Middle Holocene Fisher-Hunter-Gatherers of Lake Turkana in Kenya and Their Cultural Connections with the North: The Pottery
In: Journal of African ArchaeologySearch for other papers by Birgit Keding in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
During the Early and Middle Holocene, large areas of today’s arid regions in North and East Africa were populated by fisher-hunter-gatherer communities who heavily relied on aquatic resources. In North Africa, Wavy Line pottery and harpoons are their most salient diagnostic features. Similar finds have also been made at sites in Kenya’s Lake Turkana region in East Africa but a clear classification of the pottery was previously not available. In order to elucidate the cultural connections between Lake Turkana’s first potters and North African groups, the pottery of the Koobi Fora region that was excavated by John Barthelme in the 1970/80s was re-assessed in detail. It was compared and contrasted – on a regional scale – with pottery from Lowasera and sites near Lothagam (Zu4, Zu6) and – on a supra-regional scale – with the pottery of the Central Nile Valley and eastern Sahara. The analyses reveal some significant points: Firstly, the early fisher pottery of Lake Turkana is clearly typologically affiliated with the Early Khartoum pottery and was thus part of the Wavy Line complex. Secondly, certain typological features of the Turkana assemblages, which include only a few Dotted Wavy Line patterns, tentatively hint to a date at least in the 7th millennium bp or earlier. Thirdly, the pottery features suggest that the East African fisher-hunter-gatherers adopted pottery from Northeast Africa.
Résumé
Pendant l’Holocène ancien et moyen, de vastes étendues parmi les régions aujourd’hui arides d’Afrique du Nord et d’Afrique de l’Est étaient peuplées de groupes de pêcheurs et chasseurs-cueilleurs très dépendants des ressources aquatiques. En Afrique du Nord, les poteries au décor en vague (« wavy line pottery ») et les harpons sont le meilleur moyen de mettre en évidence leur présence. Des découvertes similaires ont également été faites sur des sites de la région du Lac Turkana en Afrique de l’Est, mais une classification précise des poteries était par le passé inexistante. Dans le but de comprendre les liens culturels entre les premiers potiers du Lac Turkana et les groupes d’Afrique du Nord, les poteries de la région de Koobi Fora mises à jour par John Barthelme dans les années 1970 et 1980 ont été analysées à nouveau en détail. Elles ont été comparées, à une échelle intra régionale, aux poteries de Lowasera et de sites proches de Lothagam (Zu4, Zu6) et, à une échelle inter-régionale, aux poteries de la Vallée Centrale du Nil et du Sahara oriental. Les analyses révèlent des résultats importants. Tout d’abord, les premières poteries du Lac Turkana sont clairement affiliées par leur typologie aux poteries du Early Khartoum et faisaient, par conséquence, partie du complexe des poteries « wavy line ». Par ailleurs, certaines caractéristiques typologiques des poteries du Turkana, qui ne présentent que quelques motifs en vagues (« dotted wavy line patterns ») laissent penser à une datation au 7ème millénaire bp. Enfin, les caractéristiques des poteries suggèrent que les pécheurs-chasseurs-cueilleurs d’Afrique de l’Est ont adopté la poterie de l’Afrique du Nord-Est.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Angel, J.L. 1980. Problems for discussion. Microevolution. In: Angel, J.L., Phenice, T.W., Robbins, L.H. & Lynch, B.M. (eds.), Late Stone Age Fishermen of Lothagam. The Museum, Michigan State University, Anthropological Series 3 (2), pp. 186-188.
-
Appandurai, A. 1986. Introduction: commodities and the politics of value. In: Appandurai, A. (ed.), The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 3-63.
-
Arkell, A.J. 1949. Early Khartoum. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
-
Arkell, A.J. 1953. Shaheinab. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
-
Arnold, D.E. 1985. Ceramic theory and cultural process. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
-
Bailloud, G. 1969. L’évolution des styles céramiques en Ennedi (République du Tchad). In: Mémoires I, Actes du Premier Colloque International d’Archéologie Africaine, Fort Lamy (Rép. du Tchad) 1966. Institut national tchadien pour les Sciences Humaines, Fort Lamy, pp. 31-45.
-
Barnett, W.K. & Hoopes J.W. (eds.) 1995. The emergence of Pottery. Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, London.
