Sirikwa Holes
Sirikwa holes are saucer-shaped hollows found on hillsides in the western highlands of Kenya and in the elevated stretch of the central Rift Valley around Nakuru. These hollows, each having a diameter of 10–20 metres and an average depth of 2.4 metres, occur in groups, sometimes numbering fewer than ten and at times more than a hundred. Archaeologists believe that construction of these features may have begun in the Iron Age. Etymology Some accounts credit Mary Leakey with having introduced the term "Sirkiwa holes' following excavations at Hyrax Hill between 1937 and 1938. An account in the introduction to Hollis' book on the Nandi, published in 1909, indicates that the term Sirikwa was already in use: An origin narrative from the Sengwer gives an earlier origin of the name: It is thus likely that Sirikwa was the name of one of the two major groupings within the Sengwer of the Sirikwa era, and correctly passed on to Thompson from his Okiek guide as the descriptor of the na ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi. Its second-largest and oldest city is Mombasa, a major port city located on Mombasa Island. Other major cities within the country include Kisumu, Nakuru & Eldoret. Going clockwise, Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest (though much of that border includes the disputed Ilemi Triangle), Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, Tanzania to the southwest, and Lake Victoria and Uganda to the west. Kenya's geography, climate and population vary widely. In western, rift valley counties, the landscape includes cold, snow-capped mountaintops (such as Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya) with vast surrounding forests, wildlife and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nakuru
Nakuru (nicknamed Nax) is a city in the Rift Valley region of Kenya. It is the capital of Nakuru County, and it is the fourth largest city in Kenya and the largest in the Rift Valley region. As of 2019, Nakuru had an urban population of 570,674, making it the largest urban center in the Rift Valley, above Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County. The city lies along the Nairobi–Nakuru Highway, from Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. History Archaeological discoveries were located about from the Central Business District at Hyrax Hill. The city was incepted on 28 January 1904 when a local area one mile away from the railway station's main entrance was proclaimed to be a township by the British authorities. The name of the town was derived from the Maasai-speaking people of Kenya. During the colonial era, the British established Nakuru as part of the White Highlands and it became a municipality in 1952. After the founding of the Republic of Kenya, the first and second president ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Iron Age
The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progressing to protohistory (before written history). In this usage, it is preceded by the Stone Age (subdivided into the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic) and Bronze Age. These concepts originated for describing Iron Age Europe and the ancient Near East. In the archaeology of the Americas, a five-period system is conventionally used instead; indigenous cultures there did not develop an iron economy in the pre-Columbian era, though some did work copper and bronze. Indigenous metalworking arrived in Australia with European contact. Although meteoric iron has been used for millennia in many regions, the beginning of the Iron Age is defined locally around the world by archaeological convention when the production of Smelting, smelted iron (espe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mary Leakey
Mary Douglas Leakey, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised ''Proconsul (mammal), Proconsul'' skull, an extinct ape which is now believed to be ancestral to humans. She also discovered the robust ''Zinjanthropus'' skull at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, eastern Africa. For much of her career she worked with her husband, Louis Leakey, at Olduvai Gorge, where they uncovered fossils of ancient hominines and the earliest hominins, as well as the stone tools produced by the latter group. Mary Leakey developed a system for Taxonomy, classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. She discovered the Laetoli footprints, and at the Laetoli site she discovered hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old. During her career, Leakey discovered fifteen new species of animal. She also brought about the naming of a new genus. In 1972, after the death of her husband, Leake ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hyrax Hill Prehistoric Site And Museum
The Hyrax Hill site was proclaimed a national monument in 1945 and opened to the public in 1965. This was as a result of startling discoveries of relics by Mrs. Selfe and subsequent archaeological excavations that were carried out by Dr. Mary Leakey in 1938 that revealed substantial findings in different areas of the site and levels of occupations. The late Mrs. Selfe was the owner of the property. The renovation of archaeology exhibit was made possible through the kind sponsorship of Kenya Museum Society and consultation of British Institute in Eastern Africa in collaboration with the National Museums of Kenya. The hill comprises particular importance because it encompasses several phases of occupation; it also has a long history of archaeological investigation, which began in 1937 with Mary Leakey. History of excavations In 1937 Dr. Mary Leakey excavated Site I, and she discovered evidence of late Iron Age habitation consisting of a series of rough stone enclosures, and a n ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sengwer People
The Sengwer people (also known as Cherang'any and previously as Sekker, Siger, Sigerai, Segelai, Senguer, Senguel and Jangwel) are an indigenous community who primarily live in the Embobut forest in the western highlands of Kenya and in scattered pockets across Trans Nzoia, West Pokot and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties. The Sengwer are sometimes portrayed as a component of the Marakwet people but are a distinct ethnic grouping with a distinct language. The Sengwer people are currently a marginalized community and face significant threats to their identity and ancestral lands. International and human rights organizations including the United Nations, Amnesty International and the Kenya Human Rights Commission recognize the Sengwer as indigenous peoples whose claim to the area goes back hundreds of years and have repeatedly raised concerns about human rights violations against them. Etymology Following his Juba expedition, MacDonald (1899) noted of the 'Senguer' who previously 'd ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Okiek People
The Okiek (), sometimes called the Ogiek or Akiek, are a Southern Nilotic ethnic group native to Tanzania and Southern Kenya (in the Mau Forest), and Western Kenya (in the Mount Elgon Forest). In 2019 the ethnic Okiek population was 52,596, although the number of those speaking the Akiek language was as low as 500. History In 1903, C.W.Hobley recorded eleven Okiek communities, a hunter-gatherer society, living in western Kenya. He noted that a number of entire sections were bi-lingual, speaking either Maasai, Kipsigis or Nandi in addition to their own languages. Hunter-gatherer communities also lived on the eastern highlands of Kenya where they were known in local traditions by the names "Gumba" and "Athi". Language Many Ogiek speakers have shifted to the languages of surrounding peoples: the Akiek in northern Tanzania now speak Maasai and the Akiek of Kinare, Kenya now speak Gikuyu. The Ogiek are one of various groups of hunter-gatherers in Kenya and Tanzania to which the ter ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rift Valley Province
Rift Valley Province () of Kenya, bordering Uganda, was one of Kenya's eight provinces, before the 2013 Kenyan general election. Rift Valley Province was the largest and one of the most economically important provinces in Kenya. It was dominated by the Kenya Rift Valley which passes through it and gave the province its name. According to the 2009 Census, the former province covered an area of and would have had a population of 10,006,805, making it the largest and most populous province in the country. The bulk of the provincial population inhabited a strip between former Nairobi and Nyanza Province. The capital was the town of Nakuru. Counties As of March 2013 after the Kenyan general election, 2013, the Province was partitioned into counties and Rift Valley Province was dissolved. Geography The Great Rift Valley runs south through Kenya from Lake Turkana in the north and has several unique geographical features, including the Elgeyo escarpment which is a popular ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |