Phytoliths from archaeological sites in the tropical forest of Ituri, democratic Republic of Congo

Phytoliths record late Quaternary vegetation at three archaeological sites in the Ituri rain forest. The oldest deposits, dated to ca. 19,000 to 10,000 14C yr B.P., contain abundant phytoliths of grasses but also enough arboreal forms to show that the landscape was forested. The late-glacial forests may have had a more open canopy than today's. Younger phytolith assemblages show that the northeast Congo basin was densely forested throughout the Holocene. Archaeological materials among the phytoliths show that people lived in this region during the Pleistocene. Therefore, Pleistocene and Holocene prehistoric foragers probably inhabited tropical forests of the northeast Congo basin many millennia before farming appeared in the region. (C) 2000 University of Washington.