The Jarigole pillar site is one of the megalithic communal cemetery sites in Lake Turkana Basin in Northern Kenya associated with the Pastoral Neolithic period. The site is located on the eastern shores of Lake Turkana in the southeastern edge of the Sibiloi National Park. Situated in a recessional beach which is 70 meters above the 1973 lake level, [1] [2] the site includes oval platforms >1000 sq m with a circular mound (120 cu m of sediments), and 28 basalt pillars each weighing about 200 kg and moved over a distance of 2 km from the site. [2] The site is believed to have been constructed by the first wave of ancient herders who migrated to the region down from the Sahara around 5000 years ago, a period marked by rapid climatic, economic and social change. [1] [3] [4]
Radiocarbon dates suggest that the site was used over a relatively short period of time from 4940 to 4630 BP. [5] [4] However, the accuracy of these dates are contestable owing to the fact the dateable materials, which includes Ostrich Egg Shell (OES) beads and charcoal does not provide the exact date of deposition, which are the main limitations of these materials. [4]
The site was first excavated by Merrick and Nelson in 1980's, as part of the Koobi Fora field school program which ran between 1986-1996. Based on these studies, only one primary burial was found while a majority of the finds included secondary burials. As a result, a single "Jarigole mortuary tradition" was proposed, meaning that the site was primarily used for secondary interments which were defleshed and disarticulated before they were brought to the site for final burial. [2] [6] In addition to the human burials, the site yielded other material cultures including ornaments made of stone beads Ostrich Egg Shells (OES) beads, and ear spools made of ivory, lithics, anthropomorphic figurines, and a distinctive pottery with wavy line decorations, later known as Nderit ware. [2] [7] Preliminary reports also suggested the presence of marine shells Strigatella paupercula, pointing to the wide trade network and contact between the site and the Indian Ocean. [8]
Recent excavations conducted under the auspices of the Later Prehistory of West Turkana (LPWT) project revealed a total of six primary burials which included 9 individuals buried in different orientations and material culture. [5] Of these burials, only one (Burial 5) contained 3 commingled and disarticulated individuals, while the rest had individual interments. One individual was found buried with OES bead bracelet (Burial 6), while another individual (Burial 4) was found buried with a necklace made of 100 amazonite beads and other stone beads, a phallus-shaped ceramic, and an animal figurine, which are only unique to this site. [5] Other ornamentations included over 4000 OES beads that were unrelated to any particular individual but scattered with the burials were also recovered. Zoomorphic ceramic figurines discovered at the site represent various animals including a honey badger, leopard, giraffe, hippopotamus, elephant, and cattle. [2] [9] [10] A new type of pottery known as Nderit pottery, which includes varied decorative styles but manufactured using the same technique was also found in Dongodien: one the Pastoral Neolithic habitation sites located on the eastern shores of Lake Turkana. [2] [7] In addition, lithics which mainly constituted obsidian (72-92%) were discovered at the site, were manufactured using the same techniques as obsidian found in Dongodien, Lothagam North and Manemanya, while other materials were not made with the same level of precision. [11]
Based on the presence of primary burials, the earlier interpretation of the presence of a single "Jarigole Mortuary tradition" was overturned. [5] In addition, the recent studies on the sourcing on mineralogy of the stone beads found on the site, has also proved that the materials were locally sourced, therefore disproving the long-distance trade networks theory as earlier suggested by Nelson [12]
The diversity of styles and decorations on the Nderit pottery in Jarigole, and other pillar sites including Lothagam North suugests a more variable and complex history of ceramics production and use than previously known. [7] Found to be only localized in the Pastoral Neolithic pillar sites in Turkana basin before its southwards spread into the rift valley, the Nderit pottery seems to suggest that they played a central in fostering cohesion and collective actions amongst ancient herders who constructed and used the pillar sites for various purposes. [9] [7] The presence of sherd has been earlier hypothesized as being deliberately broken either on site or in actions accompanying the body from primary to secondary burials. [2] Recent findings of deliberately drilled and broken pot at Lothagam North seem to support this idea. [9] Obsidian stone tools associated with early herders also suggested a shared distinct tradition across in Lothagam North, Manemanya and Dongodien. Recent studies on the sourcing of obsidian indicate that they were originally sourced from the Northern island in Lake Turkana, and moved through existing trade networks, that were possibly facilitated by the use of boats [13] However, due to the differences in architectural and artefactual depositions especially among the contemporaneous pillar sites including Jarigole and Lothagam North seems to also suggest that they might have been used at different time, for different purposes and possibly by different groups. [1] [10]
Overall, the presence of 6 other pillar sites including Jarigole has been interpreted as indicators of social complexity and as proof of communal commemoration of shared belief, especially in the context of the rapid environmental, social, and economic that characterized by the African Humid Period (AHP). The lack of clear of evidence of social stratification also supports this arguments. [9] As a result, these pillars have been conceptualized as one of the ways the herders buffered risks, through the creation of strong social networks. [14] [3] [4] [1] [5] The construction and use of the pillar sites are believed to have been abandoned following the onset of the "static frontiers," where it is suggested that groups might have developed reifying institutions like age-sets and gerontocracy systems ubiquitous among present-day pastoralists in Africa. [3]
Lake Turkana is a saline lake in the Kenyan Rift Valley, in northern Kenya, with its far northern end crossing into Ethiopia. It is the world's largest permanent desert lake and the world's largest alkaline lake. By volume it is the world's fourth-largest salt lake after the Caspian Sea, Issyk-Kul, and Lake Van, and among all lakes it ranks 24th.