-
Barthelme, J. 1985. Fisher-hunters and Neolithic pastoralists in East Turkana, Kenya. B.A.R. International Series 254. Oxford.
-
Becker, E. 2011. The Prehistoric Inhabitants of the Wadi Howar. An Anthropological Study of Human Skeletal Remains from the Sudanese Part of the Eastern Sahara. Ph.D. Thesis, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz. http://ubm.opus.hbz-nrw.de/volltexte/2011/2927
-
Beyin, A. 2011. Recent archaeological survey and excavation around the greater Kalokol area, west side of Lake Turkana: Preliminary findings. Nyame Akuma 75, 40-50.
-
Binford, L.R. 2001. Constructing frames of reference. An analytical method for archaeological theory building using ethnographic and environmental data sets. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London.
-
Bloszies, C., Forman, S.L. & Wright, D.K. 2015. Water level history for Lake Turkana, Kenya in the past 15,000 years and a variable transition from the African Humid Period to Holocene activity. Global and Planetary Change 132, 64-76.
-
Bowser, B.J. & Patton, J.Q. 2008. Learning and transmission of pottery style. Women’s life histories and communities of practice in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In: Stark, M.T., Bowser, B.J. & Horne, L. (eds.), Cultural Transmission and Material Culture. Breaking down Boundaries. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 105-129.
-
Brooks, A.S. & Smith, C.C. 1987. Ishango revisited: new age determination and cultural interpretations. African Archaeological Review 5, 65-78.
-
Brown, J.A. 1989. Beginnings of pottery as economic process. In: Van der Leeuw, S.E. & Torrence, R. (eds.), What’s New? A Closer Look at the Process of Innovation. One World Archaeology 14. Unwin Hyman, London, pp. 203-224.
-
Butzer, K.W., Isaac, G.L., Richardson, L.I. & Washbourn-Kamau, C. 1972. Radiocarbon dating of east African lake levels. Science 175, 1069-1076.
-
Caneva, I. 1983a. “Wavy Line” pottery from Saggai 1: an essay of classification. In: Caneva, I. (ed.), Pottery using Gatherers and Hunters at Saggai (Sudan): Preconditions for Food Production. Origini 12, Roma, pp. 155-190.
-
Caneva, I. 1983b. Saggai: The combined evidence. In: Caneva, I. (ed.), Pottery using Gatherers and Hunters at Saggai (Sudan): Preconditions for Food Production. Origini 12, Roma, pp. 259-271.
-
Caneva, I. 1988. The cultural equipment of the Early Neolithic occupants of Geili. In: Caneva, I. (ed.), El Geili: the History of a Middle Nile Environment 7000 B.C.-A.D. 1500. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology, 29. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 424, Oxford, pp. 65-114.
-
Caneva, I. 1993. Pre-pastoral Middle Nile: local developments and Saharan contacts. In: Kryzaniak, L., Kobusiewicz, M. & Alexander, J. (eds.), Environmental Change and Human Culture in the Nile Basin and Northern Africa until the Second Millennium B.C. Studies in African Archaeology 4. Poznan Archaeological Museum, Poznan, pp. 405-411.
-
Caneva, I. (ed). 1983. Pottery using Gatherers and Hunters at Saggai (Sudan): Preconditions for Food Production. Origini 12, Roma.
-
Caneva, I. & Marks, A. 1990. More on the Shaqadud pottery: evidence for Saharo-Nilotic connections during the 6th-4th millennium B.C. Archéologie du Nil moyen 4, 11-35.
-
Chapman, S. 1967. Kansyore island. Azania 2, 165-191.
-
Chlodnicki, M. 1984. Pottery from the Neolithic settlement at Kadero (Central Sudan). In: Kryzaniak, L. & Kobusiewicz, M. (eds.) Origin and Early Development of Food-producing Cultures in North-Eastern Africa. Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan Archaeological Museum, Poznan, pp. 337-342.
-
Chlodnicki, M. 2011. Pottery. In: Chlodnicki, M., Kobusiewicz, M. & Kroeper, K. (eds.), Kadero. Poznan Archaeological Museum, Poznan, pp. 215-266.
-
Close, A.E. 1995. Few and far between. Early ceramics in North Africa. In: Barnett, W.K. & Hoopes, J.W. (eds.), The Emergence of Pottery. Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, London, pp. 23-37.
