TUKUL 1: African Prehistory
Modjo
The site
The lithic industry was collected on the surface, in the area between Adama, Modjo, Addas and Akaki along the terraces of the Modjo river, just before the beginning of World War II, by the italian soldier Della Spora, volunteer of the Divisione Tevere in East Africa. The artifacts were sent by Della Spora to A.C. Blanc, who published a first note on the Rivista di Antropologia in 1938. |
 Location of Modjo site |
Lithic industry
Besides the few artifacts collected on the actual banks of the Modjo river, most of the lithic assemblage comes from the different alluvial terraces of the same river. Some artifacts were found in situ within the yellow-reddish clay that covers the surface of the terraces. The assemblage includes more than a thousand obsidian artifacts showing different patina and are therefore probably referable to various chronological periods between the Middle and the Late Stone Age. |
 Middle Stone Age tools |
 Late Stone Age tools |
| Besides Mousterian artifacts, characterized by flakes, which have been sometimes retouched as side-scrapers and points, Upper Palaeolithic types are present (end-scrapers, burins, etc.): within the group of less patinated artifacts, they are associated to geometric microlithic arrowheads. | ||
 Late Stone Age tools |
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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Berthelet, G. M. Bulgarelli, J. Chavaillon, M. Piperno (eds) 2001, Melka Kunture. The Guide, Finiguerra Arti Grafiche, Lavello, Potenza.
Blanc A.C. 1938, Industria paleolitica e mesolitica del Moggio, presso Addis-Abeba, Rivista di Antropologia, XXXII, pp. 297-301.