« Boyekoli Ebale Congo 2010 » (RDC) Archaeological Survey along the Congo River.

The Boyekoli Ebale Congo 2010 expedition was organised from April 26 to June 26 2010 by a consortium consisting of the Royal Museum for Central Africa (B), the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, the Belgian National Botanical Garden and the University of Kisangani (DRC). The general aim of the expedition was to collect recent data on the biodiversity along the Congo River and its tributaries, and to establish a reference collection for the new Centre for the Study of Biodiversity in Kisangani. The expedition also included two archaeologists and a palaeobotanist. We intended to collect data on the cultural and natural history of the river banks in order to add a historical perspective to the assessment of the biodiversity. Also, the upper part of the Congo River around Kisangani has never been the object of extensive archaeological surveys or excavations. In this paper, we report on the methods and preliminary results of this fieldwork.