-
Collett, D.P. & Robertshaw, P.T. 1980. Early Iron Age and Kansyore pottery finds from Gogo Falls, South Nyanza. Azania 15, 133-145.
-
Cribb, R.L.D. 1991. Nomads in archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
-
Dale, D. 2007. An archaeological investigation of the Kansyore, Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers in East Africa. Ph.D. Thesis, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri.
-
Dale, D. & Ashley, C.Z. 2010. Holocene hunter-fisher-gatherer communities: new perspectives on Kansyore using communities of Western Kenya. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 45 (1), 24-28.
-
deMenocal, P., Ortiz, J., Guilderson, T., Adkins, J., Sarnthein, M., Baker, L., & Yarusinsky, M. 2000. Abrupt onset and termination of the African humid period: rapid climate responses to gradual insolation forcing. Quaternary Science Reviews 19, 347-361.
-
Dittrich, A. 2011. Zur Neolithisierung des Mittleren Niltals und angrenzender Regionen: Kultureller Wandel vom Mesolithikum zum Neolithikum im Nord- und Zentralsudan. BAR International Series 2281, Oxford.
-
Drake, N.A., Blench, R.M., Armitage, S.J., Bristow, C.S. & White, K.H. 2011. Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert. PNAS 108 (2), 458-462.
-
Eerkens, J.W. & Lipo C.P. 2008. Cultural transmission of copying errors and the evolution of variation in woodland pots. In: Stark, M.T., Bowser, B.J. & Horne, L. (eds.), Cultural Transmission and Material Culture. Breaking down Boundaries. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 63-81.
-
Fernandez, V.M., Jimeno, A., Menéndez, M. & Lario, J. 2003. Archaeological survey in the Blue Nile area, Central Sudan. Complutum 14, 201-272.
-
Fuller, D.Q. 2005. Ceramics, seeds and culinary change in prehistoric India. Antiquity 79 (306), 761-777.
-
Garcea, E. 1993a. Cultural dynamics in the Saharo-Sudanese Prehistory. Gruppo Editoriale Internazionale, Rom.
-
Garcea, E. 1993Early Khartoumb. “Mesolithic” settlements in the Geili-Kabbashi area, Sudan. Journal of Field Archaeology 20, 519-522.
-
Garcea, E. 1996. Cultural developments in the final hunting-gathering horizons in the Middle and Upper Nile Valley. In: Kryzaniak, L., Kroeper K. & Kobusiewicz M. (eds.), Interregional Contacts in the Later Prehistory of Northeastern Africa. Studies in African Archaeology 5. Poznan Archaeological Museum, Poznan, pp. 321-329.
-
Garcea, E. 1998. From Early Khartoum to the Sahara Neolithic: Ceramics in comparison. In: Actes de la VIIIe Conférence Internationale d’ Études Nubiennes, Lille 1994. Cahier de Recherches de l’Institut de Papyrologie et d’Egyptologie de Lille 17,3. Lille, pp. 91-104.
-
Garcea, E.A.A. & Hildebrand, E.A. 2009. Shifting social networks along the Nile: Middle Holocene ceramic assemblages from Sai Island, Sudan. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28, 304-322.
-
Garcin, Y., Melnick, D., Strecker, M.R., Olago, D. & Tiercelin J.J. 2012. East African mid-Holocene wet-dry transition recorded in paleo-shorelines of Lake Turkana, northern Kenya Rift. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 331-332, 322-334.
-
Gosselain, O.P. 2008. Mother Bella was not a Bella. Inherited and transformed traditions in southwestern Niger. In: Stark, M.T., Bowser, B.J. & Horne, L. (eds.), Cultural Transmission and Material Culture. Breaking down Boundaries. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 150-177.
-
Haaland, R. 1992. Fish, pots and grain: Early and Mid-Holocene adaptations in the Central Sudan. The African Archaeological Review 10, 43-64.
-
Haaland, R. 1993. Aqualithic sites of the Middle Nile. Azania 28, 47-86.
-
Haaland, R. 1995a. Pottery materials: a discussion of the emergence and consequences of pottery production. In: Haaland, R. & Magid A.A.(eds.), Aqualithic Sites along the Rivers Nile and Atbara, Sudan. Alma Mater, Bergen, Sudan, pp. 84-122.
