Kariandusi prehistoric site

Kariandusi Prehistoric Site
Map showing the location of Kariandusi Prehistoric Site

Located in Kenya

Location Kariandusi, Kenya
Nearest city Nairobi, Kenya
Coordinates 00°42′00″S 36°30′00″E / 0.70000°S 36.50000°E / -0.70000; 36.50000Coordinates: 00°42′00″S 36°30′00″E / 0.70000°S 36.50000°E / -0.70000; 36.50000
Governing body National Museums of Kenya

Kariandusi prehistoric site is an archaeological site in Kenya. Located on the southeastern edge of the Great Rift Valley and on Lake Elmenteita, Kariandusi is an African Early Stone Age site dating to approximately 1 million years ago.[1]

History

This site was discovered by Louis Leakey in a 1928 expedition in the exposed Kariandusi riverbed.[2] Leakey graduated St. John's College, Cambridge in 1926 with some of the best grades in his graduating class. Due to his success, St. John's awarded Leakey a research grant for his first East African Archaeological Expedition.[3] Using funds for his Expedition, Leakey was able to finance three separate trips to the site (in 1928, 1931, and 1946) and several trip to his other research destinations, like Olduvai Gorge, Lake Victoria, etc... After Leakey, J.A.J. Gowlett and R.G. Crompton co-led a fourth expedition in 1974, and this was the last major excavation endeavor at the Kariandusi prehistoric site.[4] However, there have been several research projects concerning the Kariandusi Prehistoric Site.

Early Stone Age in Africa

A Homo Erectus skeleton: the species that used and manufactured Mode 2 tools

The Early Stone Age (ESA) in Africa extends from about 2.6 million years ago to 280,000 years ago. It is also synonymous with the Lower Paleolithic. This was the period when the most well-known human ancestors were evolving: Australopithecus afarensis, Paranthropus boisei, Homo habilis (the "Handy Man"), and Homo erectus. At the time that Kariandusi was in use, 1 million years ago, Homo erectus was in the eastern African Rift Valley.

Besides the evolution of humans, there was the metaphorical evolution of tools. The ESA was the beginning of modern tool use, and the time period has two Modes (a way of classifying tools without designating them to certain cultural or ethnic groups). Mode 1 is primarily Oldowan "choppers," tools made from pebbles in the Olduvai Gorge area by, mostly, Homo habilis. Mode 2 includes the Acheulean handaxes found mostly in the Turkana Basin of Kenya, which were made primarily by Homo erectus. Kariandusi, due to its location in eastern Africa and the age of the site, was likely occupied by Homo erectus who produced Mode 2 technologies.[5]

Archaeological finds

An Acheulean handaxe approximately 12 cm in height, similar to those found at Kariandusi

When this site was discovered and initially researched, the finds were sent to museums all around the world (as was common at the time). However, because the finds were not wholly cataloged, there is no comprehensive list of all finds from Kariandusi. To understand the scope of the assemblage, consider that Cambridge University alone has over 250 handaxes from Kariandusi.[6] Obsidian was the main material used in making the Acheulean handaxes, but lava-based materials like quartz-trachyte were also used.[7]

Theories

There are several theories surrounding certain aspects of the Kariandusi site, including its possible use as a "factory" site, and why the excessive wear on the edges of the handaxes there are not typical of those from surrounding sites.

Factory

Due to the sheer amount of handaxes found at the site, Kariandusi was once thought to be a factory for Acheulean handaxes. It was also once thought of as one of the oldest in situ Acheulean hand axe site in the world. When it was discovered, the researchers believed it had been untouched since the last stoneworker had left. However, recent climate research has revealed that nearby Lake Elmenteita once reached further inland, and has receded in the past one million years. The collection at Kariandusi accumulated due to the water rushing over the land and depositing the hand axes there. The denial of this site as a factory is supported by the lack of waste found at the site. There are no flakes or debris left over from the creation of the handaxes, which one would be sure to find at a designated factory.[8]

Edge-wear

At Kariandusi it is common to find a handaxe with little to no edge wear. This also helps contribute to the idea that Kariandusi was once a factory site: if it was a factory site, these axes would be created on site and then passed out or shipped to different communities around Kariandusi. A study by evolutionary biologist Steven Mithen puts out the theory that there was no edge wear because the handaxes weren't used as axes, but as "sexual lures," ways the nearby males would attract females. The edge wear, coupled with the immense amount of handaxes, many more than necessary, contributes to this idea. However, since Mithen proposed this theory, there has been little to no support for it.[9]

Left-handedness

Modern handedness is the topic of many psychological research articles. One such article presented the information that over 10% of the world's population is left handed.[6] A 1997 archaeological research project, led by Laura Phillipson, analyzed about 250 Kariandusi handaxes for signs of handedness. From the 250 samples, Phillipson's team narrowed the number down to the 54 handaxes that appeared to have been used the least, and with the least amount of wear on the edges. In order to determine whether or not a handaxe was left-handed or right-handed, the team analyzed the hand-hold spots on each specimen. Based on how comfortable a handaxe was to hold in either the left or right, 6 of the samples were proved to be left-handed.[10] The full results of the research are as follows:

It was possible to assign a probable left handedness to 6 out of the 54 specimens examined, or 11%. Of the remainder, 45 were probably intended for right-handed use and 3, as mentioned above, were indeterminate.

- Laura Phillipson, Cambridge University

Because 11% of the selected handaxes appeared to be left-handed axes, the conclusion is that modern human handedness was already appearing in the Early to Middle Stone Age, almost 1 million years ago.[11]

Kariandusi Museum

The National Museums of Kenya is a state corporation that monitors national Kenyan museums and monuments, including Kariandusi. A museum was built at Kariandusi near the prehistoric site, with a stairway going down to where the handaxes were discovered. However, the Kariandusi Museum does not cater just towards the prehistoric site, but also towards several other nearby historic sites as well. The NMK - Kariandusi website advertises the following:[1]

References

  1. 1 2 "Kariandusi". Enzi Museums. National Museums of Kenya.
  2. ↑ "Kariandusi Museum". National Museums of Kenya.
  3. ↑ Morell, Virginia (1995). Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings. New York, New York: Touchstone.
  4. ↑ Shipton, Ceri (2013). "Kenyan Stone Age: The Louis Leakey Collection". Archaeopress: 47.
  5. ↑ Barham, Lawrence; Mitchell, Peter (2008). The First Africans: African archaeology from the earliest toolmakers to the most recent foragers. Cambridge University Press.
  6. 1 2 Hardyck, Curtis; Petrinovich, Lewis (1977). "Left-Handedness". American Psychological Association. 84 (3): 390. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.84.3.385. PMID 859955.
  7. ↑ Leakey, Louis (1931). The Stone Age Cultures of Kenya Colony. The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 35.
  8. ↑ Gowlett, J.A.J; Crompton, R.H (1994). "Kariandusi: Acheulean Morphology and the Question of Allometry". The African Archaeological Review. 12: 3–42. doi:10.1007/bf01953037. JSTOR 25130570.
  9. ↑ Proctor, Robert (April 2003). "The Roots of Human Recency". Current Anthropology. 44: 218. doi:10.1086/346029. JSTOR 10.1086/346029.
  10. ↑ Phillipson, L. (Fall 1997). "Edge Modification as an Indicator of Function and Handedness of Acheulian Handaxes from Kariandusi, Kenya". Lithic Technology. 22: 171,175. JSTOR 23273051.
  11. ↑ McManus, I.C. "The History and Geography of Human Handedness" (PDF). Language Lateralization and Psychosis.
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