Archaeology
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Australopithecus fossils found east of the Great Rift Valley
New fossils from Kenya suggest that an early hominid species— Australopithecus afarensis—lived far eastward beyond the Great Rift Valley and much farther than previously thought. An international team of paleontologists led by Emma Mbua of Mount Kenya University and Masato Nakatsukasa of Kyoto University report findings of fossilized teeth and forearm bone from an adult male and two infant A. afarensis from an exposure eroded by the Kantis River in Ongata-Rongai, a settlement in the outskirts of Nairobi.
The Rift Valley and the Archaeological Evidence of the First Humans
East Africa?s Rift Valley has proven a rich source of information about our distant ancestors. Fossil finds there, including the famous Lucy and Turkana Boy, have permanently altered our understanding of how modern humans evolved. Readers will learn about the other hominins?such as the species "Homo erectus" and the genus "Australopithecus"?who help fill out the human family tree. The engaging text explains how archaeologists? discoveries of bones, tools, early art, evidence of hearths, and other evidence has furthered our understanding of the origins of modern humans. A timeline helps readers understand the chronology of the topic.
Olduvai Gorge
The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evolution. A steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley that stretches across East Africa, it is about 48 km (30 mi) long, and is located in the eastern Serengeti Plains within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the Olbalbal ward located in Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Laetoli, another important archaeological locality of early human occupation.
Olorgesailie, Kenya
Early humans lived in the Olorgesailie region, in what is now the southern Kenya, between 1.2 million and 490,000 years ago. Excavations at Olorgesailie show the habitats and animals these early humans encountered, the handaxe tools they made, and the climate challenges they met.
=====Sedimentation and environmental dynamics of the Tunka rift valley (Baikal region) in the Late Pleistocene-Holocene based on the analysis of lithological and rock magnetic properties of the deposits from Upper Paleolithic sites Author links open overlay panel===== by Galina G. Matasova 6/21 ScienceDirect
The Tunka depression is a valley in the Baikal rift system. It contains several Paleolithic archaeological sites, however, the number of finds varies sharply across the different sections of the valley.
Great Rift Valley
Geologically, the Great Rift Valley formed due to the tectonic movement of African and Arabian plates, creating a unique environment that has undergone significant climatic fluctuations over millions of years. These climate changes have influenced human evolution by impacting resources and habitats, compelling early humans to adapt. Recent studies in the Jordan Rift Valley have revealed evidence of ancient tool-making societies and migration patterns that provide insight into human dispersal from Africa. Overall, the Great Rift Valley remains a vital site for ongoing research into human prehistory, evolution, and the historical interplay between climate and migration.
Kenya Archaeological Sites
Kenya is renowned for its sites depicting the life of early man, with many the sites showcasing the various stages of the development and evolution of early man. Although not as famous as the legendary Olduvai Gorge on the plains of Tanzania, the sites in Kenya are as dramatic as anywhere else in Africa.
Report on the 1973 Archaeological Survey of Central Ethiopian Rift Valley
Earliest human remains in eastern Africa dated to more than 230,000 years ago
by Sarah Collins UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The age of the oldest fossils in eastern Africa widely recognised as representing our species, Homo sapiens, has long been uncertain. Now, dating of a massive volcanic eruption in Ethiopia reveals they are much older than previously thought.
The Leakey Family
by Louis Leakey The Leakey Foundation
Louis and Mary Leakey were monumental figures in the field of paleoanthropology and their groundbreaking discoveries helped shape our understanding of human origins. Now, the Leakey family is synonymous with the study of human evolution, with three generations making important contributions to science.
=====Elemental fingerprinting of Kenya Rift Valley ochre deposits for provenance studies of rock art and archaeological pigments Author links open overlay panel===== by Andrew M. Zipkin 12/2/17 ScienceDirect
The Kenya Rift Valley contains many ochre sources that are currently used by indigenous peoples for adornment, rituals, and art. Ochre pigments occur in rock art and archaeological sites spanning over 250,000 years. Chemical analysis for provenience of geological sources is the first step in the process of reconstructing provenance of archaeological artifacts for cultural heritage, archaeological, and paleoanthropological research.
The Rift
We are restless even in death. Entombed in stone, our most distant ancestors still travel along Earth’s subterranean passageways. One of them, a man in his 20s, began his journey around 230,000 years ago after collapsing into marshland on the lush edge of a river delta feeding a vast lake in East Africa’s Rift Valley. He became the earth in which he lay as nutrients leached from his body and his bone mineralised into fossil. Buried in the sediment of the Rift, he moved as the earth moved: gradually, inexorably.
