The histories of African crops remain poorly understood despite their contemporary importance. In... more The histories of African crops remain poorly understood despite their contemporary importance. Integration of crops from western, eastern and northern Africa probably first occurred in the Great Lakes Region of eastern Africa; however, little is known about when and how these agricultural systems coalesced. This article presents archaeobotanical analyses from an approximately 9000-year archaeological sequence at Kakapel Rockshelter in western Kenya, comprising the largest and most extensively dated archaeobotanical record from the interior of equatorial eastern Africa. Direct radiocarbon dates on carbonized seeds document the presence of the West African crop cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) approximately 2300 years ago, synchronic with the earliest date for domesticated cattle (Bos taurus). Peas (Pisum sativum L. or Pisum abyssinicum A. Braun) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) from the northeast and eastern African finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) are incorporated later, by at least 1000 years ago. Combined with ancient DNA evidence from Kakapel and the surrounding region, these data support a scenario in which the use of diverse domesticated species in eastern Africa changed over time rather than arriving and being maintained as a single package. Findings highlight the importance of local heterogeneity in shaping the spread of food production in sub-Saharan Africa
Eastern Africa hosts the longest record of human evolutionary and cultural change on the planet. ... more Eastern Africa hosts the longest record of human evolutionary and cultural change on the planet. Archaeological sites across what are today Kenya and Tanzania preserve evidence for the emergence of bipedal hominins, our ancestors’ earliest experiments with stone tools, technological and social innovations, and expansions of diverse forms of food production. Here, we present a synthesis of recent advances in geochemical methodologies, source identifications, and applied sourcing studies that have enhanced our understanding of human-obsidian relationships across the volcanic landscapes of Kenya and Tanzania over the last two million year
The Holocene of eastern Africa saw extreme climatic fluctuations between hyper-humid and arid con... more The Holocene of eastern Africa saw extreme climatic fluctuations between hyper-humid and arid conditions, which manifested differently across the region's lake basins, coastal ecotones, and terrestrial biomes. Changes to resource availability, distribution, and predictability presented different constraints and opportunities to diverse hunter-gatherer communities. Major ongoing questions concern how humans reconfigured economic, social, and technological strategies in different regional settings. The role of more stable coastal environments in these processes remains especially under-studied. Here, we examine and compare relationships between environmental change and the organization of stone tool technology at the site of Panga ya Saidi Cave, eastern Kenya, in strata dating from c. 15-0.2 ka. Located near the Indian Ocean coast, this dataset provides the first insights into Holocene human-environmental relationships in a coastal forest zone of eastern Africa. Integrating the new Panga ya Saidi environmental and archaeological records with other high-resolution records from nearby terrestrial and lacustrine zones, we take a comparative approach to address how climatic fluctuations shaped trajectories of hunter-gatherer adaptations through the Holocene. We argue that lithic technologies deployed within lake basins and coastal zones reflect more stable land-use strategies with less residential mobility compared to those associated with terrestrial foraging. All regions exhibit technological reconfigurations with the arrival of pastoralism, except for the coastal forest which appear largely consistent across the study period. Results inform ongoing debates into the resilience of recent eastern African huntergatherers and food-producers and provide an analogical framework for examining humanenvironmental dynamics deeper in time.
