The Wilton culture is the name given by archaeologists to an archaeological culture which was common to parts of south and east Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 around six thousand years ago.

It was first described by John Hewitt

John Hewitt (herpetologist)

John Hewitt was a South African zoologist and archaeologist of British origin. He was born in Dronfield nearby Sheffield, England, and died in Grahamstown, South Africa. He was the author of several herpetological papers which described new species.He graduated with a first-class in natural...

 after he excavated with the collaboration of C. W. Wilmot a cave on the farm Wilton.

Occupation sites include that at Kalambo Falls

Kalambo Falls

Kalambo Falls on the Kalambo River is a 772ft single drop waterfall on the border of Zambia and Tanzania at the southeast end of Lake Tanganyika. The falls are some of the tallest uninterrupted falls in Africa...

 and the valley of Twyfelfontein

Twyfelfontein

Twyfelfontein , officially known as ǀUi-ǁAis , is a site of ancient rock engravings in the Kunene Region of north-western Namibia...

.

Wilton culture is broadly analogous to the European mesolithic

Mesolithic

The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....

 and microlith

Microlith

A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. It is produced from either a small blade or a larger blade-like piece of flint by abrupt or truncated retouching, which leaves a very typical piece of waste,...

s are a common artefact

Artifact (archaeology)

An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...

 type. Later examples of the culture however indicate usage of iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

.