Rift Valley in East Africa (ca. 5,000,000 B.C.E.)
by Kayomi Wada 10/1/10 BLACK PAST
Site of some of the oldest hominid fossils, The Great Rift Valley in East Africa refers to a massive land depression, formed approximately twenty million years ago when two parallel fault lines pulled apart. The rift stretches along East Africa from the Jordan River Valley in southwest Asia to Central Mozambique, and is of such scale that Rift Valley is clearly visible in photographs of earth taken from space.
Career/life as an archeologist inquiry
Hello everyone! I am a 17 year old who is planning college majors and such currently. I really want to study archaeology or anthropology, but have been urged by numerous friends and family to study something else or to double major for fear of not being able to get a job or make a good living.
The CENIEH is part of a Spanish-Eritrean project which studies archaeological sites in the Rift Valley
The geochronologist from CENIEH Davinia Moreno carries out the dating studies in the most recent excavation and prospecting campaign of the project “Cradle of humanity: Eritrea-Rift Valley”, financed by the Palarq Foundation and managed by Fundación Atapuerca
=====Later Stone Age toolstone acquisition in the Central Rift Valley of Kenya: Portable XRF of Eburran obsidian artifacts from Leakey's excavations at Gamble's Cave II Author links open overlay panel===== by Ellery Frahm 4/18 ScienceDirect
The complexities of Later Stone Age environmental and behavioral variability in East Africa remain poorly defined, and toolstone sourcing is essential to understand the scale of the social and natural landscapes encountered by earlier human populations. The Naivasha-Nakuru Basin in Kenya's Rift Valley is a region that is not only highly sensitive to climatic changes but also one of the world's most obsidian-rich landscapes.
Staff Seminar on Pastoral-Neolithic Communities, Central Rift Valley, Kenya
by Department of History & Archeology UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI
Dr. Nyanchoga is a Senior Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Nairobi. He, also, coordinates PhD in Archaeology and BA Tourism programmes in the Department. Nyanchoga holds a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Nairobi. His general research interests are in Environmental Archaeology and that of Heritage Tourism.
Chinese and Kenyan researchers find Stone Age ‘production line’ for tools in Rift Valley
A team of Chinese and Kenyan archaeologists have uncovered a Stone Age “production line” that used sophisticated techniques to produce “standardised” tools.
Ubeidiya prehistoric site
Prehistoric human remains starting from about 1.7 Mya (million years ago)[6][failed verification], more recently redated biochronologically to 1.5 Mya,[3] were discovered in the excavations, within about 60 layers of soil within which were found human bones and remains of ancient animals. These include some of the oldest human remains outside Africa and more than 10,000 ancient stone tools[verification needed].
Coffee's Epic Journey
by Ilana Herzig ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE
Coffea arabica, the flowering evergreen plant whose vibrant red berries, when dried and roasted, are used to make millions of cups of coffee each morning, originated in the forests of Paleolithic East Africa.
Olduvai Gorge
Olduvai Gorge, paleoanthropological site in the eastern Serengeti Plain, within the boundaries of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania. It is a steep-sided ravine consisting of two branches that have a combined length of about 30 miles (48 km) and are 295 feet (90 metres) deep. Deposits exposed in the sides of the gorge cover a time span from about 2.1 million to 15,000 years ago.
Human Origins Program: Southern Kenya Rift Project
An international team of scientists recover and study archeological and fossil remains from a precisely dated sedimentary record of ancient environments and early human behavior and ecology spanning the past 1 million years
The archaeological potential of the northern Luangwa Valley, Zambia: The Luwumbu basin
The Luangwa Basin, Zambia, which forms part of the Zambezi drainage, is strategically located between the Central African plateau and the East African Rift system. The Luangwa River and major tributaries, such as the Luwumbu River, are perennial water sources supporting essential resources that sustain human communities and a rich and diverse fauna and flora.
Archaeologists Take Wrong Turn, Find World's Oldest Stone Tools [Update]
Archaeologists working in the Kenyan Rift Valley have discovered the oldest known stone tools in the world. Dated to around 3.3 million years ago, the implements are some 700,000 years older than stone tools from Ethiopia that previously held this distinction.
