The Eburran industry is the name of an East African tool assemblage that dates from 13,000 BCE and thereafter, found around

Lake Nakuru Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley lakes at an elevation of above sea level. It lies to the south of Nakuru, in the rift valley of Kenya and is protected by Lake Nakuru National Park. The lake's abundance of algae used to attract a vast qu ...

in the

Ol Doinyo Eburru Ol Doinyo Eburru is an active complex of volcanoes in the Great Rift Valley, Kenya to the northwest of Lake Naivasha. It is being exploited for geothermal energy. Soysambu Conservancy is located to the north of the massif, between Lake Elmenteita ...

volcano complex in the

Rift Valley A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear d ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. The culture was at one time known as the "Kenyan Capsian" because findings resemble those of the North African

Capsian The Capsian culture was a Mesolithic and Neolithic culture centered in the Maghreb that lasted from about 8,000 to 2,700 BC. It was named after the town of Gafsa in Tunisia, which was known as Capsa in Roman times. Capsian industry was concentr ...

trans-Saharan culture. Eburran assemblages, as recovered from Gamble's Cave and Nderit Drift, comprise large backed blades, crescent

microlith A microlith is a small stone tool usually made of flint or chert and typically a centimetre or so in length and half a centimetre wide. They were made by humans from around 35,000 to 3,000 years ago, across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Th ...

s, burins, and endscrapers. Some tools at Gamble's Cave were made from

obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon ...

Phases

*Phase 1, from 13,000 BCE to around 10,000 BCE, associated with a short, humid climatic period, superseded by a drier climatic period *Phase 2, from around 7-8,000 BCE, the climate became very humid *Phase 3, from around 6,000 BCE *Phase 4, from around 4-5,000 BCE, with an unevenly drier climate *Phase 5, from around 3,000 BCE, the climate was much drier than now. During this last period, Eburran tools are also found with ceramics and livestock. It is part of the

Pastoral Neolithic The Pastoral Neolithic (5000 BP - 1200 BP) refers to a period in Africa's prehistory, specifically Tanzania and Kenya, marking the beginning of food production, livestock domestication, and pottery use in the region following the Later Stone Age. ...

in Africa. Before phase 5, Eburran peoples lived by hunting, and gathering. *Around 700 AD, a transformation from the Pastoral Neolithic to the Pastoral

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

took place.Ambrose, Stanley H. (1998): ''Chronology of the Later Stone Age and food production in East Africa''. Journal of Archaeological Science, 25 (4): 377-392, DOI: 10.1006/jasc.1997.0277
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References

{{reflist * Sinclair, Paul J. J. (1991): ''Archaeology in Eastern Africa: An Overview of Current Chronological Issues'', The Journal of African History 32 (2)

Phases

References

See also