Abstract

The Maadaga rock shelter is located in the Gobnangou massif, in the south-east of Burkina Faso. At the end of the 1980s, a multidisciplinary team from the University of Frankfurt carried out excavations there which made it possible to identify five stratigraphic levels covering the (0/−190cm) grid. The remains of the transition between the level 4 and level 5 as well as those of the level 5 (−100/−190cm), studied by the authors of the excavations showed two techno-cultural complexes characteristic of the Middle Stone Age. As part of our doctoral thesis, we conducted a techno-morphological study of the lithic artefacts of the four remaining levels and which cover the (0/−100cm) stratigraphic framework. We were thus able to identify three others homogeneous techno-cultural complexes. In the context of this reflection, we have chosen to dwell on the layers presenting the best stratigraphic integrity (−50/−100cm) according to the authors of the excavations. It covers the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene. Put in parallel with the sequence (−100/−190cm) previously studied, it reveals that with the exception of the behavioural variabilities observed in the use of raw materials as well as in certain debitage purposes, the sequence (−50/−100cm) presents the same characteristics in the use of techniques and methods.

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