2 The previous two reviews of Eastern Africa for this journal were prepared by Maggs, T. (xviii, ii, 1977)Google Scholar and Mgomezulu, G. G. Y. (xxii, iv, 1981).Google Scholar These articles are referred to below simply by the author's name and relevant page number.

3 Mgomezulu, 435.

4 N.B. Not corrected.

5 Sutton, J. E. G., ‘The aquatic civilization of Middle Africa’, J. Afr. Hist, XV, iv (1974), 527–546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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10 Or whatever the substance is that is dated.

11 The results should be corrected for the fractionation of the stable isotope C13. The measurement of stable isotopes has very considerable potential for the study of prehistoric diet and palaeoenvironments; see, for example, Van der Merwe, N. J. and Vogel, J. C., ‘Recent carbon isotope research and its implications for African archaeology’, African Archaeological Review, I (1983), 33–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 A statistical analysis of bone dates from East Africa is to be found in Collett, David and Robertshaw, Peter, ‘Problems in the interpretation of radiocarbon dates: the Pastoral Neolithic of East Africa’, African Archaeological Review, I (1983), 57–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 See Mgomezulu, 441.

14 Collett and Robertshaw, ‘Problems’.

15 ibid.; see also Owen, R. B., Barthelme, J. W., Renaut, R. W. and Vincens, A., ‘Palaeolimnology and archaeology of Holocene deposits north-east of Lake Turkana, Kenya’, Nature, CCXCVIII (1982), 523–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 Using the obsidian hydration method; see, for example, Michels, J. W., Dating methods in archaeology (New York, 1973), 201–218.Google Scholar

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18 Personal communication.

19 It should be noted that not only can obsidian hydration dating be applied to a greater timescale than radiocarbon, but also it is a considerably cheaper analytic process. Michels operates a commercial obsidian dating service named MOHLAB.

20 Pers. comm. I am grateful for information supplied by H. V. Merrick.

21 Merrick, pers. comm.

22 G. Bussell, pers. comm., kindly provided the information set out in this paragraph.

23 I am especially grateful to Steven A. Brandt for his generosity in making the results of his research available to me. Without his assistance this section of the review would not have been possible.

24 Brandt, S. A., ‘A late Quaternary cultural/environmental sequence from Lake Besaka, Southern Afar, Ethiopia’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1982)Google Scholar; idem, ‘Archaeological investigations at Lake Besaka, Ethiopia’, in Leakey, R. E. and Ogot, B. A. (eds.), Proceedings of the Eighth Panqfrican Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Studies (Nairobi, 1980), 239–243Google Scholar; Clark, J. D. and Williams, M. A. J., ‘Recent archaeological research in southeastern Ethiopia (1974–1975): some preliminary results’, Annales d'Ethiopie, XI (1977), 19–42Google Scholar; Williams, M. A. J., Bishop, P. M., Dakin, F. M. and Gillespie, R., ‘Late Quaternary lake levels in southern Afar and the adjacent Ethiopian Rift’, Nature, CCLXVII (1977), 330–332.Google Scholar

25 All these dates are not C13-corrected and all are therefore considered to be minimum age estimates; see Brandt, thesis.

26 Four other dates from the same site (UCR-482, SUA-468A, SUA-468B, UCR-481) are not C13-corrected and are considered to be minimum age estimates; see Brandt, thesis.

27 Brandt, S. A., Brook, G. A. and Gresham, T. H., ‘Quaternary palaeoenvironments and prehistoric human occupation of northern Somalia’, Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Somali Studies (Hamburg, in press).Google Scholar

28 S. A. Brandt, pers. comm.

29 Graziosi, P., L'Età della pietra in Somalia (Florence, 1940).Google Scholar This site was referred to as Gure Makeke in Clark, J. D., Prehistoric cultures of the Horn of Africa (Cambridge, 1954).Google Scholar I thank Dr Brandt for this information.

