Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Prospect Farm and the Middle and Later Stone Age Occupation of Mt. Eburru (Central Rift, Kenya) in an East African Context

  • Review Article
  • Published:
African Archaeological Review Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Located within the Nakuru-Naivasha basin on the northern slope of Mt. Eburru, the open-air site of Prospect Farm (Central Rift, Kenya) is one of the few East African sites that have yielded a stratigraphic sequence containing archaeological levels dating from the late Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene. Excavations at the site by Barbara Whitehead Anthony and Glynn Isaac in 1963–1964 exposed Pastoral Neolithic (Stone Bowl culture) and Later Stone Age (LSA; Kenya Capsian) levels overlying four Middle Stone Age (MSA) levels attributed to the Prospect Industry, a local expression of the Kenya Stillbay. This paper integrates the information currently available for the site and discusses its relevance in a wider East African context. Furthermore, it presents the results of a density survey completed in 2014, mapping the spatial distribution of artifacts along the northern slope of Mt. Eburru and providing data on the landscape setting of the site. The survey identified marked differences in the distribution of diagnostic MSA vs. LSA artifacts: whereas MSA finds cluster at two particular mid-altitude locations (2,102–2,108 m and 2,138–2,140 m a.s.l.) corresponding to the position of Anthony’s Localities I and II, LSA finds tend to show a much broader spatial distribution including both higher and lower altitudes.

Résumé

Situé dans le bassin de Nakuru-Naivasha sur la pente nord du Mont Eburru, le site de plein air de Prospect Farm (Rift Central, Kenya) est un des rares sites d’Afrique de l’Est qui a fourni une séquence stratigraphique contenant plusieurs niveaux archéologiques datant de la fin du Pléistocène Moyen jusqu’à l’Holocène. Les fouilles de Barbara Whitehead Anthony et Glynn Isaac en 1963–1964 ont exposé des niveaux du Néolithique pastoral et du Paléolithique supérieur (Later Stone Age [LSA]; Capsien du Kenya) au-dessus de quatre niveaux du Paléolithique moyen (Middle Stone Age [MSA]) attribués à la « Prospect Industry ». Celle-ci représente une expression locale du Kenya Stillbay. Cet article intègre les informations disponibles sur le site et discute son importance dans un contexte géographique plus large. Une prospection de densité a été menée en 2014, afin d’étudier la distribution spatiale des artéfacts le long de la pente nord du Mont Eburru. Cette prospection, dont les résultats sont présentés ici, a identifié des différences significatives entre la distribution des artéfacts diagnostiques du MSA et ceux du LSA: Alors que les artéfacts du MSA sont concentrés sur deux zones à une altitude moyenne (2102–2108 m et 2138–2140 m a.s.l.) qui correspondent à la position des fouilles d’Anthony, les artéfacts du LSA présentent une dispersion spatiale plus large qui inclus aussi les altitudes plus hautes et plus basses.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ambrose, S. H. (1980). Elmenteitan and other late Pastoral Neolithic adaptations in the central highlands of East Africa. In R. E. F. Leakey & B. A. Ogot (Eds.), Proceedings of the 8th Panafrican Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Studies, 1977 (pp. 279–282). Nairobi: The International Louis Leakey Memorial Institute for African Prehistory.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose, S. H. (1982). Archaeology and linguistic reconstructions of history in East Africa. In C. Ehret & M. Posnansky (Eds.), The archaeological and linguistic reconstructions of African history (pp. 104–157). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose, S. H. (1984). Holocene environments and human adaptations in the Central Rift Valley, Kenya. Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley.

  • Ambrose, S.H. (1986). Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations to Non-Marginal Environments: An Ecological and Archaeological Assessment of the Dorobo Model. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika, 7(2), 11v42.

  • Ambrose, S. H. (1998). Chronology of the Later Stone Age and food production in East Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 25, 377–392. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1997.0277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose, S. H. (2001). Middle and Later Stone Age settlement pattern in the Central Rift Valley, Kenya: Comparisons and contrasts. In N. J. Conard (Ed.), Settlement dynamics of the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age (pp. 21–43). Tübingen: Kerns Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose, S. H. (2002). Small things remembered: Origins of early microlithic industries in Subsaharan Africa. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 12, 9–29. https://doi.org/10.1525/ap3a.2002.12.1.1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amollo, M. A. (2001). Understanding the Middle Stone Age adaptive strategies in East Africa: An experimental approach. M.A. thesis, University of Nairobi, Kenya.

  • Anovitz, L. M., Elam, J. M., Riciputi, L. R., & Cole, D. R. (1999). The failure of obsidian hydration dating: Sources, implications, and new directions. Journal of Archaeological Science, 26, 735–752. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1998.0342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anthony, B. W. (1967a). Prospect Farm. Palaeoecology of Africa, 5, 46–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anthony, B. W. (1967b). Excavations near Elmenteita, Kenya. In E. M. V. Z. Bakker (Ed.), Palaeoecology of Africa & of the surrounding islands & Antarctica (Vol. II, pp. 47–48). Cape Town-Amsterdam: Balkema.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anthony, B. W. (1972). The Stillbay question. In H. Hugot (Ed.), Actes du VIe Congrés Panafricain de Prehistoire et de l'Étude du Quaternaire, Dakar, 1967 (pp. 80–82). Cambéry: Les Imprimeries Réunies de Chambéry.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anthony, B. W. (1978). The Prospect Industry—a definition. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge.

  • Assefa, Z. (2002). Investigations of faunal remains from Porc-Epic: A Middle Stone Age site in southeastern Ethiopia. Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY.

  • Assefa, Z. (2006). Faunal remains from Porc-Epic: Paleoecological and zooarcheological investigation from a Middle Stone Age site in southeastern Ethiopia. Journal of Human Evolution, 51, 50–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.01.004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Assefa, Z., Lam, Y. M., & Mienis, H. K. (2008). Symbolic use of terrestrial gastropod opercula during the Middle Stone Age at Porc Epic Cave, Ethiopia. Current Anthropology, 49, 746–756. https://doi.org/10.1086/589509.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger, R., & Libby, W. F. (1968). UCLA Radiocarbon dates VII. Radiocarbon, 10, 149–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergner, A. G. N., Trauth, M. H., & Bookhagen, B. (2003). Paleoprecipitation estimates for the Lake Naivasha basin (Kenya) during the last 175 k.y. using a lake-balance model. Global and Planetary Change, 36, 117–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8181(02)00178-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bergner, A. G. N., Strecker, M. R., Trauth, M. H., Deino, A., Gasse, F., Blisniuk, P., & Dühnforth, M. (2009). Tectonic and climatic control on evolution of rift lakes in the Central Kenya Rift, East Africa. Quaternary Science Reviews, 28, 2804–2816. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.07.008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blegen, N. (2017). The earliest long-distance obsidian transport: Evidence from the ~200 ka Middle Stone Age Sibilo School Road Site, Baringo, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution, 103, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.11.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blegen, N., Faith, J. T., Mant-Melville, A., Peppe, D. J., & Tryon, C. A. (2017). The Middle Stone Age after 50,000 years ago: New evidence from the Late Pleistocene sediments of the eastern Lake Victoria basin, Western Kenya. PaleoAnthropology, 2017, 139–169. https://doi.org/10.4207/PA.2017.ART108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blegen, N., Jicha, B. R., & McBrearty, S. (2018). A new tephrochronology for early diverse stone tool technologies and long-distance raw material transport in the Middle to Late Pleistocene Kapthurin Formation, East Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 121, 75–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.03.005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bower, J. R. F., Nelson, C. M., Waibel, A. F., & Wandibba, S. (1977). The University of Massachusetts’ Later Stone Age/Pastoral Neolithic comparative study in central Kenya: An overview. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 12, 119–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/00672707709511251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandt, S. A. (1986). The Upper Pleistocene and early Holocene prehistory of the Horn of Africa. African Archaeological Review, 4, 41–82. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01117035.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandt, S. A., & Brook, G. A. (1984). Archaeological and paleoenvironmental research in northern Somalia. Current Anthropology, 25, 119–121. https://doi.org/10.1086/203093.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandt, S. A., & Gresham, T. H. (1989). L’âge de la Pierre en Somalie. L’Anthropologie, 94, 459–482.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandt, S. A., Brook, G. A., & Gresham, T. H. (1984). Quaternary paleoenvironments and prehistoric human occupation of Northern Somalia. In T. Labahn (Ed.), Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Somali Studies. University of Hamburg, August 1–6, 1983, Volume II - Archaeology and History (pp. 7–19). Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandt, S. A., Fisher, E. C., Hildebrand, E. A., Vogelsang, R., Ambrose, S. H., Lesur, J., & Wang, H. (2012). Early MIS 3 occupation of Mochena Borago Rockshelter, Southwest Ethiopian Highlands: Implications for Late Pleistocene archaeology, paleoenvironments, and modern human dispersals. Quaternary International, 274, 38–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.03.047.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brandt, S., Hildebrand, E., Vogelsang, R., Wolfhagen, J., & Wang, H. (2017). A new MIS 3 radiocarbon chronology for Mochena Borago Rockshelter, SW Ethiopia: Implications for the interpretation of Late Pleistocene chronostratigraphy and human behaviour. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 11, 352–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.09.013.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breuil, H., Teilhard de Chardin, P., & Wernert, P. (1951). Le Paléolithique du Harrar. L’Anthropologie, 55, 219–230.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, A. S., Yellen, J. E., Potts, R., Behrensmeyer, A. K., Deino, A. L., Leslie, D. E., et al. (2018). Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age. Science, 360, 90–94. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao2646.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, F. H., Nash, B. P., Fernandez, D. P., Merrick, H. V., & Thomas, R. J. (2013). Geochemical composition of source obsidians from Kenya. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40, 3233–3251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.03.011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. D. (1954). The prehistoric cultures of the Horn of Africa. An analysis of the Stone Age cultural and climatic succession in the Somalilands and eastern parts of Abyssinia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. D. (Ed.). (1982). The Cambridge history of Africa. I: From the earliest times to c. 500 B.C. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. D. (1988). The Middle Stone Age of East Africa and the beginnings of regional identity. Journal of World Prehistory, 2, 235–305. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00975618.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. D., Williamson, K. D., Michels, J. W., & Marean, C. A. (1984). A Middle Stone Age occupation site at Porc Epic Cave, Dire Dawa (East-Central Ethiopia). African Archaeological Review, 2, 37–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01117225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, M. C. G., Woodhall, D. G., Allen, D. J., & Darling, W. G. (1990). Geological, volcanological, and hydrogeological controls on the occurrence of geothermal activity in the area surrounding Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Nairobi: Ministry of Energy, Kenya & British Geological Survey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, M. (1970). A reassessment of the Stone Bowl cultures of the Rift Valley, Kenya. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 5, 27–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, S. (1954). The prehistory of East Africa. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, M. E. (2010) Radioanalytical multielemental analysis: New methodology and archaeometric applications. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO.