-
Haaland, R. 1995b. Bone artefacts: production technique and function. In: Haaland, R. & Magid A.A. (eds.), Aqualithic Sites along the Rivers Nile and Atbara, Sudan. Alma Mater, Bergen, Sudan, pp. 123-136.
-
Haaland, R. & Magid A.A. 1995. Introduction. In: Haaland, R. & Magid A.A. (eds.), Aqualithic Sites along the Rivers Nile and Atbara, Sudan. Alma Mater, Bergen, Sudan, pp. 9-16.
-
Haaland, R. & Magid A.A. (eds.) 1995. Aqualithic Sites along the Rivers Nile and Atbara, Sudan. Alma Mater, Bergen, Sudan.
-
Hayden, B. 1995. The emergence of prestige technologies and pottery. In: Barnett, W.K. & Hoopes J.W. (eds.), The Emergence of Pottery. Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, London, pp. 257-265.
-
Herbich, I. & Dietler, M. 2008. The long arm of the mother-in-law. Learning, postmarital resocialization of women, and material culture style. In: Stark, M.T., Bowser, B.J. & Horne, L. (eds.), Cultural Transmission and Material Culture. Breaking down Boundaries. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 223-244.
-
Hildebrand, E.A. & Grillo, K.M. 2012. Early herders and monumental sites in eastern Africa: dating and interpretation. Antiquity 86, 338-352.
-
Hodder, I. 1982. Symbols in Action: Ethnoarchaeological Studies of Material Culture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
-
Hodder, I. 1991. Reading the Past: Current Approaches to Interpretation in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
-
Holl, A.F.C. 2005. Holocene „Aquatic“adaptations in North Tropical Africa. In: Brower Stahl, A. (ed.), African Archaeology. A Critical Introduction. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, Oxford, Victoria, pp. 174-186.
-
Huysecom, E., Rasse, M., Lespez, L., Neumann, K. Fahmy, A. Ballouche, A., Ozainne, S., Magetti, M., Tribolo, Ch. & Soriano, S.. 2009. The emergence of pottery in Africa during the tenth millennium cal bc: new evidence from Ounjougou (Mali). Antiquity 83, 905-917.
-
Irish, J.D. & Turner, C.G. 1990. West African dental affinity of Late Pleistocene Nubians. Peopling of the Eurafrican-South Asian triangle ii. Homo 41, 42-53.
-
Jesse, F. 2003a. Rahib 80/87. Ein Wavy-Line-Fundplatz im Wadi Howar und die früheste Keramik in Nordafrika. Africa Praehistorica 16. Heinrich-Barth-Institut, Köln.
-
Jesse, F. 2003b. Early ceramics in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. In: Kryzaniak, L., Kroeper, K. & Kobusiewicz, M. (eds.), Cultural Markers in the Later Prehistory of Northeastern Africa and Recent Research. Studies in African Archaeology 8. Poznan Archaeological Museum, Poznan, pp. 35-50.
-
Jesse, F. 2010. Early pottery in Northern Africa – an overview. Journal of African Archaeology 8 (2), 219-238.
-
Keding, B. 2006. Were the hunter-gatherers in the Eastern Sahara of the “delayed return” type? An archaeological perspective from the Wadi Howar region/Sudan. In: Caneva, I. & Roccati A. (eds.), Acta Nubica. Proceedings of the X International Conference of Nubian Studies, Rome 9-14 September 2002. Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Rom, pp. 81-94.
-
Keding, B. 2009. Leben und Überleben in der Wüste – Kulturwandel bei prähistorischen Gesellschaften im Spannungsfeld von Umweltänderung und Tradition. Unpublished Habilitation Thesis, Universität zu Köln.
-
Kent, S. 1991. The relationship between mobility strategies and site structure. In: Kroll, E.M. & Price, T.D. (eds.), The Interpretation of Archaeological Patterning. Plenum Press, New York, pp. 33-59.
-
Kuper, R. & Kröpelin S. 2006. Climate-controlled Holocene occupation in the Sahara: motor of Africa’s evolution. Science 313 (5788), 803-807.
-
Lane, P. J. 2015. Ethnicity, archaeological ceramics and changing paradigms in East African archaeology. In: MacDonald, K.C. & Richard F. (eds.), Ethnic Ambiguities in African Archaeology: Materiality, History, and the Shaping of Cultural Identities. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California, pp. 245-271.
