Reinvestigation of Kintampo 6 rock shelter, Ghana: implications for the nature of culture change

Abstract

The excavations of 1982 at Kintampo rock shelter no. 6 are described and the results correlated with those of Flight (1976). The sequence demonstrates an overlap between the Punpun and Kintampo culture ceramic traditions and a progressive introduction of diagnostically Kintampo traits. Decreasing residential mobility is also indicated. Analysis of the organic remains, while casting doubt on earlier identifications of domesticBos and cultivated cowpea, suggests progressive clearing of the forest such as would have occurred with horticulture and the confirmed herding of an ovicaprid. Earlier interpretations of Kintampo culture origins are reviewed in the light of the new evidence and all available radiocarbon dates, and it is tentatively concluded that the culture emerged in central Ghana through coalescence of autochthonous and northern elements.