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Kintampo Complex
The Kintampo complex, also known as the Kintampo culture, Kintampo Neolithic, and Kintampo Tradition, was established by Saharan agropastoralists, who may have been Niger-Congo or Nilo-Saharan speakers and were distinct from the earlier residing Punpun foragers, between 2500 BCE and 1400 BCE. The Kintampo complex was a part of a transitory period in the prehistory of West Africa, from pastoralism to sedentism in West Africa, specifically in the Bono East region of Ghana, eastern Ivory Coast, and Togo. The Kintampo complex also featured art, personal adornment items, polished stone beads, bracelets, and figurines; additionally, stone tools (e.g., hand axes) and structures (e.g., building foundations) were found, which suggests that Kintampo people had both a complex society and were skilled with Later Stone Age technologies.
Watson (2005) states:
Based on excavation and archaeological data from the Sahara, Sahel and southern West Africa, this article proposes a migration model as explanation for the distinctive discontinuity signalled by the appearance of the Kintampo Tradition between 3,600 bp-3,200 bp and the origin of food production in the forest/forested zone, similar to the event envisaged by DAVIES (1966, 1980). Distinctions between the pottery of the Kintampo and indigenous Punpun foragers are a critical element of this argument, as fundamental stylistic and, especially, technological differences observed correspond to social and/or ethnic boundaries documented in ethnoarchaeological studies. Combined with evident similarities in Kintampo material culture and economy with contemporaneous groups in the Sahel, and the lack of any convincing evidence for an indigenous syncretic development within the savanna-forest/forest zone, this strongly suggests the Kintampo was an intrusive population. The Punpun and Kintampo Traditions were two distinct socio-economic groups whose co-occupation of central Ghana signals the meeting of two different' worlds', represented by the 'Saharan derived' agro-pastoralists from the Sahel, who brought with them the values/technologies associated with food production (e.g. social differentiation), which eventually dominated a landscape that had been previously occupied solely by 'southern' hunter-gatherers.
Champion et al. (2022) states:
The cultivation of pearl millet diffused from the desiccating West and Central Sahara into the West African savanna zone after 2500 cal bc, in the context of southwards population movements (Ozainne et al. 2014; Neumann 2018; Fuller et al. 2021). Previously published evidence proposed three main branches of pearl millet diffusion, based on archaeobotanical data (Neumann 2018; Champion 2020; Fuller et al. 2021), but also on recent genetic studies (Oumar et al. 2008; Burgarella et al. 2018) and archaeological data (Ozainne et al. 2009, 2014). The two best documented are a western branch from Tichitt/Mauritania, after 2000 cal bc (Fuller et al. 2007; MacDonald et al. 2009) and a central branch from Tilemsi/Mali, after 2500 cal bc (Manning et al. 2011). Pearl millet cultivation spread quickly throughout the Niger River Basin, from the Tilemsi Valley in Mali to northern Burkina Faso (Tin-Akof, Oursi West) and to the rainforest of Ghana [4. Kintampo B-Sites and 14. Bosumpra Cave] between 2500 and 1000 cal bc (Fig. 8).
Proto-Kintampo Saharan agropastoralists, who were distinct from Punpun foragers, may have been Niger-Congo or Nilo-Saharan speakers.
The people of Kintampo lived in open-air villages composed of rectangular structures made from wattle and daub construction techniques. Some houses used mud and clay, and many were found to have been supported by wooden poles and some had stone foundations made of granite and laterite. Rock shelters were also used as dwellings, especially to the south, near the Atlantic coast. Many settlements were situated along the White Volta river, which flowed north-to-south through Ghana and into the Atlantic Ocean. Other settlements, such as the rock shelters of southwestern Ghana and southeastern Ivory Coast, were also found near the Atlantic coast. They also kept domesticated dogs and goats and cattle.
Numerous types of tools have been excavated at Kintampo, including polished axes crafted from calc-chlorite schist, many types and sizes of grinding stones, small, quartz microlith projectile points of various shapes and styles, and stone celts. A few harpoons have been found, but these are rare.
