Semliki harpoon
The Semliki harpoon, also known as the Katanda harpoon, refers to a group of complex barbed harpoon heads carved from bone, which were found at an archaeologic site on the Semliki River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire); the artifacts date back approximately 90,000 years.{{cite journal |title=A middle stone age worked bone industry from Katanda, Upper Semliki Valley, Zaire |date=28 April 1995 |last=Yellen |first=JE |author2=AS Brooks |author3=E Cornelissen |author4=MJ Mehlman |author5=K Stewart |journal=Science |volume=268 |pages=553–556 |issue=5210 |doi=10.1126/science.7725100 |pmid=7725100|bibcode=1995Sci...268..553Y }}{{Cite web|title=Katanda Bone Harpoon Point|url=http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/getting-food/katanda-bone-harpoon-point|publisher=Smithsonian Museum: What does it mean to be human?|accessdate=Oct 8, 2016}} The initial discovery of the first harpoon head was made in 1988. When the artifact was dated to 88,000 BCE, there was skepticism within the archaeological community about the accuracy of the stated age; in that the object seemed too advanced for human cultures of that era. However, the site has yielded multiple other examples of similar harpoons, and the dates have been confirmed.
It seemed to substantiate that fishing and an "aquatic civilization" was likely in the region across eastern and northern Africa during the wetter climatic conditions of the early to mid-Holocene, as shown by other evidence at the lakeshore site of Ishango.{{cite journal|title=Ishango revisited: new age determinations and cultural interpretations|date=December 1987|doi=10.1007/BF01117083|volume=5|issue=1|journal=The African Archaeological Review|pages=65–78|last1=Brooks|first1=Alison S.|last2=Smith|first2=Catherine C.|s2cid=129091602}}
The site is littered with catfish bones and the harpoons are the correct size to catch adult catfish, so investigators suspect the fisherman came to the site every year "to catch giant catfish."{{cite web|url=http://discovermagazine.com/1995/aug/theslowcrawlforw555|title=The Slow Crawl Forward|publisher=Discover Magazine|date=August 1, 1995}}
It is unlikely that the harpoons are much different from those used today (see reference for photos).{{cite web|url=http://taos-telecommunity.org/EPOW/EPOW-Archive/archive_2008/EPOW-080609.htm|title=Harpoon Fishing in the Congo|publisher=EPOW|date=June 2008}}
The archaeologic site coincides with the range of the Efé Pygmies, which have been shown by mitochondrial DNA analyses to be of extremely ancient and distinct lineage.