Of Fire and Stone: Cremation and Secondary Burial Practices at Noomparrua Nkosesia, a Pastoral Neolithic Site in Southwest Kenya

Summary

This is an abstract from the "African Archaeology throughout the Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The spread of food production in East Africa c. 5000-1000 BP involved peoples with diverse subsistence patterns, material culture repertoires and identities. Pastoral Neolithic burial traditions include monumental pillar sites in northern Kenya, cremations in rockshelters in the southern highlands of Kenya and northern Tanzania, and widespread cairns. Little is known about the social landscapes and the diversity of mortuary practices of Neolithic-era peoples of the southern highlands. In 2016, members of a Maasai community near the Tanzanian border in Kenya discovered and exhumed a unique Neolithic mortuary site named Noomparrua Nkosesia (GxJg2). This 3.5 x 3.5 m rock crevice chamber held the remains of five cremated individuals in a matrix of soil, ash and powdered red ochre, associated with approximately 90 ground stone bowls and 44 obsidian artifacts. However, unlike all other known cremation sites, grindstones, ornaments and pottery were absent. We report on the chronology, stratigraphy and formation processes of this site. Geoarchaeological analyses show a distinct lack of ash or burned sediment despite the presence of burned bones, artifacts and cobbles. Noomparrua is the first cemetery containing only secondary burial of cremated remains in East Africa and increases the diversity of known Pastoral Neolithic mortuary practices.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• African Archaeology throughout the Holocene   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25168