Ritual Sites as Anchors in a Dynamic Landscape: The Social and Economic Importance of Monumental Cemeteries Built by Eastern Africa’s Earliest Herders

Summary

In eastern Africa, herding was the earliest form of food production, supplanting fishing-hunting-gathering around Lake Turkana (northwest Kenya) ca. 5000-4000 BP. Fueled by the dramatic recession of Lake Turkana 5300-3900 BP, which made fishing less predictable and exposed vast plains of rich pasture near the lake, early herding probably involved both in-migration of pastoralists and adoption of livestock by local fishers. As herding took hold a mortuary tradition developed, with megalithic ‘pillar sites’ serving as communal cemeteries. Construction (massive platforms, mortuary cavities >100m2 dug into sandstone bedrock, and columnar stones hauled up to 1 km from their source) and use (interment of several hundred estimated individuals over a few centuries, accompanied by adornments and intricately decorated pottery) attest to the sites’ commemorative significance. As physical landmarks and settings for unifying rituals, pillar sites would have anchored early herders within an otherwise fluid physical and social landscape as Lake Turkana retreated, rainfall diminished, and mobility increased. Periodic assembly of otherwise dispersed groups to perform ritualized interment would have facilitated diverse forms of social interaction—including information sharing, formation of exchange networks, and negotiations and strategic decisions about herd movements—essential to the success of early pastoral economies in eastern Africa.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21505