Le core-axe, un outil tropical à redéfinir : nouvelles données des collections Middle Stone Age de Nzako, République centrafricaine

Abstract

In the lithic typology of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of Central Africa, an emblematic piece is often found within the assemblages. These are tools obtained by shaping and characterized by the presence of two parallel to subparallel edges that have been named by many authors by the term of core-axes, a denomination that refers, by the process of ethnographic parallelism, to the axe and adze types, without having clearly proven that such an interpretation is possible. These core-axes are considered to be hallmarks of the Sangoan and Lupemban, two facies of the Central African MSA, but whose lithic assemblages remain mostly poorly contextualized and/or incomplete. These core-axes are particularly interesting because they have led to several hypotheses on the emergence of hafting, adaptation to rainforest environments, woodworking and digging during the Middle Stone Age, a key period for the emergence and development of Homo sapiens in Africa. Nevertheless, core-axes are still poorly defined in terms of production, techno-function and morphometry. To remedy this, we chose the core-axes of Nzako Ambilo and Nzako Kono, two Central African sites. These collections are kept at the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine in Paris. Through a productional and techno-functional study, the revision of these core-axes will allow us to observe a significant variability of the intra-assemblage technical variability. This variability suggests that these tools are much complex than initially suggested by prehistorians. This approach will lead us to new ideas on the use and hafting possibilities of these shaped tools characterized by parallel edges and which are typical of the Stone Age of Central Africa.