Sangoan

The Sangoan is a prehistoric lithic industry of sub-Saharan Africa, broadly dated to the later part of the Early Stone Age (ESA) and the transition to the Middle Stone Age (MSA), approximately between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago. First identified in the 1920s at Sango Bay in Uganda, the industry is characterized by heavy-duty core tools such as picks, core axes, choppers, and scrapers, often produced on large cobbles or blocks of coarse-grained stone. These minimally shaped tools were likely used for woodworking, digging, or other subsistence tasks.

Archaeological sites associated with the Sangoan have been found across a broad ecological and geographical range, including rainforest, woodland, and savanna environments. This distribution extends from Central and East Africa to parts of southern and possibly northern Africa, with debated evidence even reaching the Mediterranean. The Sangoan is noted for its technological variability, its lack of consistent diagnostic tool types, and the apparent absence of systematic Levallois or blade-based reduction methods.

The classification and definition of the Sangoan remain the subject of ongoing scholarly debate. It is often distinguished more by the absence of certain MSA traits than by clear technological signatures of its own. Its relationship to the contemporaneous Lupemban industry, as well as its position within the broader ESA–MSA transition, continue to be actively investigated. Despite these challenges, the Sangoan remains a key cultural complex in discussions of early human behavioral evolution in Africa.