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Poster De Conférence Année : 2023

A new Early and Middle Stone Age site in West Turkana, Kenya

Résumé

The Acheulean/Middle Stone Age (MSA) transition in Africa is often described as a pivotal period in human evolution, manifested by an “increasing technological innovation and cultural indicators associated with the evolution of Homo sapiens” (Deino et al., 2018). This view of the archaeological record is based on a continental-wide perspective which opposes two large scale patterns – one, a, theoretically, homogeneous and technological persistent production of large bifacial tools (hallmark of the Acheulean), and the other, a diversity of forms and production methods of the small shaped tools characteristics of the MSA. However, very few sites have yielded both Acheulean and MSA materials, thus allowing for a more accurate understanding of these changes at a regional scale. Here we report on the technological assemblage retrieved from a new site discovered in 2017 in the South-West of the Turkana Basin. Kanyimangin is located within the Kalabata river (an affluent of the Kerio river) circular anomaly, where approximately 15 meters deep sediments are preserved from erosion by a series of five sandstones. Combined palaeomagnetism and biochronological approaches have yielded an age estimate between 0.90 and 1.19 million years old for the site. 344 lithic artefacts have been recovered from the site; 72 originate from two archaeological test pits, while the remaining artefacts were found through archaeological surveys. The material discovered in the excavations and on the surface appears to have similar technological characteristics. Cores with simple debitage methods (unipolar and convergent), discoidal cores and different types of handaxes are consistent with an early/middle Pleistocene occupation of the area. However, the presence of Levallois cores and flakes with platform preparation indicate a Middle Stone Age component, whose depositional process still need to be defined. Even though that majority of the technological information available today comes from surface material, the good preservation of some artefacts together with the presence of some refits document the potential of the area from an archaeological point of view.
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Dates et versions

hal-04306190 , version 1 (24-11-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04306190 , version 1

Citer

Sol Sánchez-Dehesa Galán, Maria Bosch Dorothea, Juan Marin, Céline Vidal, Cécile Chapon-Sao, et al.. A new Early and Middle Stone Age site in West Turkana, Kenya. XXI International Union for Quaternary Research Congress, Jul 2023, Rome, Italy. ⟨hal-04306190⟩
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