an archaeological culture of the late Stone Age, widespread in southern and eastern Africa. Named after a cliff found on the Wilton farm in Cape Province, Republic of South Africa, west of the city of Grahamstown.
In several areas the Wilton culture was replaced by the Neolithic with polished stone axes, but in most regions it existed up to modern times (in a number of regions, stone weapons of the Wilton type were preserved until the 19th century), when along with stone, iron weapons came into use. (For instance, in the region of the upper reaches of the Orange River, the smelting of iron appeared in the beginning of the 13th century.) Miniature stone weapons (microlites) of geometric outline—segments, trapeziums, and rounded scrapers (connected to the development of compound weapons with stone insets)—bored stone hoops, arrowheads of stone and bone, clay vessels, and beads made from ostrich egg shells were characteristic of Wilton. The people of the Wilton culture lived in caves and in the open and practiced hunting. Agriculture and domestic animals were absent.
P. I. BORISKOVSKII