Novel trajectories of food production, urbanism, and interregional trade fueled the emergence of ... more Novel trajectories of food production, urbanism, and interregional trade fueled the emergence of numerous complex Iron Age polities in central and southern Africa. Renewed research and re-dating efforts in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and along the Swahili Coast are transforming models for how interregional interaction spheres contributed to these patterns. While societies in present-day Zambia played an important role in the trade of copper, ivory, gold, and other resources between central and southern Africa, little is known about lifeways during the rise of social complexity in this region. This paper reports the results of re-excavation at Kalundu Mound on the Batoka Plateau of southern Zambia, one of the iconic mound sites of the Iron Age "Kalomo Culture." New radiocarbon dates were combined with the original dates in a series of Bayesian models, indicating that previous Afr Archaeol Rev
Eleusine coracana (finger millet) is a nutritious and easily storable grain that can be grown in ... more Eleusine coracana (finger millet) is a nutritious and easily storable grain that can be grown in unfavourable environments and is important to the food security of millions of farmers in Africa and South Asia. Despite its importance and promise as a sustainable crop for smallholders in the Global South, its history remains poorly understood. Eleusine coracana has only rarely been recovered from archaeological sites in the region of Africa where it was domesticated and never in quantities large enough to study its evolution under cultivation. Here we report on a large assemblage of Iron Age (ca. 900-700 cal bp) E. coracana grains recovered from Kakapel rock shelter in western Kenya. We also carried out carbonization experiments on modern grains in order to directly compare these archaeological specimens to extant landraces. We found that finger millet is only well preserved when carbonized at temperatures lower than 220 °C, which may contribute to its scarcity in the archaeological record. Eleusine coracana shrinks but does not significantly change shape when carbonized. When corrected for the effects of carbonization, the E. coracana grown by Iron Age farmers at Kakapel was smaller grained than modern landraces, but is nonetheless identifiable as domesticated on the basis of grain shape and surface texture. A comparison with other Iron Age E. coracana reveals considerable variation in the grain size of landraces cultivated during this era. This is the largest quantitative morphometric analysis of E. coracana grains ever conducted, and provides a basis for the interpretation of other archaeological populations. This assemblage is also the first evidence for E. coracana cultivation in western Kenya, a biodiversity hotspot for landraces of this crop today.
Mobile pastoralism is the earliest form of food production to develop in Africa, and for the past... more Mobile pastoralism is the earliest form of food production to develop in Africa, and for the past 5000 years has remained one of the most important subsistence strategies for people across the continent. Despite its importance , the technological infrastructures that facilitated the successful spread of stone-tool-using pastoralists through environmentally heterogenous and climatically unpredictable regions remain poorly understood. This study provides comprehensive analyses of the lithic technological organization of early herders in southern Kenya responsible for the distinct "Elmenteitan" material traditions. Quantitative data on blade production strategies from thirteen Elmenteitan sites demonstrate that this group represents the emergence of new technological strategies based on participation in long-distance obsidian exchange networks, and flexible and versatile blade blank production. Elmenteitan lithic technological patterns are interpreted in terms of preparation for different configurations of local and regional mobility, which helped early herders manage environmental unpredictability in eastern Africa. These data provide a foundation for future study of the role of lithic technologies in pastoralist economies and contribute a case study from mobile food-producer contexts to global debates on the organization of stone tool economies.
Africa hosts the greatest human genetic diversity globally, but legacies of ancient population in... more Africa hosts the greatest human genetic diversity globally, but legacies of ancient population interactions and dispersals across the continent remain understudied. Here, we report genome-wide data from 20 ancient sub-Saharan African individuals, including the first reported ancient DNA from the DRC, Uganda, and Botswana. These data demonstrate the contraction of diverse, once contiguous hunter-gatherer populations, and suggest the resistance to interaction with incoming pastoralists of delayed-return foragers in aquatic environments. We refine models for the spread of food producers into eastern and southern Africa, demonstrating more complex trajectories of admixture than previously suggested. In Botswana, we show that Bantu ancestry post-dates admixture between pastoralists and foragers, suggesting an earlier spread of pastoralism than farming to southern Africa. Our findings demonstrate how processes of migration and admixture have markedly reshaped the genetic map of sub-Saharan Africa in the past few millennia and highlight the utility of combined archaeological and archaeogenetic approaches.
Africa hosts the greatest human genetic diversity globally, but legacies of ancient population in... more Africa hosts the greatest human genetic diversity globally, but legacies of ancient population interactions and dispersals across the continent remain understudied. Here, we report genome-wide data from 20 ancient sub-Saharan African individuals, including the first reported ancient DNA from the DRC, Uganda, and Botswana. These data demonstrate the contraction of diverse, once contiguous hunter-gatherer populations, and suggest the resistance to interaction with incoming pastoralists of delayed-return foragers in aquatic environments. We refine models for the spread of food producers into eastern and southern Africa, demonstrating more complex trajecto-ries of admixture than previously suggested. In Botswana, we show that Bantu ancestry postdates admixture between pastoralists and foragers, suggesting an earlier spread of pastoralism than farming to southern Africa. Our findings demonstrate how processes of migration and admixture have markedly reshaped the genetic map of sub-Saharan Africa in the past few millennia and highlight the utility of combined archaeological and archaeo-genetic approaches.
