Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T00:43:32.320Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early Hominin Activity Traces at FxJj43, a One and a Half Million Year Old Locality in the Koobi Fora Formation, in Northern Kenya: a Field Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Nicola Stern
Nicola Stern
Affiliation:
Archaeology Program, La Trobe University, Bundoora Victoria 3086
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

FxJj43 is one of a series of Early Stone Age archaeological sites preserved in the Okote Member of the Koobi Fora Formation, in northern Kenya. It is the focus of a new research project that aims to explore the impact of time-averaging on the composition and characteristics of Early Stone Age archaeological assemblages. FxJj43 lends itself particularly well to this exercise because, unlike other sites in the Okote Member, it preserves a laterally extensive set of interlocking landforms. These include part of a sandy river channel, its southern bank, levee, and adjacent floodplain.

Chipped stone artefacts and broken-up animal bones occur in clusters of varying size and density all the way along the 200 m long strip of outcrops containing the remnants of these landforms. Small-scale excavations aimed at investigating the characteristics of archaeological assemblages preserved in different palaeotopographic settings, and in clusters of varying size and density, suggest the existence of archaeological occurrences representing different amounts of overprinting. This underscores the long-term research potential of this locality for exploring the relationship between the material remains of individual behavioural events and agglomerations of debris resulting from many, often unrelated sets of activities.

Résumé

FxJj43 est une des séries de sites archéologiques du début de l'âge de la pierre préservés dans l' Okote Member de la formation Kooki Fora, dans le nord du Kenya. Il fait l'objet d'un nouveau programme de recherches qui a pour but d'explorer l'impact de l'utilisation d'une moyenne pour le temps sur la composition et les caractéristiques des assemblages archéologiques du début de l'âge de la pierre. FxJj43 se prête particulièrement bien à cet exercice parce que, contrairement aux autres sites de l'Okote Member, il a conservé un ensemble latéralement extensif de formes physiques entrelacées. Celles-ci comprennent une partie du lit d'une rivière sablonneuse, sa rive sud, une digue et la plaine inondable adjacente.

Des objets en pierre ébréchés et des os d'animaux cassés ont été retrouvés en groupes de taille et de densité variables tout au long de la bande d'affleurement, longue de 200 mètres, comprenant les restes de ces formations. Des fouilles sur une petite échelle destinées à étudier les caractéristiques des assemblages archéologiques préservés dans les différents cadres paléo-topographiques, et dans les groupements de diverses tailles et densités, suggèrent l'existence d'événements archéologiques représentant différents degrés de sur-impression. Ceci souligne le potentiel de recherches à long terme de cette localité pour l'exploration de la relation entre vestiges matériels provenant d'événements liés au comportement individuel et accumulation de débris provenant d'un grand nombre d'ensembles d'activités, souvent sans aucun lien entre eux.

Zusammenfassung

FxJj43 ist eine von mehreren archäologischen Fundstellen aus der frühen Seinzeit, die sich in der Okote Member der Koobi Fora Formation im nördlichen Kenia erhalten haben. Sie ist das Zentrum eines Forschungsprojektes, das zum Ziel hat, den Einfluss von Zeitfaktoren auf die Zusammen Setzung und die Merkmale von frühsteinzeitlichen Inventaren zu untersuchen. FxJj43 bietet sich besonders gut für diese Untersuchung an, weil sich hier, im Gegensatz zu anderen Fundstellen in der Okote Member, eine seitwärts ausgedehnte Ansammlung von ineinander greifenden Landschaftsformen erhalten hat. Diese umfassen einen Teil eines sandigen Fluss-Kanals, sein südliches Ufer, einen Deich und die angrenzende Aue.

Absplissartefakte und abgebrochene Tierknochen kommen in Clustern unterschiedlicher Größe und Dichte auf der gesamten Länge der 200 m langen Streifen der Aufschlüsse vor, die die Überreste dieser Landschaftsformen enthalten. Ausgrabungen kleineren Ausmaßes, die die Merkmale der erhaltenen archäologischen Inventare in den verschiedenen paläotopographischen Ansammlungen und in Clustern unterschiedlicher Größe und Dichte untersuchen, deuten auf archäologische Vorkommen an, die eine verschiedene Anzahl von Überlagerungen darstellen. Dies unterstreicht das langfristige Forschungspotential dieser Örtlichkeit, die Beziehung zwischen den materiellen Resten von individuellen Verhaltensereignissen und der Anlagerung von Abfall, der von vielen, häufigen aber unverbundenen Aktivitäten herrühren, zu untersuchen.