30 For an introduction to her work see Kleppe, E. J., ‘The Debbas on the White Nile, Southern Sudan’, in Mack, J. and Robertshaw, P. (eds.), Culture history in the Southern Sudan (Nairobi, 1982), 59–70.Google Scholar

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32 Shinnie, P. L. and Kense, F. J., ‘Meroitic iron working’. In Millet, N. B. and Kelley, A. L. (eds.), Meroitic Studies: proceedings of the Third International Meroitic Conference, Toronto 1977Google Scholar; Meroitica vi (1982), 17–28.Google Scholar

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34 Information on sites investigated in Lakes Province can be found in Robertshaw, P., Siiriainen, A., Tor, A., Mbae, B., Andersen, T., Coote, J. and Mawson, A., ‘Expedition to the Southern Sudan of the British Institute in Eastern Africa’, NyameAkuma XVIII (1981), 48–50Google Scholar; P. Robertshaw and A. Siiriäinen, in preparation.

35 J. P. R. Coote, in preparation.

36 Readers are referred to Collett, and Robertshaw, , ‘Problems’Google Scholar, for a critical review of already published dates for northern Kenya.

37 For the original descriptions of these sites see Lynch, B. M., ‘The Namoratunga cemetery and rock art sites of N. W. Kenya: a study of early pastoral social organisation’ (Ph.D. thesis, Michigan State University, 1978)Google Scholar; Lynch, B. M. and Robbins, L., ‘Namoratunga: the first archaeo-astronomical evidence in sub-Saharan Africa’, Science, CC (1978), 766–768CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lynch, B. M. and Robbins, L., ‘Cushitic and Nilotic prehistory: new archaeological evidence from north-west Kenya’, J. Afr. Hist, XX, iii (1979), 319–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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39 In previous literature this site is named Namoratunga II. However, since Namoratunga (I) is also the name of the rock art and cemetery site, the names Kalokol and Lokori are used here to avoid confusion, following Soper, ‘Cushites’.

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41 ibid.

42 H. V. Merrick and students of St Lawrence University, pers. comm.

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46 This suggestion has been made previously by Ambrose, S. H., ‘Archaeology and linguistic reconstructions of history in East Africa’ in Ehret, C. and Posnansky, M. (eds.), The archaeological and linguistic reconstruction of African history (London, 1982), 104–157Google Scholar; see p. 121.

47 Stiles, Daniel, ‘Preliminary results of archaeological and palaoenvirpnmental research in northern Kenya’, Nyame Akuma XX (1982), 19–25Google Scholar; Stiles, Daniel and Munro-Hay, S. C., ‘Stone cairn burials at Kokurmatakore, northern Kenya’, Azania XVI (1981), 151–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48 With the exception of GX-7397, all dates from the cairns excavated by Stiles were obtained from samples of bone apatite from the human skeleton in each cairn. Readers should evaluate these apatite dates cautiously, particularly since calcium carbonate concentrations were often found in the vicinity of the skeletons; see Collett, and Robertshaw, , ‘Problems’.Google Scholar

49 Stiles, , ‘Preliminary results’.Google Scholar

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51 ibid.

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54 ibid.

55 ibid.

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62 A correction factor of one hundred years should be subtracted from this date to allow for isotopic fractionation in fresh water. The figure of one hundred years was obtained by ‘dating' modern shell from Lake Victoria (J. C. Vogel, pers. comm.).

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68 Excavations by the author.

69 The bones are being studied by Fiona Marshall.

70 R. Soper, pers. comm.

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73 ibid.

74 Kohl-Larsen, L., Auf den Spuren des Vormenschen (Stuttgart, 1943).Google Scholar

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83 Ambrose (pers. comm.), points out that the absence of collagen in this bone sample indicates a much older age than the apatite reading suggests.

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87 Ambrose (pers. comm.) suspects the charcoal sample may have been contaminated by younger carbon.

88 Ambrose, as cited in n. 46, pp. 124–5.

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151 D. Killick, pers. comm.

152 ibid.

153 N. J. van der Merwe, pers. comm.

154 Killick, pers. comm.

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