Keywords:
FOSSIL FISH, EARLY HOMINIDS, WESTERN RIFT VALLEY, LATE CENOZOIC, AFRICAN ARCHAEOLOGYAbstract
In the mid-1980s, excavations were conducted at the archaeological site of Senga 5a, located along the Semliki River in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). The site had attracted interest after initial survey and excavation because of its Oldowanappearing lithics and Plio-Pleistocene-aged fauna. In the final season of the Senga 5a excavations, the site geologists concluded that Senga 5a was not formed in situ in the Pliocene, but had been redeposited by the Holocene-aged Semliki River. However, conflicting with this interpretation was a large vertebrate fauna, primarily fish, in the eastern section of the site, which appeared to be a coherent Pliocene-aged fauna, associated with Pliocene artifacts. In this paper, the author compares the taxonomic composition of the Senga 5a fauna with that of other fish faunas from the Upper Semliki River and Lake Edward, ranging in age from Pliocene to Holocene. The resulting analysis indicates the Senga 5a fish fauna is a cohesive Middle to Late Pliocene-aged fauna, with no later intrusive fish. Further investigation of the geology and the invertebrate and vertebrate faunas as well as the artifacts is needed to develop a site formation history of Senga 5a that is consistent with all of the evidence.