molluscs’ exploitation was the principal subsistence strategy of the settlers, undertaken alongside hunting, trapping, herding and the gathering of edible botanical resources such as palm fruits.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Agorsah, E. K. 1986. Material characterization of “Kintampo Cigars”. Nyame Akuma 27, 6–9.
Anquandah, J. 1976. Boyase Hill: A Kintampo “Neolithic” village site in the forest of Ghana. Sankofa 2, 92.
Anquandah, J. 1982. Rediscovering Ghana’s Past. Longman Group, London.
Anquandah, J. 1987. Accra Plains Dangme-land – a study on ethnoarchaeology and Iron Age sites. Nyame Akuma 21, 27–34.
Anquandah, J. 1993. The Kintampo Complex: a case study of early sedentism and food production in sub-Sahelian West Africa. In: Shaw, T., Sinclair, P., Anda, B., & Okpoko, A. (Eds.) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. Routledge, London, pp. 253–260.
Anquandah, J. 1996. Accra Plains Dangmeland: a case study in the eclectic approach to archaeological and historical studies. FASS Bulletin, 22−48.
Biveridge, F. 1988. An Ethnographic and Historical Study of Molluscs Exploitation along the Kpone Coastland and its Significance to Archaeology. Unpublished BA thesis, University of Ghana, Legon.
Biveridge, F. 2005. An Archaeological Investigation of the Kpone Coastline and its implications for Understanding the Coastal Dangme. Unpublished M.Phil. thesis, University of Ghana, Legon.
Biveridge, F. 2014. A Historical Archaeology Perspective of Cross-Cultural Encounters at Dixcove and its Neighbourhoods, Ghana. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Ghana, Legon.
Boahen, A. 1980. Topics in West African History. Longman Group, London.
Carter, P. L. & Flight, C. 1972. A report on the fauna from the sites of Ntereso and Kintampo Rock Shelter Six in Ghana with evidence for the practice of animal husbandry during the second millennium B.C. Man 7(2), 277–282.
Casey, J. 2013. “The Stone to Metal Age in West Africa.” The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology. July 4, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199569885.013.0041.
Davies, O. 1962. Neolithic cultures of Ghana. In: Mortelmas, G. & Nenqquin, J. (eds), Actes du IVe Congres Panafricain de Prehistorie et L’Etude du Quaternaire (1959). Tervuren: Musee Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, pp. 291–302.
DeCorse, C. 2001. An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400–1900. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
Dombrowski, J. 1977a. Preliminary notes on excavations at a shell midden near Tema, Ghana. Nyame Akuma 10, 31–34.
Dombrowski, J. 1977b. First dates from the Coastal site near Kpone. Nyame Akuma 11, 29–30.
Edmunds, J. 1978. Sea Shells and other Molluscs Found on the West Africa Coast and Estuaries. Ghana Universities Press, Accra.
Flight, C. 1967. Prehistoric sequence in the Kintampo area of Ghana. In: Hugot, H. J. (ed.) Actes de 6 Session, Congres Panafrican de Prehistoire. Les Imprimeries Reunies de Chambery, Chambery, pp. 68–69.
Gautier, A. & Van Neer, W. 2005. The continuous exploitation of wild animal resources in the archaeozoological record of Ghana. Journal of African Archaeology 3(2), 195–212.
Logan, A. L. & D’Andrea, A. C. 2012. Oil palm arboriculture and changing subsistence practices during Kintampo times (3600–3200 BP, Ghana). Quaternary International 249, 63–71.
Marley, J. 1991. The African rainforest vegetation and paleo-environments during the late Quaternary. Climate Change 19(1), 79–98.
Nygaard, S. E. & Talbot, M. R. 1984. Stone Age archaeology and environment on the Southern Accra Plains, Ghana. Norwegian Archaeological Review 17, 19−39.
Oas, S. E., D’Andrea, A. C. & Watson, D. J. 2015. 10,000-year history of plant use at Bosumpra Cave, Ghana. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 24(5), 635–653.
Reindorf, C. C. 1966. The History of the Gold Coast and Ashantee. Ghana Universities Press, Accra.
Rodney, W. 2018. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Howard University Press, Washington D.C.
Scerri, E. M. L. 2017. The North African Middle Stone Age and its place in recent human evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology 26(3), 119−135.
Shaw, T. 1978. Holocene adaptations in West Africa: the Late Stone Age. Early Man News: Newsletter for Human Paleoecology 3(4), 51–82.
Shaw, T. 1985. The Prehistory of West Africa. In: Ajayi, J. F. A. & Crowder, M. (eds.), History of West Africa, Volume 1. Longman, New York, pp. 48–86.
Shanahan, T. M., Overpeck, J. T., Wheeler, R. W., Beck, J., Jefferey, W., Pigati, J. S., Talbot, R. M., Scholze, C. A., Peck, J. & King, J. W. 2006. Paleoclimatic variations in West Africa from a record of late Pliocene and Holocene lake level stands of Lake Bosomtwi, Ghana. Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology and Paleoecology 242(3–4), 287–302.
Stahl, A. B. 1985. Reinvestigation of Kintampo 6 rock shelter, Ghana: implications for the nature of culture change. African Archaeological Review 3(1), 117–150.
Talbot, M. R. 1981. Holocene changes in tropical wind intensity and rainfall: evidence from Southeast Ghana. Quaternary Research 16(2), 201−220.
Talbot, M., Livingstone, D. A., Parker, P. G., Marley, J., Melack, J. M., Delibrais, G. & Guilliksen, S. 1984. Preliminary results from sediment cores from Lake Bosomtwi, Ghana. Paleoecology of Africa, 173–192.
Watson, D. 2005. Under the rocks: reconsidering the origin of the Kintampo tradition and the development of food production in the savanna-forest of West Africa. Journal of African Archaeology 3(1), 3–55.
Watson, D. 2008. The Late Stone Age in Ghana: the re-excavation of Bosumpra Cave in context. In: Timothy Insoll (ed.), Current Archaeological Research in Ghana, Ghana BAR International Series 1847. Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 137–149.
Watson, D. 2010. Within savanna and forest: a review of the Late Stone Age Kintampo Tradition, Ghana. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 45(2), 141–174.
White, T. & Folkens, P. 2005. The Human Bone Manual. Elsevier Academic Press, London.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 206 | 177 | 8 |
Full Text Views | 7 | 6 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 14 | 11 | 0 |
This article is a report of an archaeological investigation of the Laloi East Molluscs Site at Kpone, Greater Accra Region, Ghana. Although radiometric dates for this shell midden are currently unavailable, we believe that Laloi East dates to the Later Stone Age. If so, this site would be one of only two LSA sites in Ghana found and excavated along the coast rather than in the forested interior. This article examines shellfish exploitation and other major subsistence strategies of the population that settled the site in the past. The principal cultural materials recovered from the excavations comprised large quantities of molluscs’ remains belonging to a variety of species, other faunal remains, pottery, palm kernel nuts, charcoal, stone slabs, and lithic tools. The combined evidence indicates that molluscs’ exploitation was the principal subsistence strategy of the settlers, undertaken alongside hunting, trapping, herding and the gathering of edible botanical resources such as palm fruits.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 206 | 177 | 8 |
Full Text Views | 7 | 6 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 14 | 11 | 0 |