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West Central African Peoples: Survey of Radiocarbon Dates over the Past 5000 Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Richard Oslisly ,
Ilham Bentaleb ,
Charly Favier ,
Michel Fontugne ,
Jean François Gillet  and
Julie Morin-Rivat
Richard Oslisly*
Affiliation:
IRD, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UMR 208-IRD/MNHN, Patrimoines locaux, Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux, BP 20379 Libreville, Gabon
Ilham Bentaleb
Affiliation:
Université de Montpellier 2, CNRS, ISEM, Place Eugene Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, France
Charly Favier
Affiliation:
Université de Montpellier 2, CNRS, ISEM, Place Eugene Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier, France
Michel Fontugne
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR 8212 CNRS CEA/UVSQ Domaine du CNRS, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Jean François Gillet
Affiliation:
Université de Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Laboratoire de Foresterie des Régions tropicales et subtropicales, Passage des Déportés 2, B-5030 Gembloux, Belgium
Julie Morin-Rivat
Affiliation:
Université de Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Laboratoire de Foresterie des Régions tropicales et subtropicales, Passage des Déportés 2, B-5030 Gembloux, Belgium
*
2Corresponding author. Email: richard.oslisly@ird.fr.
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Abstract

Tracing human history in west central Africa suffers from a scarcity of historical data and archaeological remains. In order to provide new insight into this problem, we reviewed 733 radiocarbon dates of archaeological sites from the end of the Late Stone Age, Neolithic Stage, and Early and Late Iron Age in Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, and the western Democratic Republic of Congo. This review provides a spatiotemporal framework of human settlement in the forest biome. Beyond the well-known initial spread of Iron Age populations through central African forests from 2500 cal BP, it depicts the geographical patterns and links with the cultural evolution of the successive phases of human expansion from 5000 to 3000 cal BP and then from 3000 to 1600 cal BP, of the hinterland depopulation from 1350 to 860 cal BP, and of recolonization up to 500 cal BP.

Type
Archaeology of Eurasia and Africa
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 55 , Issue 3: Proceedings of the 21st International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 2 of 2) , 2013 , pp. 1377 - 1382
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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