The spread and persistence of early forms of mobile food production throughout Africa depended on... more The spread and persistence of early forms of mobile food production throughout Africa depended on the ability of herding communities to adapt to novel social and environmental challenges. This article presents the first quantitative technological analysis of lithic assemblages from the earliest eastern African pastoralist sites, located in the Lake Turkana Basin of northern Kenya. In this region, transitions to pastoralism involved the adoption of a new, regionally homogeneous technological strategy, which emphasised utility and flexibility. This research provides new insights into how early herders were able to spread through sub-Saharan Africa during a period of extreme climate change.
The spread of mobile pastoralism throughout eastern Africa in the mid- to late Holocene fundament... more The spread of mobile pastoralism throughout eastern Africa in the mid- to late Holocene fundamentally reshaped social and economic strategies and occurred against the backdrop of major climatic and demographic change. Early stone-tool-using herders in these regions faced new and unpredictable environments. Lithic technological strategies from this ‘Pastoral Neolithic’ (PN) period (c. 5000–1400 BP) reflect the social and economic solutions to the novel environmental challenges faced by food-producing communities. In southern Kenya, the ‘Elmenteitan’ technological tradition appears during the PN in association with a specialised herding economy and distinct ceramic styles and settlement patterns. The Elmenteitan is known mostly from rockshelter sites in the Central Rift Valley and few open-air Elmenteitan sites have been extensively excavated. Fewer still have benefitted from comprehensive lithic analyses. This paper presents typological and technological analyses of the Elmenteitan site of Sugenya located in the Lemek Valley of southwestern Kenya and excavated by Alison Simons in 2002. Technological patterns add resolution to Elmenteitan tool-use and production in the region and contribute new insights to the organisation of Elmenteitan obsidian exchange networks.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018
Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many peopl... more Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in differ- ent environmental and economic settings can reveal diverse reasons for people to form larger social units and express unity through architectural display. In multiple areas of Africa, monumentality developed as mobile herders created large cemeteries and practiced other forms of commemoration. The motives for such behavior in sparsely populated, unpredictable landscapes may differ from well- studied cases of monumentality in predictable environments with sedentary populations. Here we report excavations and ground- penetrating radar surveys at the earliest and most massive monu- mental site in eastern Africa. Lothagam North Pillar Site was a communal cemetery near Lake Turkana (northwest Kenya) con- structed 5,000 years ago by eastern Africa’s earliest pastoralists. Inside a platform ringed by boulders, a 119.5-m2 mortuary cavity accommo- dated an estimated minimum of 580 individuals. People of diverse ages and both sexes were buried, and ornaments accompanied most individuals. There is no evidence for social stratification. The uncer- tainties of living on a “moving frontier” of early herding—exacer- bated by dramatic environmental shifts—may have spurred people to strengthen social networks that could provide information and assistance. Lothagam North Pillar Site would have served as both an arena for interaction and a tangible reminder of shared identity.
This paper examines theoretical and methodological approaches to measuring and discussing skill i... more This paper examines theoretical and methodological approaches to measuring and discussing skill in the archaeological record. Focusing specifically on evaluating skill in lithic production, a case study is presented which quantifies production errors in several assemblages of obsidian blades from early pastoralist sites of the Elmenteitan culture in southern Kenya (c. 3000–1400 BP). Analysis of error frequency through the blade core reduction sequence and relationships between error types suggest that production errors in blade production may relate, in part, to the presence of novices' practice and learning. Comparison among assemblages shows that sites closer to the primary obsidian quarry site display higher proportions of blade production errors. Communities-of-practice theory is drawn upon to interpret these patterns and to generate hypotheses for how early Elmenteitan producing herders may have structured knowledge transmission related to lithic production. Finally, the paper discusses how lithic learning may have been integrated into broader social systems relating to pastoralist resilience in eastern Africa.
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socioeconom... more The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socioeconomic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania — areas previously occupied only by huntergatherers — eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted to rockshelters and special purpose sites. This paper presents results of surveys and excavations at Luxmanda, an openair habitation site located farther south in Tanzania, and occupied many centuries earlier, than previously expected based upon prior models for the spread of herding. Technological and subsistence patterns demonstrate ties to northerly sites, suggesting that Luxmanda formed part of a network of early herders. The site is thus unlikely to stand alone, and further surveys are recommended to better understand the spread of herding into the region, and ultimately to southern Africa.