Paleoanthropological sites of the upper Awash River basin: Fanta, Gemeda and Koche, preliminary results
by Peter Lanzarone 10/5/22 ScienceDirect
Ethiopia has well known paleontological and archaeological sites within the Rift Valley, but relatively little is known of the potential within the surrounding highlands. Here, we present three underexplored sites within and nearby Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city: Fanta, Gemeda, and Koche.
By the lakeshore: Multi-scalar geoarchaeology in the Turkana Basin at GaJj17, Koobi Fora (Kenya)
by Kathryn L. Ranhorn 1/10/23 ScienceDirect
The Late Pleistocene archaeological record in the Turkana Basin is important for studying Homo sapiens evolution, but the record in this region is poorly documented, despite a long history of significant paleoanthropological discoveries. Ambiguity around ages and site formation processes are paramount problems. We investigated the chronometric, geological, archaeological, and paleoenvironmental context of GaJj17, a locality with an artifact-bearing deposit in the Koobi Fora region.
78,000 Year Cave Record From East Africa Shows Early Cultural Innovations
by Dr. Nicole Boivin 9/5/18 MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE OF GEOANTHOPOLOGY
A project led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History has excavated the Panga ya Saidi cave site, in the coastal hinterland of Kenya. The excavations and analyses, announced in Nature Communications, represent the longest archaeological sequence in East Africa over the last 78,000 years. The evidence for gradual cultural changes does not support dramatic revolutions, and despite being close to the coast, there is no evidence that humans were using coastal ‘super-highways’ for migrations.
Kenya & Tanzania: Wildlife & Human Origins in East Africa
by William Harcourt-Smith 1/7-21/25 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE of AMERICA
Join us on this East African adventure as we drive among the wildlife and landscapes of Kenya and Tanzania. We will make special stops along the way, such as to visit Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge, the site of Louis and Mary Leakey’s famous, mid-20th-century paleoanthropological discoveries that indicated that hominins had evolved in Africa. J
Rift Valley - The Crack in the Planet's Crust in Eastern Africa
by K. Kris Hirst 30/3/19 Thought.Co
The Rift Valley of eastern Africa and Asia (sometimes called the Great Rift Valley [GRV] or East African Rift system [EAR or EARS]) is an enormous geological split in the crust of the earth, thousands of kilometers long, up to 125 miles (200 kilometers) wide, and between a few hundred to thousands of meters deep. First designated as the Great Rift Valley in the late 19th century and visible from space, the valley has also been a great source of hominid fossils, most famously in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge.
Traces of History and Archeology and Art's post
The Pinglu Rift Valley, located in the vast Loess Plateau of north-central China, is a witness to the Earth's dynamic geological history. Covering an area of approximately 400,000 square kilometers, this remarkable feature is a striking example of the constant evolution of the earth's shell, shaped by forces active deep within our planet.
Researchers find 3-million-year-old tools in Kenya, showing development of human ancestors
by Kerry Breen, Brook Silva-Braga, Greg Mirman 4/1/25 CBS NEWS
The Homa Peninsula, in Kenya, is part of the East African Rift Valley, a part of the world often called "the cradle of humankind." So many of the oldest clues about humanity's earliest days have been preserved under the valley's fertile, human soil, including the remains of "Lucy," an ancient human relative who lived more than 3 million years ago.
Kapthurin Formation
The Kapthurin Formation is a series of Middle Pleistocene sediments associated with the East African Rift Valley. Part of the East African Rift System, it is also an important archaeological site in the study of early humans who occupied the area and left stone tools and animal bones behind.
(Yet) Another Southwest: Incipient Preservation Archaeology in Southwest Ethiopia
by John R. Welch 15/2/19 Archaeology Southwest
(February 15, 2019)—What is it that keeps push-pulling me toward the equator and setting sun? My earliest engagements with archaeology included a fifth-grade fieldtrip from my Denver hometown through the Four Corners, where all-new exposures to cliff dwellings, families of Navajo shepherds, and enchiladas (among other cosmic revelations) blew my inner-city-kid mind.
Archeologists ponder use of ancient limestone balls discovered in Jordan Valley
by Yogev Israeli 9/7/23 net Global
Limestone balls uncovered at the site of a prehistoric settlement dating to 1.4 million years ago are a testament to efforts made to achieve a perfect geometry but their purpose baffles researchers to this day. An analysis of ancient stone balls suggests that the early human inhabitants had an appreciation for geometry and symmetry.
