Maasai Mara, also sometimes spelled Masai Mara and locally known simply as The Mara, is a large national game reserve in Narok, Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It is named in honor of the Maasai people, the ancestral inhabitants of the area, who migrated to the area from the Nile Basin. Their description of the area when looked at from afar: "Mara" means "spotted" in the local Maasai language, due to the many short bushy trees which dot the landscape.
The Neolithic, the final division of the Stone Age, began about 12,000 years ago when the first developments of farming appeared in the Epipalaeolithic Near East, and later in other parts of the world. The Neolithic division lasted until the transitional period of the Chalcolithic from about 6,500 years ago, marked by the development of metallurgy, leading up to the Bronze Age and Iron Age. In other places the Neolithic lasted longer. In Northern Europe, the Neolithic lasted until about 1700 BC, while in China it extended until 1200 BC. Other parts of the world remained broadly in the Neolithic stage of development until European contact.
The Kalenjin are a group of Southern Nilotic peoples indigenous to East Africa, residing mainly in what was formerly the Rift Valley Province in Kenya. They number 6,358,113 individuals as per the Kenyan 2019 census. They are divided into 11 culturally and linguistically related clans: Kipsigis, Nandi, Keiyo, Marakwet, Sabaot, Pokots, Tugen, Terik,Sengwer, Lembus, and Ogiek. They speak Kalenjin languages, which belong to the Nilotic language family.
Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals known as livestock are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The species involved include cattle, camels, goats, yaks, llamas, reindeer, horse and sheep.
The Mara River is a river in Narok County (Kenya) and in Mara Region (Tanzania), and lies across the migration path of ungulates in the Maasai Mara/Serengeti game reserves.
Nakuru is the fourth-largest urban area in Kenya after Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu. It is the capital of Nakuru County and former capital of the Rift Valley Province as well as home to Flamingo Radio which is the largest urban Radio. Its urban and rural population is 570,674 inhabitants according to the 2019 census which exceeds that of Kisumu if the metro is included. It is the largest urban center in the Rift Valley with Eldoret in Uasin Gishu following closely behind. Nakuru lies about 1,850 m above sea level.
Nyahururu is a town in Kenya, lying north east of Nakuru. The town derives its name from the Maasai word e-naiwurruwurr, meaning waterfall and/or windy or place of storms. It is located in Laikipia County. Despite this, Nyahururu formerly functioned as the administrative capital of Nyandarua County, before it became a county, until the headquarters was shifted to Ol Kalou. There have been calls for a reversal. The town has an urban population of 36,450. The town still continues to be a central economic power of the immediate former district of Nyandarua. For that reason, the town has strong economic ties to the two counties.
Nakuru County is a county in Kenya. It is County number 32 out of the 47 Kenyan Counties. The capital and largest town is Nakuru, although Naivasha is another major significant urban centre. With a population of 2,162,202, it is the third most populous county in Kenya after Nairobi County and Kiambu County in that order. With an area of 7,496.5 km², it is the 19th largest County in size. Until August 21, 2010, it formed part of Rift Valley Province.
Kisii is a municipality and a major urban center in south-western Kenya. It is the capital of the Kisii County which has a population of 1,266,860 according to the Kenya National Census of 2019. Kisii Town also serves as the main urban and commercial center in the Gusii Highlands and the South Nyanza region and the second largest town in greater Nyanza after Kisumu City. It is a bustling town and a home to several businesses, organizations, educational institutions and government agencies. Kisii municipality sits right at the center of the western Kenya tourist circuit that includes the Tabaka Soapstone Carvings, Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Lambwe Valley Game Reserve and the entire Lake Victoria basin. The town continues to serve these former districts, the larger South Nyanza County and the Trans Mara area of western Narok County in commerce. Kisii town connects the Great Rift Valley and Nairobi to Migori and the Kenya-Tanzania border and has a sizable manufacturing industry based on agriculture primarily plantation farming.
Narok is a town west of Nairobi that supports Kenya's economy in south-west of the country, along the Great Rift Valley. Narok is the district capital of the Narok County and stands as the major centre of commerce in the district. Narok has a population of around 40,000 people, mostly Maasai. The elevation of Narok is 1827 metres in altitude.
Narok County is a county in Kenya with a population projected at around 1,157,873 persons as of 2019, with the dominant ethnic groups being the Maasai and Kalenjin. Its capital and largest town is Narok. The other major urban centre in Narok County is Kilgoris.
Njoro is an agricultural town 18 km west south west of Nakuru, Kenya situated on the western rim of the Rift Valley. Njoro town was the headquarters of the former Njoro District, hived off Nakuru District. Since 2010, when Njoro District was eliminated, it has been part of the Nakuru County.
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.
Kiserian is a town in Kenya's Rift Valley Province, Kajiado county. Kiserian town is bordered by Ongata Rongai, Ngong Town, Enoomatasiani town and Kisamis town. It lies at the foot of the Ngong Hills, along Magadi Road just adjacent to the Kiserian dam. There is a famous Maasai community around Kiserian town and small Maasai villages called Olteyani and Olooseos. Among other social amenities, Kiserian has several primary schools and secondary schools, and a few higher education institutions. In the language of the Maasai, Kiserian means "a place of peace".
The Savanna Pastoral Neolithic or SPN 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. Through archaeology, historical linguistics and archaeogenetics, they conventionally have been identified with the area's first Afroasiatic-speaking settlers. Archaeological dating of livestock bones and burial cairns has also established the cultural complex as the earliest center of pastoralism and stone construction in the region.
Ngamuriak is an archaeological site located in south-western Kenya. It has been interpreted as an Elmenteitan Pastoral Neolithic settlement. The excavation of this site produced pottery sherds, stone tools with obsidian fragments and obsidian blades, along with large amounts of animal bones.
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.
The Elmenteitan culture was a prehistoric lithic industry and pottery tradition with a distinct pattern of land use, hunting and pastoralism that appeared and developed on the western plains of Kenya, East Africa during the Pastoral Neolithic c.3300-1200 BP. It was named by archaeologist Louis Leakey after Lake Elmenteita, a soda lake located in the Great Rift Valley, about 120 km (75 mi) northwest of Nairobi.
Luxmanda is an archaeological site located in the north-central Babati District of Tanzania. It was discovered in 2012. Excavations in the area have identified it as the largest and southernmost settlement site of the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic (SPN), an archaeologically-recognized pastoralist culture centered in eastern Africa during a time period known as the Pastoral Neolithic. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal, human collagen, and organic matter in ceramic artifacts indicate that Luxmanda was occupied between 3,200 to 2,900 years ago. Ceramics, lithics, worked bone, ivory, and ostrich eggshell assemblages in addition to livestock and human bones have been recovered from the Luxmanda site. The people of Luxmanda were highly specialized pastoralists, relying on cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys for subsistence. Their linguistic affiliation is unknown, but some historical linguists have speculated that the peoples of the SPN spoke Cushitic languages. The Pastoral Neolithic was followed by the Pastoral Iron Age and the Bantu Expansion.
Marley Sianto Sikawa, also known as Sianto Sitawa, is a Kenyan communications and marketing professional, who serves as the tourism marketing coordinator for Narok County, one of the 47 administrative Kenyan counties.
