This paper reports the results of an archaeological survey and test excavation conducted in one of the ancient megalithic stele sites in south Ethiopia, Sakaro Sodo. The Sakaro Sodo stele site is situated in Gedeo zone, which is known to have the largest number and highest concentration of megalithic stele monuments in Africa, with an estimate of more than 10,000 stelae in sixty or more sites. Prior to our work, only one absolute date was available (850 ± 40 BP) (Joussaume 2012) from a stele site in the Gedeo zone, suggesting stele sites began to be constructed in the region approximately a millennium ago. We report here new AMS dates suggesting that stelae were being emplaced about 2000 BP, pushing the creation of these monuments back at least a millennium. Additionally, we report preliminary findings from characterizing the geochemical properties of obsidian artifacts recovered from stele sites, and stone used to make stelae. While compositional analysis of obsidian suggests long-distance movement of material from sources located in northern Kenya, petrographic microscopy and electron microprobe analyses show a strong connection of stelae to local geological tuff exposures/sources.

本文报告了在埃塞俄比亚南部的一个古老巨石碑遗址 Sakaro Sodo 进行的考古调查和测试挖掘的结果。Sakaro Sodo石碑遗址位于Gedeo地区，该地区以非洲巨石碑的数量和集中度而闻名，估计有60多个遗址超过10,000个石碑。在我们工作之前，Gedeo 地区的一个石碑遗址只有一个绝对日期（850 ± 40 BP）（Joussaume 2012），这表明该地区大约在一千年前开始建造石碑遗址。我们在这里报告了新的AMS日期，表明石碑大约在 2000 BP被安置，将这些纪念碑的创建至少推迟了一千年。此外，我们报告了从石碑遗址回收的黑曜石文物和用于制作石碑的石头的地球化学特性表征的初步发现。虽然黑曜石的成分分析表明材料从位于肯尼亚北部的来源进行了长距离移动，但岩相显微镜和电子探针分析显示石碑与当地地质凝灰岩暴露/来源密切相关。