A Monumental Cemetery Built by Eastern Africa’s First Herders near Lake Turkana, Kenya

Authors

• Elisabeth A. Hildebrand, Stony Brook University
• Katherine M. Grillo, University of Florida
• Elizabeth A. Sawchuk, Stony Brook University
• Susan K. Pfeiffer, University of Toronto, University of Cape Town
• Lawrence B. Conyers, University of DenverFollow
• Steven T. Goldstein, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
• Austin Chad Hill, Dartmouth University
• Anneke Janzen, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
• Carla E. Klehm, University of Colorado Boulder
• Mark Helper, University of Texas at Austin
• Purity Kiura, National Museums of Kenya
• Emmanuel Ndiema, National Museums of Kenya
• Cecilia Ngugi, National Museums of Kenya
• John J. Shea, Stony Brook University
• Hong Wang, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Publication Date

8-20-2018

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Anthropology

Keywords

Monumentality, Pastoralism, Africa, Holocene, Early food production

Abstract

Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in different environmental and economic settings can reveal diverse reasons for people to form larger social units and express unity through architectural display. In multiple areas of Africa, monumentality developed as mobile herders created large cemeteries and practiced other forms of commemoration. The motives for such behavior in sparsely populated, unpredictable landscapes may differ from well-studied cases of monumentality in predictable environments with sedentary populations. Here we report excavations and ground-penetrating radar surveys at the earliest and most massive monumental site in eastern Africa. Lothagam North Pillar Site was a communal cemetery near Lake Turkana (northwest Kenya) constructed 5,000 years ago by eastern Africa’s earliest pastoralists. Inside a platform ringed by boulders, a 119.5-m2 mortuary cavity accommodated an estimated minimum of 580 individuals. People of diverse ages and both sexes were buried, and ornaments accompanied most individuals. There is no evidence for social stratification. The uncertainties of living on a “moving frontier” of early herding—exacerbated by dramatic environmental shifts—may have spurred people to strengthen social networks that could provide information and assistance. Lothagam North Pillar Site would have served as both an arena for interaction and a tangible reminder of shared identity.

Copyright Date

8-20-2018

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved.

Rights Holder

The Authors

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

6 pgs

File Size

1573 KB

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the authors. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Publication Title

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Volume

115

Issue

36

First Page

8942

Last Page

8947

ISSN

0027-8424

Recommended Citation

Elisabeth A. Hildebrand et al. “A Monumental Cemetery Built by Eastern Africa’s First Herders near Lake Turkana, Kenya.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 115, no. 36, 2018, pp. 8942–8947. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1721975115

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1721975115