During the warmer Holocene Period, two major climatic crises affected the Central African rainforests. The first crisis, around 4000 cal yr BP, caused the contraction of the forest in favor of savanna expansion at its northern and southern periphery. The second crisis, around 2500 cal yr BP, resulted in major perturbation at the forest core, leading to forest disturbance and fragmentation with a rapid expansion of pioneer-type vegetation, and a marked erosional phase. The major driver of these two climatic crises appears to be rapid sea-surface temperature variations in the equatorial eastern Atlantic, which modified the regional atmospheric circulation. The change between ca. 2500 to 2000 cal yr BP led to a large increase in thunderstorm activity, which explains the phase of forest fragmentation. Ultimately, climatic data obtained recently show that the present-day major rise in thunderstorms and lightning activity in Central Africa could result from some kind of solar influence, and hence the phase of forest fragmentation between ca. 2500 to 2000 cal yr BP may provide a model for the present-day global warming-related environmental changes in this region.
In 2015 the KongoKing research project team excavated the Bu, Kindu and Mantsetsi sites situated in the Kongo-Central Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). All are part of the Kay Ladio Group. This is the first detailed publication on this cultural group, to which no contemporary ones can currently be linked, either from the Atlantic coast of Congo-Brazzaville or from along the Congo River and its tributaries upstream of Kinshasa. Dated to between cal. AD 30 and 475, these settlements mark the presence of what are so far the oldest known iron-producing communities south of the Central African equatorial forest. Evidence for metallurgy is associated with remants of polished stone axes, which were perhaps being used for ritual purposes by this point in time. The charcoal remains found at the sites indicate a savanna environment that was more wooded in Kindu and Mantsetsi than in Bu. RÉSUMÉL'équipe du projet de recherches KongoKing a fouillé en 2015 les sites de Bu, Kindu et Mantsetsi situés dans la Province du Kongo-Central de la République Démocratique du Congo (RDC). Tous représentent la culture dite 'Kay Ladio'. Le présent article est la première étude détaillée publiée sur cet ensemble culturel auquel ne peut être relié aucun des groupes culturels contemporains connus à ce jour sur le littoral Atlantique du Congo ou en RDC en amont de Kinshasa autour du fleuve Congo et de ses affluents. Datés entre cal. 30 et 475 ap. J.-C., ces anciens villages marquent la présence des plus anciennes communautés métallurgistes au sud de la forêt équatoriale de l'Afrique Centrale. Les preuves pour la métallurgie y sont associées aux restes de haches polies, peut-être utilisées pour des raisons rituelles à cette époque. L'identification des charbons de bois trouvés dans ces sites indique un milieu de savane qui était plus boisé à Kindu et Mantsetsi qu'à Bu.
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