Lomekwi
Lomekwi is an archaeological site located on the west bank of Turkana Lake in Kenya. It is an important milestone in the history of human archaeology. An archaeological team from Stony Brook University in the United States discovered traces of Lomekwi by chance in July 2011, and made substantial progress four years after in-depth excavations.
Tanzania Safari: The Great Migration & Human Origins
by William Harcourt-Smith 1/4-15/26 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE of AMERICA
Experience the Serengeti’s Great Migration, and view two significant human origin fossil sites plus magnificent savannah and volcanic landscapes, including Ngorongoro Crater. Stay at exclusive and luxurious tented camps, and travel in spacious four-seater, four-wheel drive safari vehicles.
Jordan Rift Valley
The Jordan Rift Valley, also Jordan Valley (Modern Hebrew: בקעת הירדן Bik'at Hayarden, Biblical Hebrew: בִּקְעָת הַיַרְדֵּן, romanized: Biqʿāṯ hay-Yardēn, Arabic: الغور, romanized: al-Ghawr), is an elongated endorheic basin located in modern-day Israel, Jordan, and Palestine.
DNA Study Sheds New Light on Ancient Africa
by Stony Brook Medicine NEWS 30/5/19
A DNA-based study of 41 human skeletons, conducted by an international scientific team co-led by Stony Brook University bio-archaeologist Elizabeth Sawchuk, PhD, reveals a multistep spread of the first herders into East Africa. The findings are published online in the journal Science.
Traces of History and Archeology and Art's post
The Pinglu Rift Valley, located in the vast Loess Plateau of north-central China, is a witness to the Earth's dynamic geological history. Covering an area of approximately 400,000 square kilometers, this remarkable feature is a striking example of the constant evolution of the earth's shell, shaped by forces active deep within our planet.
Department of Archaeology
by Professor Merrick Posnansky UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Merrick was a pioneering Africanist archaeologist who trained for a short time in Cambridge, undertaking a Diploma in Prehistoric Archaeology with Graeme Clark, before completing a PhD at Nottingham (1956). Merrick went on to highly important roles in Africa including as a warden for prehistoric sites in Kenya, Curator of the Uganda Museum (1958-62), Deputy Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (1962-64), Director of the African Studies programme at Makerere University (1964-67), Professor of Archaeology, University of Legon, Ghana (1967-1977) and Professor of Archaeology, UCLA (1977 to 1994).
DNA from 41 skeletons hints at first herders in Africa
by Gregory Filiano-Stony Brook 31/5/19 FUTURITY
“The origins of food producers in East Africa have remained elusive because of gaps in the archaeological record,” explains Mary Prendergast, a co-first author and professor of anthropology at Saint Louis University in Madrid, Spain “Our study uses DNA to answer previously unsolvable questions about how people were moving and interacting.”
Olorgesailie Prehistoric Site
Olorgesailie Prehistoric Site is located on the floor of the Great Rift Valley between two extinct volcanoes, Mt. Olorgesailie and Oldonyo Esakut to the south-west of Nairobi, Kenya. Olorgesailie area is in a lake basin that existed during the latter part of the middle Pleistocene period, probably between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago. Discovered by Louis and Mary Leakey in the 1940s, Olorgesailie was excavated by Glynn Isaac as his dissertation research during the 1960s.
Professor’s work in Kenya investigates site of newly discovered human remains
by Jennifer Falk 15/9/21 theDen
Since December 2018, Dr. Francis Kirera, an assistant professor of anatomy at the School of Medicine, has been leading a team of researchers at the site in Ngobit, located in the Central Highlands. The uncovering of the hominin fossil by Kenyan archaeologist Richard Kinyua was a major discovery.
Obsidian types from Holocene sites around Lake Turkana, and other localities in northern Kenya
by Barbara P. Nash 6/11 ScienceDirect
Obsidian has been widely used by early Holocene hunter-gatherers and succeeding Pastoral Neolithic peoples in northern Kenya. Here we report the results of over 2000 electron microprobe analyses of artifactual and non-artifactual obsidian from the greater Lake Turkana region.
Early Pottery and Pastoral Cultures of the Central Rift Valley, Kenya
by John R. F. Bower and Charles M. Nelson JSTOR
A number of pottery occurrences in the northern part of eastern Africa have been dated to the early Holocene (5000-9000 B.P.)-a range of time far earlier than would have been thought likely a few years ago. A new date of 7255 B.P. on pottery from Mt Suswa suggests that the distribution of the early Holocene wares extends at least as far south as the Central Rift Valley, Kenya.