  • Coleman, M. E., Ferguson, J. R., Glascock, M. D., Robertson, J. D., & Ambrose, S. H. (2008). A new look at the geochemistry of obsidian from East Africa. International Association for Obsidian Studies Bulletin, 39, 11–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, J. (1966). An annotated list of radiocarbon dates for sub-Saharan Africa. Annals of the Cape Provincial Museum, 5, 5–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diez-Martín, F., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Sánchez, P., Mabulla, A. Z. P., Tarriño, A., Barba, R., et al. (2009). The Middle to Later Stone Age technological transition in East Africa: New data from Mumba Rockshelter Bed V (Tanzania) and their implications for the origin of modern human behavior. Journal of African Archaeology, 7, 147–173. https://doi.org/10.3213/1612-1651-10136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Directorate of Overseas Surveys (1975). Ol Doinyo Opuru, Scale 1:50,000, Sheet 133/1 (Series Y731, D.O.S. 423). Nairobi: Kenya Government.

  • Dühnforth, M., Bergner, A. G. N., & Trauth, M. H. (2006). Early Holocene water budget of the Nakuru–Elmenteita basin, Central Kenya Rift. Journal of Paleolimnology, 36, 281–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-006-9003-z.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eren, M. I., Diez-Martin, F., & Dominguez-Rodrigo, M. (2013). An empirical test of the relative frequency of bipolar reduction in Beds VI, V, and III at Mumba Rockshelter, Tanzania: Implications for the East African Middle to Late Stone Age transition. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40, 248–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.08.012.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faith, J. T., Tryon, C. A., Peppe, D. J., Beverly, E. J., Blegen, N., Blumenthal, S., et al. (2015). Paleoenvironmental context of the Middle Stone Age record from Karungu, Lake Victoria Basin, Kenya, and its implications for human and faunal dispersals in East Africa. Journal of Human Evolution, 83, 28–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.03.004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geneste, J.-M. (1985), Analyse Lithique d'Industries Moustériennes du Périgord: Une Approche Technologique du Comportement des Groupes Humains au Paléolithique Moyen. Ph.D. dissertation, Université de Bordeaux, France.