The histories of African crops remain poorly understood despite their contemporary importance. In... more The histories of African crops remain poorly understood despite their contemporary importance. Integration of crops from western, eastern and northern Africa probably first occurred in the Great Lakes Region of eastern Africa; however, little is known about when and how these agricultural systems coalesced. This article presents archaeobotanical analyses from an approximately 9000-year archaeological sequence at Kakapel Rockshelter in western Kenya, comprising the largest and most extensively dated archaeobotanical record from the interior of equatorial eastern Africa. Direct radiocarbon dates on carbonized seeds document the presence of the West African crop cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) approximately 2300 years ago, synchronic with the earliest date for domesticated cattle (Bos taurus). Peas (Pisum sativum L. or Pisum abyssinicum A. Braun) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) from the northeast and eastern African finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) are incorporated later, by at least 1000 years ago. Combined with ancient DNA evidence from Kakapel and the surrounding region, these data support a scenario in which the use of diverse domesticated species in eastern Africa changed over time rather than arriving and being maintained as a single package. Findings highlight the importance of local heterogeneity in shaping the spread of food production in sub-Saharan Africa
Eastern Africa hosts the longest record of human evolutionary and cultural change on the planet. ... more Eastern Africa hosts the longest record of human evolutionary and cultural change on the planet. Archaeological sites across what are today Kenya and Tanzania preserve evidence for the emergence of bipedal hominins, our ancestors’ earliest experiments with stone tools, technological and social innovations, and expansions of diverse forms of food production. Here, we present a synthesis of recent advances in geochemical methodologies, source identifications, and applied sourcing studies that have enhanced our understanding of human-obsidian relationships across the volcanic landscapes of Kenya and Tanzania over the last two million year
The Holocene of eastern Africa saw extreme climatic fluctuations between hyper-humid and arid con... more The Holocene of eastern Africa saw extreme climatic fluctuations between hyper-humid and arid conditions, which manifested differently across the region's lake basins, coastal ecotones, and terrestrial biomes. Changes to resource availability, distribution, and predictability presented different constraints and opportunities to diverse hunter-gatherer communities. Major ongoing questions concern how humans reconfigured economic, social, and technological strategies in different regional settings. The role of more stable coastal environments in these processes remains especially under-studied. Here, we examine and compare relationships between environmental change and the organization of stone tool technology at the site of Panga ya Saidi Cave, eastern Kenya, in strata dating from c. 15-0.2 ka. Located near the Indian Ocean coast, this dataset provides the first insights into Holocene human-environmental relationships in a coastal forest zone of eastern Africa. Integrating the new Panga ya Saidi environmental and archaeological records with other high-resolution records from nearby terrestrial and lacustrine zones, we take a comparative approach to address how climatic fluctuations shaped trajectories of hunter-gatherer adaptations through the Holocene. We argue that lithic technologies deployed within lake basins and coastal zones reflect more stable land-use strategies with less residential mobility compared to those associated with terrestrial foraging. All regions exhibit technological reconfigurations with the arrival of pastoralism, except for the coastal forest which appear largely consistent across the study period. Results inform ongoing debates into the resilience of recent eastern African huntergatherers and food-producers and provide an analogical framework for examining humanenvironmental dynamics deeper in time.