Résumen

FxJj43 es uno en una serie de yacimientos arqueológicos de la Primera Edad de Piedra preservados en el Okote Member de la Formación de Koobi Fora, al norte de Kenya. Es el centro de un nuevo proyecto de investigación cuyo fín es explorar el impacto del tiempo en la unificación de la composición y características de los conjuntos arqueológicos de la Primera Edad de Piedra. FxJj43 se presta particularmente bien a este tipo de ejercicio, puesto que, al contrario que en otros yacimientos en el Okote Member, se han preservado un grupo de formas geológicas entrelazadas en extensión lateral, que incluyen parte de un cauce fluvial arenoso, su ribera, dique y valle fluvial sures.

Útiles de piedra tallados y huesos animales fragmentados aparecen en grupos de diversos tamaños y densidades a lo largo de los 200 m de la franja de afloramientos que contienen los restos de estas formas geológicas. Excavaciones en pequeña escala dirigidas a investigar las características de las colecciones arqueológicas preservadas en los distintos marcos paleo-topográficos, y en grupos de distintos tamaños y densidades, sugieren la existencia de sucesos arqueológicos que representan distintas niveles de superposición. Esto subraya el potencial a largo plazo de esta localidad para la exploraión de las relaciones entre los restos materiales resultantes de comportamientos individuales y las aglomeraciones de desecho que resultan de muchas series de actividades a menudo no relacionadas entre si.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 70 , 2004 , pp. 233 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Asfaw, B., Beyene, Y., Suwa, G., Walter, R.C., White, T.D., Wolde-Gabrel, G. & Yemane, T. 1992. The earliest Acheulian from Konso-Gardula. Nature 360, 732–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behrensmeyer, A.K. 1975. The taphonomy and paleoecology of Plio-Pleistocene vertebrate assemblages east of Lake Rudolf, Kenya. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 146, 473–578Google Scholar
Behrensmeyer, A.K. 1976. Taphonomy and paleoecology in the fossil hominid record. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 18, 36–49Google Scholar
Behrensmeyer, A.K. 1978. Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering. Paleobiology 2, 150–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L.R. 1978. Nunamiut Ethnoarchaeology. New York: Academic PressGoogle Scholar
Binford, L.R. 1981. Behavioral archaeology and the ‘Pompeii Premise’. Journal of Anthropological Research 37, 195–208CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L.R. 1988. Fact and fiction about the Zinjanthropus floor: data, arguments and interpretations. Current Anthropology 29, 123–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenschine, R.J. & Masao, F.T. 1991. Living sites at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania? Preliminary landscape archaeology results in the basal Bed II lake margin zone. Journal of Human Evolution 21, 451–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenschine, R.J., Cavallo, J.A. & Capaldo, S.D. 1994. Competition for carcasses and early hominid behavioral ecology: A case study and conceptual framework. Journal of Human Evolution 27, 197–214CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, F.H. & Feibel, C.S. 1988. ‘Robust’ hominids and Plio-Pleistocene palaeogeography of the Turkana basin, Kenya and Ethiopia. In Grine, F. (ed.), Evolutionary History of the ‘Robust’ Australopithecines, 325–41. New York: Aldine de GruyterGoogle Scholar
Brown, F.H. & Feibel, C.S. 1991. Stratigraphy, depositional environments, and palaeogeography of the Koobi Fora Formation. In Harris, J.M. (ed.), Koobi Fora Research Project, Volume 3, Artiodactyls and Palaeoenvironments, 1–30. Oxford: Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
Bunn, H.T. 1982. Meat-eating and Human Evolution: Studies on the Diet and Subsistence Patterns of Plio-Pleistocene Hominids in East Africa. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, BerkeleyGoogle Scholar
Bunn, H.T. 1983. Evidence on the diet and subsistence patterns of Plio-Pleistocene hominids at Koobi Fora, Kenya and Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. In Clutton-Brock, J. & Grigson, C. (eds), Animals and Archaeology: 1. Hunters and their Prey, 21–30. Oxford: British Archaeological Report S163Google Scholar
Bunn, H.T. 1997. The bone assemblages from the excavated sites. In Isaac, (ed.) 1997, 402–44Google Scholar