-
Lane, P., Ashley, C. & Oteyo G. 2006. New dates for Kansyore and Urewe wares from northern Nyanza, Kenya. Azania XLI, 149-164.
-
Lane, P., Ashley, C., Seitsonen, O., Harvey, P., Mire S., & Odede, F. 2007. The transition to farming in eastern Africa: new faunal and dating evidence from Wadh Lang’o and Usenge, Kenya. Antiquity 81, 62-81.
-
Leakey, L.S.B. 1931. The Stone Age cultures of Kenya colony. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
-
Lemonnier, P. 1976. La description des chaines opératoires: contribution à l’étude des systèmes techniques. Technique et Culture 1, 100-151.
-
Magid, A.A. 1995. The lithic material. In: Haaland, R. & Magid A.A. (eds.), Aqualithic Sites along the Rivers Nile and Atbara, Sudan. Alma Mater, Bergen, Sudan, pp. 52-83.
-
Marshall, F., Grillo, K. & Arco, L. 2011. Prehistoric pastoralists and social responses to climatic risk in East Africa, In: Miller, N.F., Moore K.M. & Ryan, K. (eds.), Sustainable Lifeways. Cultural Persistence in an Ever-changing Environment. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia: 39-74.
-
Mbua, E. 1995. Holocene human remains from Lake Turkana, Northern Kenya. Unpublished Masters Thesis, University of Nairobi.
-
Mehlmann, M.J. 1989. Later Quaternary Archaeological Sequences in Northern Tanzania. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
-
Mills, B.J. 2008. Colonialism and cuisine. Cultural transmission, agency, and history at Zuni Pueblo. In: Stark, M.T., Bowser, B.J. & Horne, L. (eds.), Cultural Transmission and Material Culture. Breaking down Boundaries. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 245-262.
-
Mohammed-Ali, A.S. & Khabir, A.-R.M. 2003. The wavy line and dotted wavy line pottery in the prehistory of the Central Nile and the Sahara-Sahel belt. African Archaeological Review 20, 25-58.
-
Nash, B.P., Merrick, H.V. & Brown, F. H. 2011. Obsidian types from Holocene sites around Lake Turkana, and other localities in northern Kenya. Journal of Archaeological Science 38, 1371-1376.
-
Neumann, K. 1989. Holocene vegetation of the Eastern Sahara: charcoal from prehistoric sites. African Archaeological Review 7, 97-116.
-
Nieuwenhuyse, O.P., Akkermans P.M.M.G., & van der Plicht, J. 2010. Not so coarse, not always plain – the earliest pottery of Syria. Antiquity 84 (No. 323), 71-85.
-
Nordström, H.-A. 1972. Neolithic and A-Group sites (The Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia, vols. 3:1, 3:2). Scandinavian University Books, Uppsala.
-
Owen, R.B., Barthelme, J.W., Renaut, R.W. & Vincens, A. 1982. Palaeolimnology and archaeology of Holocene deposits north-east of Lake Turkana, Kenya. Nature 298, 523-529.
-
Oyuela-Caycedo, A. 1995. Rocks versus clay: The evolution of pottery technology in the case of San Jacinto 1, Colombia. In: Barnett, W.K. & Hoopes, J.W. (eds.), The Emergence of Pottery. Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, London, pp. 133-144.
-
Pearson, R. 2005. The social context of early pottery in the Lingnan region of south China. Antiquity 79 (306), 819-828.
-
Petit-Maire, N. & Dutour, O. 1987. Holocene populations of the western and southern Sahara. Mechtoids and palaeoclimates. In: Close, A.E. (ed.), Prehistory of Arid North Africa. Essays in Honor of Fred Wendorf. Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas, pp. 259-285.
-
Phillipson, D.W. 1977. Lowasera. Azania 12, 1-32.
-
Phillipson, D.W. 2005. African Archaeology. 3rd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
-
Pinhasi, R. 2002. Biometric study of the affinities of NK. A quantitative analysis of mandible dimensions. In: Vermeersch, P.M. (ed.), Palaeolithic Quarrying Sites in Upper and Middle Egypt. Egyptian Prehistory Monographs 4. Leuven University Press, Leuven, pp. 283-336.
-
Plog, S. 1980. Stylistic Variation in Prehistoric Ceramics: Design Analysis in the American Southwest. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
-
Renfrew, C. & Bahn, P. 1996. Archaeology. Theories, Methods, and Practice. Thames and Hudson, 2nd edition, London.