Novel trajectories of food production, urbanism, and interregional trade fueled the emergence of ... more Novel trajectories of food production, urbanism, and interregional trade fueled the emergence of numerous complex Iron Age polities in central and southern Africa. Renewed research and re-dating efforts in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and along the Swahili Coast are transforming models for how interregional interaction spheres contributed to these patterns. While societies in present-day Zambia played an important role in the trade of copper, ivory, gold, and other resources between central and southern Africa, little is known about lifeways during the rise of social complexity in this region. This paper reports the results of re-excavation at Kalundu Mound on the Batoka Plateau of southern Zambia, one of the iconic mound sites of the Iron Age "Kalomo Culture." New radiocarbon dates were combined with the original dates in a series of Bayesian models, indicating that previous Afr Archaeol Rev
Eleusine coracana (finger millet) is a nutritious and easily storable grain that can be grown in ... more Eleusine coracana (finger millet) is a nutritious and easily storable grain that can be grown in unfavourable environments and is important to the food security of millions of farmers in Africa and South Asia. Despite its importance and promise as a sustainable crop for smallholders in the Global South, its history remains poorly understood. Eleusine coracana has only rarely been recovered from archaeological sites in the region of Africa where it was domesticated and never in quantities large enough to study its evolution under cultivation. Here we report on a large assemblage of Iron Age (ca. 900-700 cal bp) E. coracana grains recovered from Kakapel rock shelter in western Kenya. We also carried out carbonization experiments on modern grains in order to directly compare these archaeological specimens to extant landraces. We found that finger millet is only well preserved when carbonized at temperatures lower than 220 °C, which may contribute to its scarcity in the archaeological record. Eleusine coracana shrinks but does not significantly change shape when carbonized. When corrected for the effects of carbonization, the E. coracana grown by Iron Age farmers at Kakapel was smaller grained than modern landraces, but is nonetheless identifiable as domesticated on the basis of grain shape and surface texture. A comparison with other Iron Age E. coracana reveals considerable variation in the grain size of landraces cultivated during this era. This is the largest quantitative morphometric analysis of E. coracana grains ever conducted, and provides a basis for the interpretation of other archaeological populations. This assemblage is also the first evidence for E. coracana cultivation in western Kenya, a biodiversity hotspot for landraces of this crop today.
Mobile pastoralism is the earliest form of food production to develop in Africa, and for the past... more Mobile pastoralism is the earliest form of food production to develop in Africa, and for the past 5000 years has remained one of the most important subsistence strategies for people across the continent. Despite its importance , the technological infrastructures that facilitated the successful spread of stone-tool-using pastoralists through environmentally heterogenous and climatically unpredictable regions remain poorly understood. This study provides comprehensive analyses of the lithic technological organization of early herders in southern Kenya responsible for the distinct "Elmenteitan" material traditions. Quantitative data on blade production strategies from thirteen Elmenteitan sites demonstrate that this group represents the emergence of new technological strategies based on participation in long-distance obsidian exchange networks, and flexible and versatile blade blank production. Elmenteitan lithic technological patterns are interpreted in terms of preparation for different configurations of local and regional mobility, which helped early herders manage environmental unpredictability in eastern Africa. These data provide a foundation for future study of the role of lithic technologies in pastoralist economies and contribute a case study from mobile food-producer contexts to global debates on the organization of stone tool economies.
Africa hosts the greatest human genetic diversity globally, but legacies of ancient population in... more Africa hosts the greatest human genetic diversity globally, but legacies of ancient population interactions and dispersals across the continent remain understudied. Here, we report genome-wide data from 20 ancient sub-Saharan African individuals, including the first reported ancient DNA from the DRC, Uganda, and Botswana. These data demonstrate the contraction of diverse, once contiguous hunter-gatherer populations, and suggest the resistance to interaction with incoming pastoralists of delayed-return foragers in aquatic environments. We refine models for the spread of food producers into eastern and southern Africa, demonstrating more complex trajectories of admixture than previously suggested. In Botswana, we show that Bantu ancestry post-dates admixture between pastoralists and foragers, suggesting an earlier spread of pastoralism than farming to southern Africa. Our findings demonstrate how processes of migration and admixture have markedly reshaped the genetic map of sub-Saharan Africa in the past few millennia and highlight the utility of combined archaeological and archaeogenetic approaches.
Africa hosts the greatest human genetic diversity globally, but legacies of ancient population in... more Africa hosts the greatest human genetic diversity globally, but legacies of ancient population interactions and dispersals across the continent remain understudied. Here, we report genome-wide data from 20 ancient sub-Saharan African individuals, including the first reported ancient DNA from the DRC, Uganda, and Botswana. These data demonstrate the contraction of diverse, once contiguous hunter-gatherer populations, and suggest the resistance to interaction with incoming pastoralists of delayed-return foragers in aquatic environments. We refine models for the spread of food producers into eastern and southern Africa, demonstrating more complex trajecto-ries of admixture than previously suggested. In Botswana, we show that Bantu ancestry postdates admixture between pastoralists and foragers, suggesting an earlier spread of pastoralism than farming to southern Africa. Our findings demonstrate how processes of migration and admixture have markedly reshaped the genetic map of sub-Saharan Africa in the past few millennia and highlight the utility of combined archaeological and archaeo-genetic approaches.