  • Gliganic, L. A., Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R. G., Dominguez-Rodrigo, M., & Mabulla, A. Z. P. (2012). New ages for Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at Mumba rockshelter, Tanzania: Optically stimulated luminescence dating of quartz and feldspar grains. Journal of Human Evolution, 62, 533–547. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2012.02.004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, S. T., & Munyiri, J. M. (2017). The Elmenteitan Obsidian Quarry (GsJj50): New perspectives on obsidian access and exchange during the Pastoral Neolithic in Southern Kenya. African Archaeological Review, 34, 43–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-016-9240-0.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gramly, R. M. (1976). Upper Pleistocene archaeological occurrences at site GvJm/22, Lukenya Hill, Kenya. Man, 11, 319–344. https://doi.org/10.2307/2800274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gutherz, X., Diaz, A., Ménard, C., Bon, F., Douze, K., Léa, V., et al. (2014). The Hargeisan revisited: Lithic industries from shelter 7 of Laas Geel, Somaliland and the transition between the Middle and Late Stone Age in the Horn of Africa. Quaternary International, 343, 69–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.04.038.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helm, R., Crowther, A., Shipton, C., Tengeza, A., Fuller, D., & Boivin, N. (2012). Exploring agriculture, interaction and trade on the eastern African littoral: Preliminary results from Kenya. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 47, 39–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2011.647947.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inskeep, R. R. (1962). The age of the Kondoa rock paintings in the light of recent excavations at Kisese II rock shelter. In G. Mortelmans & J. Nenquin (Eds.), Actes du VI Congrès Panafricain de Préhistoire et de l'Étude du Quaternaire (pp. 249–256). Tervuren: Musée Royale de l'Afrique Centrale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isaac, G. L. (1972). Comparative studies of site locations in East Africa. In P. J. Ucko, R. Tringham, & G. W. Dimbleby (Eds.), Man, settlement and urbanism: Proceedings of a meeting of the Research Seminar in Archaeology and Related Subjects held at the Institute of Archaeology, London University (pp. 165–176). London: Duckworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isaac, G. L. (1976). A preliminary report on stratigraphic studies in the Nakuru basin, Kenya. In B. Abébé, N. Chavaillon, & J. E. G. Sutton (Eds.), Proceedings of the Seventh Panafrican Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Studies, 1971, Addis Ababa (pp. 409–411). Addis Ababa: Ministry of Culture.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isaac, G. L., Merrick, H. V., & Nelson, C. M. (1972). Stratigraphic and archaeological studies in the Lake Nakuru Basin, Kenya. In E. M. Van Zinderen Bakker (Ed.), Palaeoecology of Africa & of the surrounding islands & Antarctica (Vol. VI, pp. 225–232). Cape Town: Balkema.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, A. J. (1996) Intra-regional and inter-regional variability in the East Turkana (Kenya) and Kenyan Middle Stone Age. Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

  • Krueger, H. W., & Weeks, F. C. (1966). Geochron Laboratories, Inc. radiocarbon measurements II. Radiocarbon, 8, 142–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leakey, L. S. B. (1931). The Stone Age cultures of Kenya colony. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leakey, L. S. B. (1936). Stone Age Africa: An outline of prehistory in Africa. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leakey, L. S. B. (1947). Capsian or Aurignacian? Which term should be used in Africa? In L. S. B. Leakey (Ed.), Proceedings of the 1st Panafrican Congress on Prehistory, Nairobi, 1947 (pp. 205–206). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leplongeon, A. (2014). Microliths in the Middle and Later Stone Age of eastern Africa: New data from Porc-Epic and Goda Buticha cave sites, Ethiopia. Quaternary International, 343, 100–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.12.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liritzis, I., & Laskaris, N. (2011). Fifty years of obsidian hydration dating in archaeology. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 357(10), 2011–2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2011.02.048.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marks, A. E., & Conard, N. (2008). Technology vs. typology: The case for and against a transition from the MSA to the LSA at Mumba Cave, Tanzania. In T. Aubry, F. Almeida, A. C. Araújo, & M. Tiffagom (Eds.), Space and time: which diachronies, which synchronies, which scales? / Typology vs. technology (Proceedings of the XV World Congress UISPP, Lisbon, 4-9 September 2006 (Bar International Series, S1831)) (pp. 123–132). Oxford: Archaeopress.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCall, G. J. H. (1967). Geology of the Nakuru-Thomson’s Falls Lake Hannington area (Geological Survey of Kenya Report, 78). Nairobi: Geological Survey of Kenya.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehlman, M. J. (1977). Excavations at Nasera Rock, Tanzania. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 12, 111–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehlman, M. J. (1979). Mumba Höhle revisited: The relevance of a forgotten excavation to some current issues in East African prehistory. World Archaeology, 11, 80–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehlman, M. J. (1989). Late Quaternary archaeological sequences in northern Tanzania. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL.