Adventures in the Rift Valley: Interactive
=====The Middle Palaeolithic Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet site, Israel: reconstructing the environment of Late Pleistocene wetlands in the eastern Mediterranean from ostracods Author links open overlay panel===== by Johannes Kalbe 2/15 ScienceDirect
Sediments of two Pleistocene water bodies are exposed at the site. The first one is an archaeologically sterile, light-colored limnic carbonate with an Early Pleistocene age. It contains an ostracod fauna assemblage dominated by Candona neglecta, Candonopsis kingsleii, and Pseudocandona sp., and, in minor abundances, Cypria ophtalmica, Cyprideis sp., Humphcypris sp., Fabaeformiscandona cf. fabaeformis and Ilyocypris sp. These sediments were deposited in a shallow, freshwater to oligohaline lake under stable conditions.
Exploring Humanity's Technological Origins –
by West Turkana Archaeological Project
WTAP’s major scientific goal is to shed new light on the behavioural evolution and adaptations of our early human ancestors – Australopithecus and early Homo – and to reconstruct the habitats in which they lived.
Geochronology of a long Pleistocene sequence at Kilombe volcano, Kenya: from the Oldowan to Middle Stone Age
by S. Hoare 1/21 ScienceDirect
We report a newly extended stratigraphic sequence with associated Palaeolithic sites from the area of the extinct Kilombe volcano in central Kenya. The extended archaeological sequence runs from Oldowan finds, through the Acheulean, and up to the Middle Stone Age.
Proceedings of the lowa Academy of Science
The Iowa Academy of Science began publishing the Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science in 1887 (volumes 1-12 are titled Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Sciences). The publication continued until 1987, when it became known as the peer-reviewed Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science. The change coincided with the 100th Annual Meeting of the Academy, concluding a process that began in 1971 when the Proceedings became a quarterly periodical which included papers that had not been presented at the previous annual meeting.
The cradle of mankind
The system of rift valleys that characterizes the African continent represents a perfect environment to understand the evolution of mankind; for the important paleoanthropological discoveries in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zaire, the African rift valleys are indeed considered the "cradle of mankind", that is the place where our species evolved and diversified in the last million years.
Lucy (Australopithecus)
AL 288-1, commonly known as Lucy or Dinkʼinesh (Amharic: ድንቅ ነሽ, lit. 'you are marvellous'), is a collection of several hundred pieces of fossilized bone comprising 40 percent of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis. It was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, at Hadar, a site in the Awash Valley of the Afar Triangle, by Donald Johanson, a paleoanthropologist of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.[1][2][3]
Department of Anthropology
by Stanley H. Ambrose UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBAN-CHAMPAIGN
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF MODERN HUMAN ORIGINS IN EAST AFRICA. We are investigating the chronology of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) by dating volcanic ashes in archaeological sites in the Kenya Rift Valley in collaboration with Mwanzia D. Kyule, Mulu Muia (U. Nairobi), Martin A.J. Williams (U. Adelaide, Alan Deino (Berkeley Geochronology Center) and Ian Steele (U. Chicago). Several sites document the Acheulean to MSA, and MSA to LSA transitions.
Ancient Civilizations, Mystery Origins & World Cultures
Carved into the basalt cliffs of Ethiopia’s Rift Valley, archaeologists have uncovered enormous humanoid ribcages seemingly fused directly into the volcanic rock. The discovery has sparked worldwide controversy: were these beings petrified by a cataclysmic event, or is this a natural formation misinterpreted through the lens of myth? Officials remain silent, further fueling suspicion of suppressed truths.
DNA Study Illustrates the Complex Story of Ancient Herders and Farmers in East Africa and How Food Production Entered Sub-Saharan Africa
by STONY BROOK, NY, 30/5/19 Stony Brook University
How food production entered sub-Saharan Africa some 5,000 years ago and the ways in which herding and farming spread through the continent in ancient times has long been a topic of archaeological debate. Now an international scientific team co-led by Stony Brook University bio-archaeologist Elizabeth Sawchuk, PhD, is unlocking some of those mysteries.