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Kintampo Complex
The Kintampo complex, also known as the Kintampo culture, Kintampo Neolithic, and Kintampo Tradition, was established by Saharan agropastoralists, who may have been Niger-Congo or Nilo-Saharan speakers and were distinct from the earlier residing Punpun foragers, between 2500 BCE and 1400 BCE. The Kintampo complex was a part of a transitory period in the prehistory of West Africa, from pastoralism to sedentism in West Africa, specifically in the Bono East region of Ghana, eastern Ivory Coast, and Togo. The Kintampo complex also featured art, personal adornment items, polished stone beads, bracelets, and figurines; additionally, stone tools (e.g., hand axes) and structures (e.g., building foundations) were found, which suggests that Kintampo people had both a complex society and were skilled with Later Stone Age technologies.
Watson (2005) states:
Based on excavation and archaeological data from the Sahara, Sahel and southern West Africa, this article proposes a migration model as explanation for the distinctive discontinuity signalled by the appearance of the Kintampo Tradition between 3,600 bp-3,200 bp and the origin of food production in the forest/forested zone, similar to the event envisaged by DAVIES (1966, 1980). Distinctions between the pottery of the Kintampo and indigenous Punpun foragers are a critical element of this argument, as fundamental stylistic and, especially, technological differences observed correspond to social and/or ethnic boundaries documented in ethnoarchaeological studies. Combined with evident similarities in Kintampo material culture and economy with contemporaneous groups in the Sahel, and the lack of any convincing evidence for an indigenous syncretic development within the savanna-forest/forest zone, this strongly suggests the Kintampo was an intrusive population. The Punpun and Kintampo Traditions were two distinct socio-economic groups whose co-occupation of central Ghana signals the meeting of two different' worlds', represented by the 'Saharan derived' agro-pastoralists from the Sahel, who brought with them the values/technologies associated with food production (e.g. social differentiation), which eventually dominated a landscape that had been previously occupied solely by 'southern' hunter-gatherers.
Champion et al. (2022) states:
The cultivation of pearl millet diffused from the desiccating West and Central Sahara into the West African savanna zone after 2500 cal bc, in the context of southwards population movements (Ozainne et al. 2014; Neumann 2018; Fuller et al. 2021). Previously published evidence proposed three main branches of pearl millet diffusion, based on archaeobotanical data (Neumann 2018; Champion 2020; Fuller et al. 2021), but also on recent genetic studies (Oumar et al. 2008; Burgarella et al. 2018) and archaeological data (Ozainne et al. 2009, 2014). The two best documented are a western branch from Tichitt/Mauritania, after 2000 cal bc (Fuller et al. 2007; MacDonald et al. 2009) and a central branch from Tilemsi/Mali, after 2500 cal bc (Manning et al. 2011). Pearl millet cultivation spread quickly throughout the Niger River Basin, from the Tilemsi Valley in Mali to northern Burkina Faso (Tin-Akof, Oursi West) and to the rainforest of Ghana [4. Kintampo B-Sites and 14. Bosumpra Cave] between 2500 and 1000 cal bc (Fig. 8).
Proto-Kintampo Saharan agropastoralists, who were distinct from Punpun foragers, may have been Niger-Congo or Nilo-Saharan speakers.
The people of Kintampo lived in open-air villages composed of rectangular structures made from wattle and daub construction techniques. Some houses used mud and clay, and many were found to have been supported by wooden poles and some had stone foundations made of granite and laterite. Rock shelters were also used as dwellings, especially to the south, near the Atlantic coast. Many settlements were situated along the White Volta river, which flowed north-to-south through Ghana and into the Atlantic Ocean. Other settlements, such as the rock shelters of southwestern Ghana and southeastern Ivory Coast, were also found near the Atlantic coast. They also kept domesticated dogs and goats and cattle.
Numerous types of tools have been excavated at Kintampo, including polished axes crafted from calc-chlorite schist, many types and sizes of grinding stones, small, quartz microlith projectile points of various shapes and styles, and stone celts. A few harpoons have been found, but these are rare.