The Elmenteitan culture was a prehistoric lithic industry and pottery tradition with a distinct pattern of land use, hunting and

pastoralism Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anim ...

that appeared and developed on the western plains of

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. ...

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

during 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. ...

c.3300-1200 BP. It was named by archaeologist

Louis Leakey Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...

after

Lake Elmenteita Lake Elmenteita is a soda lake, in the Great Rift Valley, about 120 km northwest of Nairobi, Kenya. Geography Elmenteita is derived from the Maasai word , meaning "dust place", a reference to the dryness and dustiness of the area, esp ...

(also ''Elementaita''), a

soda lake A soda lake or alkaline lake is a lake on the strongly base (chemistry), basic side of neutrality, typically with a pH, pH value between 9 and 12. They are characterized by high concentrations of carbonate salts, typically sodium carbonate (and ...

located in the

Great Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley () is a series of contiguous geographic depressions, approximately 6,000 or in total length, the definition varying between sources, that runs from the southern Turkish Hatay Province in Asia, through the Red Sea, to Moz ...

, about northwest of

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

History of research

The Elmenteitan was first described by

from excavations at Gamble's Cave (the type site) in 1931 and Njoro River Cave in 1938. Leakey had noticed a locally distinct cluster of the lithic industry and a universal pottery tradition in a restricted area on the plains west of the central Great Rift Valley and at the

Mau Escarpment The Mau Escarpment is a fault scarp running along the western edge of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. The top of the escarpment reaches approximately 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above sea level, and is over 1,000 m higher than the floor of ...

Sites and society

Elmenteitan sites are found between the central Rift Valley and the western Lake Victoria Basin of Kenya. The occupants of all these sites used obsidian sourced from Mount Eburu. They left behind distinctive lithic and ceramic traditions and practiced primarily cremation burial. This contrasts with the contemporaneous SPN pastoral tradition whose sites are found across a wider part of Kenya and Tanzania. Occupants of these sites used a variety of obsidian sources, had greater diversity in material culture, and mainly buried their dead in cairns. These findings suggest that the heterogeneous SPN category likely encompasses multiple groups.

Artefacts and characteristics

At Elmenteitan sites, lithic assemblages are distinguished by a high percentage of long symmetrical two-edged

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

blades which were used unmodified and also served as blanks for a great variety of smaller microlithic tools. Typical Elmenteitan artifact assemblages also include ceramic bowls and shallow stone vessels. Ceramic vessels are mainly undecorated. Several rare, but very distinctive ornamental designs such as irregular punctuation and rim millings have also been found. Occasionally small bowls with out-turned rims, handles with holes or horizontal lugs have been discovered as well. Domestic cattle and small stock were raised and herded in combination with hunting, fishing and foraging. Patterns and degree of subsistence economy varied greatly depending on location and local and temporal climate. Regular cremation of the dead took place in caves (e.g. Egerton Cave, Keringet Caves). Njoro River Cave, first excavated in 1938 by

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 ...

, served as a mass-burial site. Associated finds include beads, blades, stone bowls, palettes and pottery vessels.

Physical anthropology

Instances of dental avulsion in some individuals from Elmenteitan burial sites has led to associations with the early spread of

Southern Nilotic The Southern Nilotic languages are spoken mainly in western Kenya and northern Tanzania (with one of them, Kupsabiny or Sapiny, being spoken on the Ugandan side of Mount Elgon). They form a division of the larger Nilotic language family, along ...

speaking groups into south-western Kenya. The exact direction from which they entered southern Kenya remains unclear. Recent genetic analysis of the ancient remains of Elmenteitan has proven that the population of the

Savanna Pastoral Neolithic The Savanna Pastoral Neolithic (SPN; formerly known as the Stone Bowl Culture) is a collection of ancient societies that appeared in the Rift Valley of East Africa and surrounding areas during a time period known as the Pastoral Neolithic. The ...

were also responsible for the pastoralist Elmenteitan culture that lived in the Rift Valley during the same period.

Artifacts

References

External links

Excavations in Baringo, Fieldwork Pt. 2 - Recent excavation
{{Prehistoric technology, state=expanded Neolithic cultures of Africa Lithics Archaeology of Eastern Africa