The Gorge Project and Field School, New Mexico
by Columbia Center for Archaeology
Initiated in 2007, the Gorge Project is an ongoing network of research collaborations in northern New Mexico centered on the landscapes, visual culture, and archaeological traces within the Rio Grande gorge. The project has three commitments: first, to the documentation of the material record of northern New Mexican history; second, to the participation of descendent communities and concerned members of the public in the interpretation of that record; third, to intellectual experimentation and the development of new archaeological theory. A fieldschool is run annually through Barnard College. For further information contact Prof. Severin Fowles
Human and Environmental Interactions in Late Iron Age Kenya
by Freda Nkirote M'Mbogori 25/3/21 ANTHROPOLOGY
The Late Iron Age period in Kenya spans between 1000 BP and 200 BP. However, not much is known regarding this time period owing to the past direction of research in Kenya. Investigations concentrated on earlier archaeological periods due to the country’s richness in early human and technological evolution.
DNA Study Sheds New Light on Ancient Africa
by Stony Brook University 30/5/19
New DNA research shows how food production entered sub-Saharan Africa some 5,000 years ago, illuminating how herding and farming spread through the continent in ancient times.
=====The archaeological potential of the northern Luangwa Valley, Zambia: The Luwumbu basin===== by Burke PLOS One
The Luangwa Basin, Zambia, which forms part of the Zambezi drainage, is strategically
located between the Central African plateau and the East African Rift system. The Luangwa River and major tributaries, such as the Luwumbu River, are perennial water sources supporting essential resources that sustain human communities and a rich and diverse fauna and flora.
Human and Environmental Interactions in Late Iron Age Kenya
The Late Iron Age period in Kenya spans between 1000 BP and 200 BP. However, not much is known regarding this time period owing to the past direction of research in Kenya. Investigations concentrated on earlier archaeological periods due to the country’s richness in early human and technological evolution.
First Yardstick
by Paul Salopek 14/11/24 Out of Eden Walk
I am walking to Suyanggae, South Korea, an archaeological zone that holds rare and precious relics of the peoples I am following on my insane walk across the globe: early Homo sapiens, the first Stone Age wanderers out of Africa who explored the farthest rims of our planet.
The southwest of the Turkana Basin: a cradle for humanities
In Kanyimangin, the Trans-Evol project records a key period in our evolutionary history: the transition between the Early and Middle Pleistocene between 1,250,000 and 750,000 years ago. This period is characterized by serious climate disruption impacting all ecosystems, including the human populations of the time, but for the moment only three human fossils have survived in a reasonable state.
The Archaeology of Indiana Jones
While completing his Ph.D at the University of Michigan, David West Reynolds used his archaeological skills to track down and relocate the lost original filming locations of the first Star Wars film in Tunisia. His discoveries of movie props abandoned for decades in the Sahara got Reynolds hired by Lucasfilm to write a series of globally best-selling books that took an archaeological approach to fleshing out the backstory of director George Lucas’ fictional Star Wars universe.
Archaeological Sites
The Kariandusi archaeological site is amongst the first discoveries of Lower Paleolithic sites in East Africa. There is enough geological evidence to show that in the past, large lakes, sometimes reaching levels hundreds of meters higher than the Present Lake Nakuru and Elementaita, occupied this basin. Dating back between 700,000 to 1 million years old, Kariandusi is possibly the first Acheulian site to have been found in Situ in East Africa.
Kalambo Falls
The Kalambo Falls on the Kalambo River is a 235-metre (772 ft) single-drop waterfall on the border of Zambia and Rukwa Region, Tanzania at the southeast end of Lake Tanganyika.
Welcome to Kenya's Rift Valley Tour Circuit...
Most lakes in Kenya are found straddled within the Rift Valley such as L. Kamnarok in Elgeyo-Marakwet; L. Baringo and L. Bogoria in Baringo county, Lakes Nakuru, Elementaita and Naivasha in Nakuru County and others which are some of the best tourist attractions in the region.
Hadar
Hadar, site of paleoanthropological excavations in the lower Awash River valley in the Afar region of Ethiopia. It lies along the northernmost part of Africa’s Eastern (Great) Rift Valley, about 185 miles (300 km) northeast of Addis Ababa. The lower valley of the Awash River—i.e., the Hadar area—was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980.
=====Early pastoral mobility and seasonality in Kenya assessed through stable isotope analysis Author links open overlay panel===== by Anneke Janzen 5/20 ScienceDirect
Eastern African pastoralists today depend on mobility to access seasonally available pastures for their livestock. Here, we evaluate the importance of mobility strategies for maintaining herds during the Pastoral Neolithic era in southern Kenya through stable isotope analysis.
