Keding, Birgit (2017). Middle Holocene Fisher-Hunter-Gatherers of Lake Turkana in Kenya and Their Cultural Connections with the North: The Pottery. J. Afr. Archaeol., 15 (1). S. 42 - 77. FRANKFURT AM MAIN: AFRICA MAGNA VERLAG. ISSN 2191-5784

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

During the Early and Middle Holocene, large areas of today's arid regions in North and East Africa were populated by fisherhunter- 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.

Item Type: Journal Article
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCIDORCID Put Code
Keding, BirgitUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-244800
DOI: 10.1163/21915784-12340003
Journal or Publication Title: J. Afr. Archaeol.
Volume: 15
Number: 1
Page Range: S. 42 - 77
Date: 2017
Publisher: AFRICA MAGNA VERLAG
Place of Publication: FRANKFURT AM MAIN
ISSN: 2191-5784
Language: English
Faculty: Unspecified
Divisions: Unspecified
Subjects: no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:
KeywordsLanguage
AFRICAN HUMID PERIOD; EASTERN AFRICA; ARCHAEOLOGY; TRANSITION; SAHARA; RESPONSES; BASINMultiple languages
ArchaeologyMultiple languages
Refereed: Yes
URI: http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/24480

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Altmetric

Export

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item