-
Rice, P. 1999. On the origins of pottery. Journal of Anthropological Method and Theory 6, 1-54.
-
Ricketts, R.D. & Johnson, T.C. 1996. Climate change in the Turkana basin as deduced from a 4000 year long б18O record. Earth Planetary Science Letters 142, 7-17.
-
Rightmire, G.P. 1977. Notes on the human burials from Lowasera. In: Phillipson, D.W. 1977. Lowasera. Azania 12, 1-32, Appendix: 30-32.
-
Rightmire, G.P. 1984. Human skeletal remains from eastern Africa. In: Clark, J.D. & Brandt, S.A. (eds.), From Hunters to Farmers. The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 191-199.
-
Ritchie, J.C., Eyles, C.H. & Haynes, C.V. Jr. 1985. Sediment and pollen evidence for an early to mid-Holocene humid period in the eastern Sahara. Nature 314, 352-355.
-
Robbins, L.H. 1972. Archaeology in the Turkana District, Kenya. Science 176 (4033), 359-366.
-
Robbins, L.H. 1974. The Lothagam Site: A Late Stone Age Fishing Settlement in the Lake Rudolf Basin, Kenya. Michigan State University Museum Anthropology Series, 1 (2).
-
Robbins, L.H. 1975. Bone artefacts from the Lake Rudolf Basin, East Africa. Current Anthropology 16 (4), 632-633.
-
Robbins, L.H. 1984. Late prehistoric aquatic and pastoral adaptations west of Lake Turkana, Kenya. In: Clark, J.D. & Brandt, S.A. (eds.), From Hunters to Farmers. The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 206-211.
-
Robbins, L.H. 2006. Lake Turkana Archaeology: The Holocene. Ethnohistory 53 (1), 71-93.
-
Robertshaw, P.T. 1991. Gogo Falls: A complex site east of Lake Victoria. Azania 26, 63-195.
-
Rouse, I. 1986. Inferring population movement from cultural remains. Yale University Press, New Haven.
-
Salvatori, S., Usia, D. & Zerboni A. 2011. Mesolithic site formation and palaeoenvironment along the White Nile (Central Sudan). African Archaeological Review 28, 177-211.
-
Salvatori, S., Usai, D., Abdelrahman, M.F., Di Matteo, A., Iacumin, P., Linseele, V., & Khaleb Magzoub, M. 2014. Archaeology at el-Khiday: New insight on the prehistory and history of central Sudan. In: Anderson, J.R. & Welsby, D.A. (eds.), The Fourth Cataract and Beyond. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference for Nubian studies. British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan 1. Peeters Publishers, Leuven, pp. 242-257.
-
Shanks, M. & Tilley, C. 1987. Style and Ideology. Re-constructing Archaeology. Theory and Practice. Routledge, London, pp. 137-171.
-
Shennan, S.J. (e)d. 1989. Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity. Unwin Hyman, London.
-
Stahl, A.B. 1989. Plant-food processing: implications for dietary quality. In: Harris, D.R. & Hillman, G.C. (eds.), Foraging and Farming. The Evolution of Plant Exploitation. One World Archaeology Series, 13. Unwin Hyman, London, pp. 171-194.
-
Stewart, K.M. 1989. Fishing Sites of North and East Africa in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Environmental Change and Human Adaptation. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 34, BAR International Series 521.
-
Sutton, J. 1974. The aquatic civilization of Middle Africa. Journal of African History 15, 527-546.
-
Sutton, J.E.G. 1977. The African aqualithic. Antiquity LI (No. 201), 25-34.
-
Thomas, N. 1991. Entangled objects: exchange, material culture and colonialism in the Pacific. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
-
Usai, D. 2014. Recent advances in understanding the prehistory of central Sudan. In: Anderson, J.R. & Welsby, D.A. (eds.), The Fourth Cataract and Beyond. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference for Nubian studies. British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan 1. Peeters Publishers, Leuven, pp. 31-44.
-
Wallaert, H. 2008. The way of the potter’s mother. Apprenticeship strategies among Dii potters from Cameroon, West Africa. In: Stark, M.T., Bowser, B.J. & Horne, L. (eds.), Cultural Transmission and Material Culture. Breaking down Boundaries. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 178-198.