Bunn, H.T. & Kroll, E.M. 1986. Systematic butchery by Plio-Pleistocene hominds at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Current Anthropology 27, 431–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunn, H.T., Harris, J.W.K., Kaufulu, Z., Kroll, E., Schick, K., Toth, N. & Behrensmeyer, A.K. 1980. FxJj50: an early Pleistocene site in northern Kenya. World Archaeology 12, 109–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conard, N. 1994. Discussion and criticism: on the prospects for an ethnography of extinct hominids. Current Anthropology 35, 281–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dominguez-Rodrigo, M. 1997. Meat-eating by early hominids at the FLK 22 Zinjanthropus site, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania: an experimental approach using cutmark data. Journal of Human Evolution 33, 669–90CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dominguez-Rodrigo, M. & Pickering, T.R. 2003. Early hominid hunting and scavenging: a zooarchaeological review. Evolutionary Anthropology 12, 275–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feibel, C.S. 1988. Palaeoenvironments of the Koobi Fora Formation, Turkana Basin, Northern Kenya. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Utah, Salt Lake CityGoogle Scholar
Feibel, C.S. & Brown, F.H. 1993. Microstratigraphy and paleoenvironments. In Walker, A. & Leakey, R.E.F., (eds), The Nariokotome Homo erectus Skeleton, 21–39. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feibel, C.S., Harris, J.M. & Brown, F.H. 1991. Palaeoenvironmental context for the late Neogene of the Turkana Basin. In Harris, J.M., (ed.), Koobi Fora Research Project. Volume 3. Artiodactyls and Palaeoenvironments 321–70. Oxford: Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
Gamble, C. 1999. The Palaeolithic Societies of Europe. Cambridge: University PressGoogle Scholar
Harris, J.W.K. & Isaac, G.Ll. 1997. Sites in the Upper KBS, Okote, and Chari Members: reports. In Isaac, (ed.), 1997, 114–223Google Scholar
Holdaway, S.J., Shiner, J. & Fanning, P. 2004. Hunter-gatherers and the archaeology of discard behaviour: analysis of surface stone artefacts from Sturt National Park, Western New South Wales, Australia. Asian Perspectives 43, 34–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. 1966. Olorgesailie. An investigation in the natural history of early Men. In Posnanksy, M. (ed.), Prelude to East African History, 40–2. Oxford: University PressGoogle Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. 1976. The activities of early African hominids: a review of archaeological evidence from the time span of two and a half to one million years ago. In Isaac, G.Ll. & McCown, E. (eds), Human Origins: Louis Leakey and the East African evidence, 482–514. Menlo Park: BenjaminGoogle Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. 1978. The food-sharing behavior of proto-human hominids. Scientific American 238, 90–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. 1981a. Archaeological tests of alternative models of early hominid behaviour: excavation and experiments. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B 292, 177–88Google Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. 1981b. Stone Age visiting cards: approaches to the study of early land use patterns. In Hodder, I., Isaac, G.Ll. & Hammond, N. (eds), Pattern of the Past, 131–55. Cambridge: University PressGoogle Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. 1984. The archaeology of human origins: studies of the Lower Pleistocene in East Africa 1971–1981. Advances in World Archaeology 3, 1–87Google Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. (ed.). 1997. Koobi Fora Research Project. Volume 5. Plio-Pleistocene Archaeology. Oxford: Clarendon PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. & Curtis, G.H. 1974. Age of early Acheulian industries from the Peninj Group, Tanzania. Nature 249, 624–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. & Harris, J.W.K. 1978. Archaeology. In Leakey, & Leakey, (eds), 1978, 64–85Google Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. & Harris, J.W.K. 1980. A method for determining the characteristics of artefacts between sites in the Upper Member of the Koobi Fora Formation, East Lake Turkana. In Leakey, R.E. & Ogot, B. (eds), Proceedings of the 8th Pan African Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Studies, Nairobi, 1977, 19–22. Nairobi: TILLMIAPGoogle Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll. & Harris, J.W.K. 1997. The stone artefact assemblages: a comparative study. In Isaac, (ed.), 1997, 262–99Google Scholar
Isaac, G.Ll., Harris, J.W.K. & Marshall, F. 1981. Small is informative: the application of the study of mini-sites and least-effort criteria in the interpretation of the Early Pleistocene archaeological record at Koobi Fora, Kenya. In Clark, J.D. & Isaac, G.Ll. (eds), Congresso Union International de Ciencias Prehistoricas y Protohistoricas, Mexico (1981), 101–9Google Scholar
Kaufulu, Z.M. 1983. The Geological Context of Some Early Archaeological Sites in Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania: Microstratigraphy, Site Formation and Interpretation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, BerkeleyGoogle Scholar