Africa has the longest record of human habitation in the world. The first hominins emerged 6-7 million years ago, and among the earliest anatomically modern human skulls found so far were discovered at Omo Kibish, Jebel Irhoud, and Florisbad.
Meave G. Leakey is a British palaeoanthropologist. She works at Stony Brook University and is co-ordinator of Plio-Pleistocene research at the Turkana Basin Institute. She studies early hominid evolution and has done extensive field research in the Turkana Basin. She has Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science degrees.
Hyrax Hill is a prehistoric site near Nakuru in the Rift Valley province of Kenya. It is a rocky spur roughly half a kilometer in length, with an elevation of 1,900 meters above sea level at its summit. The site was first discovered in 1926 by Louis Leakey during excavations at the nearby Nakuru Burial Site, and Mary Leakey conducted the first major excavations between 1937 and 1938. There are two distinct areas of occupation at Hyrax Hill: one which was occupied during the Pastoral Neolithic and late Iron Age, and one which was occupied by the Sirikwa earlier in the Iron Age.
Enkapune Ya Muto, also known as Twilight Cave, is a site spanning the late Middle Stone Age to the Late Stone Age on the Mau Escarpment of Kenya. This time span has allowed for further study of the transition from the Middle Stone Age to the Late Stone Age. In particular, the changes in lithic and pottery industries can be tracked over these time periods as well as transitions from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a herding lifestyle. Beads made of perforated ostrich egg shells found at the site have been dated to 40,000 years ago. The beads found at the site represent the early human use of personal ornaments. Inferences pertaining to climate and environment changes during the pre-Holocene and Holocene period have been made based from faunal remains based in this site.
Lothagam is a geological formation located in Kenya, near the southwestern shores of Lake Turkana, 55 km (34 mi) from Kanapoi. It is located between the Kerio and Lomunyenkuparet Rivers on an uplifted fault block.
The Nasura Pillar Site, registered as GcJh3 and also known as Namoratunga II, is an archaeological site on the west side of Lake Turkana in Kenya dating to the Pastoral Neolithic. Namoratunga means "people of stone" in the Turkana language. The site was originally believed to have been created around 300 BC, but recent excavations have yielded an older radiocarbon sample dating to 2398 +/- 44 years BC.
Anna Katherine "Kay" Behrensmeyer is an American taphonomist and paleoecologist. She is a pioneer in the study of the fossil records of terrestrial ecosystems and engages in geological and paleontological field research into the ecological context of human evolution in East Africa. She is Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology in the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). At the museum, she is co-director of the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems program and an associate of the Human Origins Program.
The Savanna Pastoral Neolithic is a collection of ancient societies that appeared in the Rift Valley of East Africa and surrounding areas during a time period known as the Pastoral Neolithic. They were South Cushitic speaking pastoralists who tended to bury their dead in cairns, whilst their toolkit was characterized by stone bowls, pestles, grindstones and earthenware pots.
