Late Stone Age Assemblages around the Ndali Crater Lakes of the Uganda Western Albertine Rift

Abstract

This dissertation investigates Late Stone Age (LSA) lithic assemblages from the Ndali Crater Lakes region of the western Albertine Rift, Uganda, with the aim of reconstructing technological organization, settlement strategies, and cultural interaction during the Holocene. While previous scholarship in the region has largely emphasized state formation processes, little attention has been given to lithic technologies. This study, therefore, fills a critical gap by situating lithic production and use within broader socioecological transformations from the late first millennium BCE to the mid-second millennium CE.

Archaeological investigations at RU-1 and KA-3 reveal complex occupational sequences that encompass Kansyore and Boudiné ceramic traditions, alongside lithic assemblages with both LSA and Middle Stone Age (MSA)-like characteristics. These include radial cores, bifacial points, Levallois reduction strategies, and patterned platform technologies, indicating technological continuity rather than abrupt replacement. Radiocarbon dates further demonstrate overlapping occupations and episodic site use, with RU-1 yielding evidence of preceramic horizons that challenge conventional MSA–LSA typologies.

The analysis highlights adaptive responses to environmental and social contexts, as evidenced by raw material procurement strategies. Toolmakers employed both local resources— such as gneiss and quartz—and non-local chert, suggesting mobility, exchange, and selective choices in technological organization. Recycling practices, where flakes were repurposed into cores or incorporated into composite tools, reflect dynamic strategies of conservation and innovation. At KA-3, faunal remains associated with Kansyore and Boudiné ceramics, including bush pig and giant forest hog, provide further insights into subsistence, revealing a mixed economy that combined foraging with early agricultural practices.

Taken together, the findings argue for a model of technological persistence and cultural hybridity in the Holocene Albertine Rift. Rather than a linear succession of 'stone age' industries, the evidence demonstrates that technological traits often considered diagnostic of the MSA persisted deep into the LSA, adapted and recontextualised within evolving social and economic frameworks. The co-occurrence of diverse lithic technologies, ceramic traditions, and subsistence strategies underscores a long-term trajectory of interaction, continuity, and innovation. This dissertation thus contributes to broader debates in African archaeology on the fluidity of technological traditions, the entanglement of foragers and farmers, and the resilience of cultural practices in dynamic landscapes.