Kibunjia, M. 1994. Pliocene archaeological occurrences in the Lake Turkana basin. Journal of Human Evolution 27, 159–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroll, E.M. 1994. Behavioral implications of Plio-Pleistocene site structure, Journal of Human Evolution 27, 107–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroll, E.M. 1997. Lithic and faunal distributions at eight archaeological excavations. In Isaac, (ed.), 1997, 459–525Google Scholar
Lake, M. 1996. Archaeological inference and the explanation of hominid evolution. In Steele, J. & Shennan, S. (eds), The Archaeology of Human Ancestry: power, sex and tradition, 184–206. London: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Leakey, R.E.F. & Leakey, M.G. (eds). 1978. Koobi Fora Research Project, Volume 3, The Fossil Hominids and an Introduction to their Context. Oxford: Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
O'Connell, J.F. 1995. Ethnoarchaeology needs a general theory of behavior, Journal of Archaeological Research 3, 205–55CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmqvist, P. & Arribas, A. 2001. Taphonomic decoding of the paleobiological information locked in a lower Pleistocene assemblage of large mammals. Paleobiology 27, 512–302.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potts, R., Behrensmeyer, A.K. & Ditchfield, P. 1999. Paleolandscape variation and Early Pleistocene hominid activities: Members 1 and 7, Olorgesailie formation, Kenya, Journal of Human Evolution 37, 747–88CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reed, K.E. 1997. Early hominid evolution and ecological change through the African Plio-Pleistocene. Journal of Human Evolution 32, 289–322CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roche, H., Delagnes, A., Brugal, J.-P., Feibel, C., Kibunjia, M., Mourre, V. & Texier, P.-J. 1999. Early hominid stone tool production and technical skill 2.34 Myr in West Turkana, Kenya. Nature 399, 57–60CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rogers, M.J., Harris, J.W.K.Feibel, C.S. 1994. Changing patterns of land use by Plio-Pleistocene hominids in the Lake Turkana Basin. Journal of Human Evolution 27, 139–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schick, K.D. 1984. Processes of Palaeolithic Site Formation: an experimental study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, BerkeleyGoogle Scholar
Selvaggio, M.M. 1994. Carnivore tooth marks and stone tool butchery marks on scavenged bones: archaeological implications. Journal of Human Evolution 27, 215–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selvaggio, M.M. 1998. Evidence for a three-stage sequence of hominid and carnivore involvement with long bones at FLK Zinjanthropus, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Journal of Archaeological Science 25, 191–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sept, J.M. 1984. Plants and Early Hominids in East Africa: a study of vegetation in situations comparable to early site locations. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, BerkeleyGoogle Scholar
Sept, J.M. 1986. Plant foods and early hominids at site FxJj50, Koobi Fora, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 15, 751–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shott, M.J. 1998. Activity and formation as sources of variation in Great Lakes Paleoindian assemblages. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 22, 197–236Google Scholar
Spencer, L.M. 1997. Dietary adaptations of Plio-Pleistocene Bovidae: implications for hominid habitat use. Journal of Human Evolution 32, 201–28CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stein, J.K. 1987. Deposits for archaeologists. Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, 11, 337–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, N. 1993. The structure of the Lower Pleistocene archaeological record: a case study from the Koobi Fora Formation. Current Anthropology 34, 201–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, N., Porch, N. & McDougall, I. 2002. FxJj43: a window into a 1.5 million year old palaeolandscape in the Okote Member of the Koobi Fora Formation. Geoarchaeology 17, 349–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tattersal, I. 1995. The Fossil Trail. New York: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Toth, N. 1982. The Stone Technologies of Early Hominids from Koobi Fora, Kenya. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, BerkeleyGoogle Scholar
Walker, K.R. & Bambach, R.K. 1971. The significance of fossil assemblages from fine grained sediments: time-averaged communities. Geological Society of America Abstract and Programs 3, 783–4Google Scholar
Wells, L. 2001. A geomorphological approach to reconstructing settlement patterns based on surficial artifact distribution: replacing humans on the landscape. In Goldberg, P., Holliday, V.T. & Ferring, C.R. (eds), Earth Sciences and Archaeology, 107–41. New York: Plenum PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, B. 1992. Koobi Fora Research Project, Volume 4, Hominid Cranial Remains. Oxford: Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar