Hunter-gatherers of the high-altitude Afromontane forest – the Holocene occupation of Mount Dendi, Ethiopia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Dendi Lake Rockshelter is situated about 100 km west of Addis Ababa on the west-central part of the Ethiopian Plateau in the Ginchi woreda of Ethiopia’s Oromiya regional state. In October 2012, a team from the University of Cologne excavated a test-trench that revealed four archaeological complexes that could clearly be distinguished on a typological basis as well as by radiocarbon dates. This article focuses on the lithic artefacts recovered from the excavation and specifically the microliths that are one of the main characteristics of the Later Stone Age. Their high variability in this assemblage is a common feature of contemporaneous sites in the Horn of Africa. The rockshelter is situated in a high-altitude Afromontane forest and was most probably used for short-term stays by groups of hunters.