  • Merrick, H. V. (1975). Change in Later Pleistocene lithic industries in Eastern Africa. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.

  • Merrick, H. V., & Brown, F. H. (1984a). Obsidian sources and patterns of source utilization in Kenya and northern Tanzania: Some initial findings. African Archaeological Review, 2, 129–152. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01117229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merrick, H. V., & Brown, F. H. (1984b). Rapid chemical characterization of obsidian artifacts by electron microprobe analysis. Archaeometry, 26, 230–236. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.1984.tb00337.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merrick, H. V., Brown, F. H., & Connelly, M. (1990). Sources of the obsidian at Ngamuriak and other south-western Kenyan Sites. In P. Robertshaw (Ed.), Early pastoralists of south-western Kenya (pp. 173–182). Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merrick, H. V., Brown, F. H., & Nash, W. P. (1994). Use and movement of obsidian in the Early and Middle Stone Ages of Kenya and Northern Tanzania. In T. S. Childs (Ed.), Society, culture and technology in Africa (MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology, supplement to volume 11) (pp. 29–44). Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania & Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michels, J. W., & Marean, C. A. (1984). A Middle Stone Age occupation site at Porc Epic cave, Dire Dawa (east-central Ethiopia), part II. African Archaeological Review, 2, 37–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01117225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michels, J. W., Tsong, I., & Nelson, C. M. (1983). Obsidian dating and East African archaeology. Science, 219, 361–366. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.219.4583.361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Onjala, I. O. (2004). The emergence of modern human behavior: The East African evidence. Nyame Akuma, 62, 42–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (1974). Réexamen typologique de l’industrie du Porc-Épic (Éthiopie): Les pointes et pièces pointues. L’Anthropologie, 78, 529–552.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pleurdeau, D. (2003). Le Middle Stone Age de la grotte du Porc Épic (Dire Dawa, Éthiopie): gestion des matières premières et comportements techniques. L’Anthropologie, 107, 15–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pleurdeau, D. (2004). Gestion des matières premières et comportements techniques dans leMiddle Stone Age africain. Les assemblages lithiques de la grotte du Porc-Épic, Dire Dawa, Éthiopie (British Archaeological Reports International Series 1317). Oxford: Archaeopress.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pleurdeau, D. (2005a). Human technical behavior in the African Middle Stone Age: The lithic assemblages of Porc-Epic Cave (Dire Dawa, Ethiopia). African Archaeological Review, 22, 177–197. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-006-9000-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pleurdeau, D. (2005b). The lithic assemblage of the 1975-1976 excavation of the Porc-Epic Cave (Dire-Dawa, Ethiopia): Implications for the East African Middle Stone Age. Journal of African Archaeology, 3, 117–126. https://doi.org/10.3213/1612-1651-10040.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pleurdeau, D., Hovers, E., Assefa, Z., Asrat, A., Pearson, O., Bahain, J.-J., & Man Lam, Y. (2014). Cultural change or continuity in the late MSA/early LSA of southeastern Ethiopia? The site of Goda Buticha, Dire Dawa area. Quaternary International, 343, 117–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.02.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prendergast, M. E., Luque, L., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Diez-Martin, F., Mabulla, A., & Barba, R. (2007). New excavations at Mumba Rockshelter, Tanzania. Journal of African Archaeology, 5(2), 217–243.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranhorn, K., & Tryon, C. A. (2018). New radiocarbon dates from Nasera Rockshelter (Tanzania): Implications for studying spatial patterns in Late Pleistocene technology. Journal of African Archaeology, 16(2), 211–222. https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ren, M., Omenda, P. A., Anthony, E. Y., White, J. C., Macdonald, R., & Bailey, D. K. (2006). Application of the QUILF thermobarometer to the peralkaline trachytes and pantellerites of the Eburru volcanic complex, East African Rift, Kenya. Lithos, 91, 109–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2006.03.011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosso, D. E., d’Errico, F., & Zilhão, J. (2014). Stratigraphic and spatial distribution of ochre and ochre processing tools at Porc-Epic Cave, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. Quaternary International, 343, 85–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2013.10.019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosso, D. E., d'Errico, F., & Queffelec, A. (2017). Patterns of change and continuity in ochre use during the late Middle Stone Age of the Horn of Africa: The Porc-Epic Cave record. PLoS One, 12(5), e0177298. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shipton, C., Helm, R., Boivin, N., Crowther, A., Austin, P., & Fuller, D. Q. (2013). Intersections, networks and the genesis of social complexity on the Nyali Coast of East Africa. African Archaeological Review, 30, 427–453. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-013-9140-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shipton, C., Roberts, P., Archer, W., Armitage, S. J., Bita, C., Blinkhorn, J., et al. (2018). 78,000-year-old record of Middle and Later Stone Age innovation in an East African tropical forest. Nature Communications, 99(1832). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04057-3.