-
Washburn, D.K. 1989. The property of symmetry and the concept of ethnic style. In: Shennan, S.J. (ed.), Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity. Unwin Hyman, London, pp. 157-173.
-
Williams, M.A.J., Usai, D., Salvatori, S., Williams, F.M., Zerboni, A., Maritan L., & Linseele V. 2015. Late Quaternary environments and prehistoric occupation in the lower White Nile valley, central Sudan. Quaternary Science Reviews 130, 72-88.
-
Wright, D.K., Forman, S.L., Kiura, P., Bloszies, C. & Beyin A. 2015. Lakeside View: Sociocultural responses to changing water levels of Lake Turkana, Kenya. African Archaeological Review 32, 335-367.
-
Yellen, J.E. 1998. Barbed bone points: tradition and continuity in Sahara and Sub-Saharan Africa. African Archaeological Review 15 (3), 173-198.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2058 | 266 | 28 |
| Full Text Views | 305 | 22 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 137 | 35 | 0 |
Middle Holocene Fisher-Hunter-Gatherers of Lake Turkana in Kenya and Their Cultural Connections with the North: The Pottery
In: Journal of African ArchaeologySearch for other papers by Birgit Keding in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
During the Early and Middle Holocene, large areas of today’s arid regions in North and East Africa were populated by fisher-hunter-gatherer communities who heavily relied on aquatic resources. In North Africa, Wavy Line pottery and harpoons are their most salient diagnostic features. Similar finds have also been made at sites in Kenya’s Lake Turkana region in East Africa but a clear classification of the pottery was previously not available. In order to elucidate the cultural connections between Lake Turkana’s first potters and North African groups, the pottery of the Koobi Fora region that was excavated by John Barthelme in the 1970/80s was re-assessed in detail. It was compared and contrasted – on a regional scale – with pottery from Lowasera and sites near Lothagam (Zu4, Zu6) and – on a supra-regional scale – with the pottery of the Central Nile Valley and eastern Sahara. The analyses reveal some significant points: Firstly, the early fisher pottery of Lake Turkana is clearly typologically affiliated with the Early Khartoum pottery and was thus part of the Wavy Line complex. Secondly, certain typological features of the Turkana assemblages, which include only a few Dotted Wavy Line patterns, tentatively hint to a date at least in the 7th millennium bp or earlier. Thirdly, the pottery features suggest that the East African fisher-hunter-gatherers adopted pottery from Northeast Africa.
Résumé
Pendant l’Holocène ancien et moyen, de vastes étendues parmi les régions aujourd’hui arides d’Afrique du Nord et d’Afrique de l’Est étaient peuplées de groupes de pêcheurs et chasseurs-cueilleurs très dépendants des ressources aquatiques. En Afrique du Nord, les poteries au décor en vague (« wavy line pottery ») et les harpons sont le meilleur moyen de mettre en évidence leur présence. Des découvertes similaires ont également été faites sur des sites de la région du Lac Turkana en Afrique de l’Est, mais une classification précise des poteries était par le passé inexistante. Dans le but de comprendre les liens culturels entre les premiers potiers du Lac Turkana et les groupes d’Afrique du Nord, les poteries de la région de Koobi Fora mises à jour par John Barthelme dans les années 1970 et 1980 ont été analysées à nouveau en détail. Elles ont été comparées, à une échelle intra régionale, aux poteries de Lowasera et de sites proches de Lothagam (Zu4, Zu6) et, à une échelle inter-régionale, aux poteries de la Vallée Centrale du Nil et du Sahara oriental. Les analyses révèlent des résultats importants. Tout d’abord, les premières poteries du Lac Turkana sont clairement affiliées par leur typologie aux poteries du Early Khartoum et faisaient, par conséquence, partie du complexe des poteries « wavy line ». Par ailleurs, certaines caractéristiques typologiques des poteries du Turkana, qui ne présentent que quelques motifs en vagues (« dotted wavy line patterns ») laissent penser à une datation au 7ème millénaire bp. Enfin, les caractéristiques des poteries suggèrent que les pécheurs-chasseurs-cueilleurs d’Afrique de l’Est ont adopté la poterie de l’Afrique du Nord-Est.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2058 | 266 | 28 |
| Full Text Views | 305 | 22 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 137 | 35 | 0 |