The spread and persistence of early forms of mobile food production throughout Africa depended on... more The spread and persistence of early forms of mobile food production throughout Africa depended on the ability of herding communities to adapt to novel social and environmental challenges. This article presents the first quantitative technological analysis of lithic assemblages from the earliest eastern African pastoralist sites, located in the Lake Turkana Basin of northern Kenya. In this region, transitions to pastoralism involved the adoption of a new, regionally homogeneous technological strategy, which emphasised utility and flexibility. This research provides new insights into how early herders were able to spread through sub-Saharan Africa during a period of extreme climate change.
The spread of mobile pastoralism throughout eastern Africa in the mid- to late Holocene fundament... more The spread of mobile pastoralism throughout eastern Africa in the mid- to late Holocene fundamentally reshaped social and economic strategies and occurred against the backdrop of major climatic and demographic change. Early stone-tool-using herders in these regions faced new and unpredictable environments. Lithic technological strategies from this ‘Pastoral Neolithic’ (PN) period (c. 5000–1400 BP) reflect the social and economic solutions to the novel environmental challenges faced by food-producing communities. In southern Kenya, the ‘Elmenteitan’ technological tradition appears during the PN in association with a specialised herding economy and distinct ceramic styles and settlement patterns. The Elmenteitan is known mostly from rockshelter sites in the Central Rift Valley and few open-air Elmenteitan sites have been extensively excavated. Fewer still have benefitted from comprehensive lithic analyses. This paper presents typological and technological analyses of the Elmenteitan site of Sugenya located in the Lemek Valley of southwestern Kenya and excavated by Alison Simons in 2002. Technological patterns add resolution to Elmenteitan tool-use and production in the region and contribute new insights to the organisation of Elmenteitan obsidian exchange networks.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018
Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many peopl... more Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in differ- ent environmental and economic settings can reveal diverse reasons for people to form larger social units and express unity through architectural display. In multiple areas of Africa, monumentality developed as mobile herders created large cemeteries and practiced other forms of commemoration. The motives for such behavior in sparsely populated, unpredictable landscapes may differ from well- studied cases of monumentality in predictable environments with sedentary populations. Here we report excavations and ground- penetrating radar surveys at the earliest and most massive monu- mental site in eastern Africa. Lothagam North Pillar Site was a communal cemetery near Lake Turkana (northwest Kenya) con- structed 5,000 years ago by eastern Africa’s earliest pastoralists. Inside a platform ringed by boulders, a 119.5-m2 mortuary cavity accommo- dated an estimated minimum of 580 individuals. People of diverse ages and both sexes were buried, and ornaments accompanied most individuals. There is no evidence for social stratification. The uncer- tainties of living on a “moving frontier” of early herding—exacer- bated by dramatic environmental shifts—may have spurred people to strengthen social networks that could provide information and assistance. Lothagam North Pillar Site would have served as both an arena for interaction and a tangible reminder of shared identity.
This paper examines theoretical and methodological approaches to measuring and discussing skill i... more This paper examines theoretical and methodological approaches to measuring and discussing skill in the archaeological record. Focusing specifically on evaluating skill in lithic production, a case study is presented which quantifies production errors in several assemblages of obsidian blades from early pastoralist sites of the Elmenteitan culture in southern Kenya (c. 3000–1400 BP). Analysis of error frequency through the blade core reduction sequence and relationships between error types suggest that production errors in blade production may relate, in part, to the presence of novices' practice and learning. Comparison among assemblages shows that sites closer to the primary obsidian quarry site display higher proportions of blade production errors. Communities-of-practice theory is drawn upon to interpret these patterns and to generate hypotheses for how early Elmenteitan producing herders may have structured knowledge transmission related to lithic production. Finally, the paper discusses how lithic learning may have been integrated into broader social systems relating to pastoralist resilience in eastern Africa.
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socioeconom... more The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socioeconomic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania — areas previously occupied only by huntergatherers — eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted to rockshelters and special purpose sites. This paper presents results of surveys and excavations at Luxmanda, an openair habitation site located farther south in Tanzania, and occupied many centuries earlier, than previously expected based upon prior models for the spread of herding. Technological and subsistence patterns demonstrate ties to northerly sites, suggesting that Luxmanda formed part of a network of early herders. The site is thus unlikely to stand alone, and further surveys are recommended to better understand the spread of herding into the region, and ultimately to southern Africa.
Uploads
Papers by Steven Goldstein