ABSTRACT
Some twenty-five years have passed since Oliver Davies first defined the Kintampo ‘Neolithic’ (Davies 1962). In the ensuing years numerous sites have been explored, and the parameters of the Kintampo complex are reasonably well-known (see Anquandah, Ch. 13, this volume). In many respects, however, our knowledge of the Kintampo complex represents an oasis in a desert of archaeological time and space; we know little of its antecedents, less of contemporaneous complexes, and virtually nothing of its legacy. Whereas past treatments of the Kintampo complex have been site-specific, the goal of this chapter is to adopt a somewhat broader perspective, considering the Kintampo complex in time and space. By orienting our oasis within what we know of the desert, new perspectives on the Kintampo complex may emerge. The aim is not to provide definitive scenarios; rather, it is to explore the larger implications of certain features of the Kintampo complex with the hope of highlighting areas for future research.