Why is the East African Rift Valley considered the cradle of human beings?
Actually a region in South Africa (Sterkfontein Caves area) is NOW officially recognized as the “Cradle of Humankind”. The reason for this is that this region has yielded the closest known APE species ancestor to our HOMO (human) species… in other words the closest link (or jump) ever found between apes and humans (homo) in our evolution timeline. It was therefore called “The missing link”.
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports
Special section on “Archaeological Science in Southern South America”; Guest Edited by Marcelo Morales, Augusto Tessone, Ramiro Barberena
A Middle Stone Age Worked Bone Industry from Katanda, Upper Semliki Valley, Zaire
Three archaeological sites at Katanda on the Upper Semliki River in the Western Rift Valley of Zaire have provided evidence for a well-developed bone industry in a Middle Stone Age context. Artifacts include both barbed and unbarbed points as well as a daggerlike object.
Animal movements in the Kenya Rift and evidence for the earliest ambush hunting by hominins
by Simon Kübler 15/9/15 scientific reports
Animal movements in the Kenya Rift Valley today are influenced by a combination of topography and trace nutrient distribution. These patterns would have been the same in the past when hominins inhabited the area. We use this approach to create a landscape reconstruction of Olorgesailie, a key site in the East African Rift with abundant evidence of large-mammal butchery between ~1.2 and ~0.5 Ma BP.
=====Archaeobotanical inference of Bronze Age land use and land cover in the eastern Mediterranean Author links open overlay panel===== by JoAnna Klinge 10/10 ScienceDirect
Charcoal and charred seeds at five Bronze Age archaeological sites discern ancient land use in the eastern Mediterranean. Seed frequencies of orchard crops, annual cereals and pulses, and wild or weedy plants are used to characterize plant utilization at different archaeological sites on the island of Cyprus, in the Rift Valley of Jordan, and in the Jabbul Plain and along the upper Euphrates River valley in Syria.
Hyrax Hill Prehistoric Site and Museum
Hyrax hill is a museum as well as anational monument.it is a burial site of the neolithic period(of the late stone age and iron age)It is situated East of Nakuru town,about 3.5Km on the foot of asmall hill once scampetred by Hyraxes hence the name Hyrax Hill.The site covers an area about 58Hectares of land ,most of whiich is covered by the hill.The site is composed of habitation hollows believed to have been inhabited by a pastrol group thatproceeded the present Maasai in Kenya.The summit of the hill rises to altitude of 1900Metres above sea level.The site was proclaimed a monument in 1943 having being discovered by a local farmer in the 1920s,it was then opened to the Public in the year 1965 and since then it has remained under the care of National museums of Kenya.
Archaeology in Kenya
6 million years there was a portentous wend in the paradigm of the evolution of species, as the foremost ancestor of humankind set about evolving the features unique to its kind. Homo sapiens, the à la mode and only extant human species, belongs to a group of over 180 divergent species, some extanct, others that have disappeared, and is not per-se a direct descendant of the monkey species as the modest like to simplify.
Earliest human remains in eastern Africa dated to more than 230,000 years ago
by Popular Archaeology 12/1/22
An international team of scientists, led by the University of Cambridge, has reassessed the age of the Omo I remains – and Homo sapiens as a species. Earlier attempts to date the fossils suggested they were less than 200,000 years old, but the new research shows they must be older than a colossal volcanic eruption that took place 230,000 years ago. The results* are reported in the journal Nature.
Louis Leakey
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai Gorge with his wife, fellow palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey. Having established a programme of palaeoanthropological inquiry in eastern Africa, he also motivated many future generations to continue this scholarly work. Several members of the Leakey family became prominent scholars themselves.[1]
=====The use of mortality patterns in archaeological studies of hominid predatory adaptations Author links open overlay panel===== by Mary C. Stiner 12/1990 ScienceDirect
Mortality patterns in archaeofaunas can be informative of prehistoric human foraging habits, land use, and, ultimately, evolutionary changes in hominid sociality and ecological niche. The analytical value of mortality patterns is only as great, however, as archaeologists' understanding of the full range of possible causes for patterns in these data.
Olorgesailie Drilling Project
In the Oct. 21 issue of the journal Science Advances, an interdisciplinary team of scientists led by Richard Potts, director of the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, describes the prolonged period of instability across the landscape in this part of Africa (now Kenya) that occurred at the same time humans in the region were undergoing a major behavioral and cultural shift in their evolution.