The Pastoral Neolithic refers to a period in Africa's prehistory, specifically Tanzania and Kenya, marking the beginning of food production, livestock domestication, and pottery use in the region following the Later Stone Age. The exact dates of this time period remain inexact, but early Pastoral Neolithic sites support the beginning of herding by 5000 BP. In contrast to the Neolithic in other parts of the world, which saw the development of farming societies, the first form of African food production was nomadic pastoralism, or ways of life centered on the herding and management of livestock. The shift from hunting to food production relied on livestock that had been domesticated outside of East Africa, especially North Africa. This period marks the emergence of the forms of pastoralism that are still present. The reliance on livestock herding marks the deviation from hunting-gathering but precedes major agricultural development. The exact movement tendencies of Neolithic pastoralists are not completely understood.
Gogo Falls is an archaeological site near a former and since 1956 dammed waterfall, located in the Lake Victoria Basin in Migori County, western Kenya. This site is important to archaeology as it includes some of the earliest appearances of artifacts and domestic animals in the area. The findings at the site help to reconstruct the later prehistory around Lake Victoria, including a Pastoral Neolithic occupation by Elmenteitan peoples and a later Iron Age occupation. Artifacts found at the site included pottery and iron artifacts. Through these artifacts some of the cultural traditions of the people who lived near Gogo Falls were discovered.
Njoro River Cave is an archaeological site on the Mau Escarpment, Kenya, that was first excavated in 1938 by Mary Leakey and her husband Louis Leakey. Excavations revealed a mass cremation site created by Elmenteitan pastoralists during the Pastoral Neolithic roughly 3350-3050 BP. Excavations also uncovered pottery, beads, stone bowls, basket work, pestles and flakes. The Leakeys' excavation was one of the earliest to uncover ancient beads and tools in the area and a later investigation in 1950 was the first to use radiocarbon dating in East Africa.
Fiona Marshall is an archaeologist at Washington University in St. Louis. Her methodological specialties are zooarchaeology and ethnoarchaeology. She has excavated Pastoral Neolithic sites in eastern Africa, focusing primarily on the domestication and herding of animals, particularly cattle and donkeys. She has also conducted ethnoarchaeological research on factors that affect body part representation in archaeological sites, and on foraging ways of life amongst Okiek people of the western Mau Escarpment, Kenya. She has also worked to conserve the Laetoli footprints.
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The Lothagam North Pillar Site, registered as GeJi9, is an archaeological site at Lothagam on the west side of Lake Turkana in Kenya dating to the Pastoral Neolithic and the Holocene. It is a communal cemetery, built between 3000 BCE and 2300 BCE by the region's earliest herders as rainfall in the area decreased and Lake Turkana receded. It is thought to be eastern Africa's largest and earliest monumental cemetery.
Nderit pottery is a type of ceramic vessel found at archaeological sites in Africa, particularly Tanzania and Kenya. Nderit pottery, previously known as ceramic tradition "Gumban A ware," was initially documented by Louis Leakey in the 1930s at sites in the Central Rift Valley of Kenya.Stylistic characteristics of Nderit pottery discovered in the Central Rift Valley include an exterior decoration of basket-like and triangular markings into the clay’s surface. The vessels here also have intensely scored interiors that do not appear to follow a distinct pattern. Nderit Ware exemplifies the transition from Saharan wavy-line early Holocene pottery towards the basket-like designs of the middle Holocene. Lipid residue found on Nderit pottery can be used to analyze the food products stored in them by early pastoralist societies.
The Mlambalasi Rock Shelter is a historic site located in Iringa District of Iringa Region in southern Tanzania, 50 km away from Iringa City. Excavations in 2006 and 2010 by the Iringa Region Archaeological Project uncovered artifactual deposits from the Later Stone Age (LSA), the Iron Age, and the historic periods, as well as external artifacts from the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Direct dating on Achatina shell and ostrich eggshell beads indicates that the oldest human burials at Mlambalasi are from the terminal Pleistocene. Mlambalasi is characterized by interment in the LSA and Iron Age periods, as well as by cycles of use and abandonment.
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Manemanya (GcJh5) is an archaeological site within the Lake Turkana basin in northern Kenya. It is a communal burial site built almost 5,000 years ago and is associated with the advent of pastoralism in eastern Africa during the Pastoral Neolithic period. Manemanya is located 1 km east of Lesodok hill, on the western shores of Lake Turkana. Comprising nine pillar clusters situated across two distinct zones, this site lacks evident platform mounds or cairns. However, its distinctiveness is marked by the presence of cobbles in the central area, a distinguishing feature that sets it apart from the natural surface surrounding the site, presenting a notable contrast with other pillar sites in the Lake Turkana basin.
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