  • Slater, P. A. (2016). Change in lithic technological organisation strategies during the Middle and Later Stone Ages in East Africa. Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL.

  • Strecker, M., Blisniuk, P., & Eisbacher, G. (1990). Rotation of extension direction in the Central Kenya Rift. Geology, 18, 29–302.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teilhard de Chardin, P. (1930). Le Paléolithique en Somalie française et en Abyssinie. L’Anthropologie, 40, 331–334.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, O. A., & Dodson, R. G. (1963a). Geological map of the Naivasha area. Degree Sheet No. 43, South-West Quarter, Scale 1:125,000. Nairobi: Ministry of Commerce and Industry & Geological survey of Kenya.

  • Thompson, O. A., & Dodson, R. G. (1963b). Geology of the Naivasha area. Explanation of Degree Sheet 43, South-West Quarter (Report No. 55). Nairobi: Ministry of Commerce and Industry & Geological survey of Kenya..

    Google Scholar 

  • Tombo-Kodalo, J. (1991). A comparative study of the Middle Stone Age cores from Kenya Highlands and the Lake Victoria Basin sites. B.A. thesis, University of Nairobi, Kenya.

  • Tombo-Kolado, J. (2002). A comparative study of Middle Stone Age cores from the Lake Victoria Basin and the Central Highland of Kenya. Nyame Akuma, 58, 19–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trapnell, C. G., Birch, W. R., Brunt, M. A., & Lawton, R. M. (1976). Kenya 1:250,000 Vegetation Sheet 2. Results of a vegetation-land use survey of south-western Kenya. Nairobi: British Government’s Ministry of Overseas Development (Directorate of Overseas Surveys) under the Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trauth, M. H., Deino, A. L., Bergner, A. G., & Strecker, M. R. (2003). East African climate change and orbital forcing during the last 175 kyr BP. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 206, 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(02)01105-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tribolo, C., Asrat, A., Bahain, J.-J., Chapon, C., Douville, E., Fragnol, C., et al. (2017). Across the gap: Geochronological and sedimentological analyses from the Late Pleistocene-Holocene sequence of Goda Buticha, southeastern Ethiopia. PLoS One, 12(1), e0169418. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169418.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tryon, C. A., & Faith, J. T. (2016). A demographic perspective on the Middle to Later Stone Age transition from Nasera rockshelter, Tanzania. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 371(1698), 20150238. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tryon, C. A., Crevecoeur, I., Faith, J. T., Ekshtain, R., Nivens, J., Patterson, D., et al. (2015). Late Pleistocene age and archaeological context for the hominin calvaria from GvJm-22 (Lukenya Hill, Kenya). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112, 268–2687. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1417909112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tryon, C. A., Lewis, J. E., Ranhorn, K. L., Kwekason, A., Alex, B., Laird, M. F., et al. (2018). Middle and Later Stone Age chronology of Kisese II rockshelter (UNESCO World Heritage Kondoa Rock-Art Sites), Tanzania. PLoS One, 13(2), e0192029. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192029.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vallois, H. (1951). La Mandibule Humaine Fossile de la Grotte du Porc-Épic près de Diré-Daoua Abyssinie. L’Anthropologie, 55, 231–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.02.021.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vareschi, E. (1982). The ecology of Lake Nakuru (Kenya). Oecologia, 55, 81–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00386722.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vogelsang, R., & Wendt, K. P. (2018). Reconstructing prehistoric settlement models and land use patterns on Mt. Damota/SW Ethiopia. Quaternary International, 485, 140–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.06.061.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Werner, J. J., & Willoughby, P. R. (2017). Middle Stone Age technology and cultural evolution at Magubike Rockshelter, southern Tanzania. African Archaeological Review, 34, 249–273. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-017-9254-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willoughby, P. R. (2012). The Middle and Later Stone Age in the Iringa region of southern Tanzania. Quaternary International, 270, 103–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.02.021.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willoughby, P. R., Compton, T., Bello, S. M., Bushozi, P. M., Skinner, A. R., & Stringer, C. B. (2018). Middle Stone Age human teeth from Magubike rockshelter, Iringa Region, Tanzania. PLoS One, 13(7), e0200530. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilshaw, A. (2016). The current status of the Kenya Capsian. African Archaeological Review, 33, 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-016-9211-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamasaki, F., Hamada, T., & Hamada, C. (1970). Riken natural radiocarbon measurements VI. Radiocarbon, 12, 559–576.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the chief of Kongasis sub-location, Mark Chipchome, for his permission to conduct fieldwork at the site; the National Museums of Kenya, the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA); and Tom Cholmondeley for their logistical support, as well as the 2014 (Cecilia Ngugi [NMK], Sammy Olishimbi, Stephen Leboi and Harrison Lihemo Boge) and 2016 (Henri Mwengi [NMK], Joseph Njuguna, David Tuta, Roja Kodonyo, Leonard Ruto, James Otiende Chuma, Anderson Ekale Emase, Stephen Kodonyo, Peter Mburu and Daniel Shimbi) field teams, and Andrew and Zoe Nightingale. Thanks to Aurélien Mounier for correcting the French abstract. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments on the manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded by a European Research Council Advanced Award to MML (In-Africa Project, ERC 295907) and carried out with the permission of the National Council for Science and Technology, Republic of Kenya, No. NCST/5/002/R/419, and from the National Commission for Science, Technology, and Innovation, Kenya, No. NACOSTI/P/15/2669/4758.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies (LCHES), Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, The Henry Wellcome Building, Fitzwilliam Street, Cambridge, CB2 1QH, UK

    Ann Van Baelen, Alex Wilshaw, Peter Griffith, Gunther Noens, Robert A. Foley & Marta Mirazón Lahr

  2. Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueologia, UNED, c/ Paseo Senda del Rey, 7, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    José-Manuel Maíllo-Fernández

Authors
  1. Ann Van Baelen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alex Wilshaw
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Peter Griffith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Gunther Noens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. José-Manuel Maíllo-Fernández
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Robert A. Foley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Marta Mirazón Lahr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

This article is a product of the ongoing research by the In-Africa Project, directed by MML. Survey and excavations were conducted by AW, JMMF, PG, RAF, and MML (2013); AW, JMMF, and PG (2014); and AVB, GN, PG, AW, RAF, and MML (2016). AVB and AW compiled the historical data on the site; PG compiled and collected the geological data. AVB produced Figs. 1, 5, and 6; GN drew Figs. 3 and 4; and Figs. 2 and 6 were made by AVB and PG. The paper was written by AVB, with contributions by MML, PG, AW, GN, JMMF, and RAF.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ann Van Baelen.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Archaeological time period: Middle Stone Age (MSA), Later Stone Age (LSA), Pastoral Neolithic

Country and region discussed: Central Rift, Kenya, East Africa

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(XLSX 16 kb)

ESM 2

(XLSX 37 kb)

ESM 3

(XLSX 15 kb)

ESM 4

(PNG 3187 kb)

High resolution image (TIF 24747 kb)

ESM 5

(DOCX 15 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Van Baelen, A., Wilshaw, A., Griffith, P. et al. Prospect Farm and the Middle and Later Stone Age Occupation of Mt. Eburru (Central Rift, Kenya) in an East African Context. Afr Archaeol Rev 36, 397–417 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-019-09342-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-019-09342-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation