QUANTIFYING ENDSCRAPER REDUCTION IN THE CONTEXT OF OBSIDIAN EXCHANGE AMONG EARLY PASTORALISTS IN SOUTHWESTERN KENYA

Abstract

Mobile strategies are foundational components of nomadic pastoralist socio-economic organization in East Africa. Beginning around 3,000 BP, nomadic herders in southwestern Kenya had integrated the regular transport of obsidian across a 200 km landscape into these strategies. Pastoral Neolithic groups in the region relied on obsidian for the production of blade based toolkits. Viewed through an organization approach, the patterns of tool reduction and discard in the archaeological record may be used to infer dimensions of obsidian access, as perceived by early herding communities. In order to begin assessing the social and economic factors structuring obsidian access and use in this region, this study examines the intensity of obsidian endscraper reduction as a correlate for overall stresses on pastoralist obsidian supply. Several excavations in the 1970s and 1980s produced lithic assemblages from southwestern Kenya that were reexamined and sampled for this analysis. Using methods developed in forager contexts in other regions, there appear to be few differences in the intensity in tool use between sites. This pattern may indicate that communities across a large landscape had regular and consistent access to obsidians from distant sources. The study contributes to renewed interest in the Pastoral Neolithic in East Africa, and is situated within ongoing discussions of technological organization in global contexts.

Keywords:

• Africa
• pastoralism
• curation
• mobility

Acknowledgements

This research was supported financially by the I-CARES organization, and Washington University in St. Louis. Facilities and support were provided by the Kenya National Museum. This research would not have been possible without the archaeological projects of Ari Siirianin, Peter Robertshaw, and Knut Odner. I am indebted to Fiona Marshall and Stanley Ambrose for their comments, and to the anonymous reviewers whose input greatly improved this manuscript. The author is solely responsible for any errors.

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Steven T. Goldstein

Steven Goldstein is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. He has a B.A. in Anthropology from Stony Brook University, and an A.M. from Washington University in St. Louis.