The context of early megalithic architecture in eastern Africa: the Turkana Basin c. 5000-4000 BP

Abstract

Megalithic ‘pillar sites’ built by middle Holocene peoples of the Turkana Basin in northwestern Kenya provide eastern Africa's earliest known example of monumental architecture. Radiometric dates place pillar site construction and use ~5000-4000 cal. BP. This social innovation occurred during a period of marked environmental and economic change: the level of Lake Turkana dropped dramatically, vast plains opened between the lake and neighbouring volcanic ridges and herding was added to the previous local subsistence repertoire of fishing, gathering and hunting. Material culture recovered from the pillar sites suggests that they supported diverse commemorative practices including, but not limited to, the mortuary sphere, and that they may have been built and used by multiple social groups.

Au cours de l'Holocène moyen, les populations du bassin du Turkana furent engagées dans la construction de nombreux sites mégalithiques. Ces ‘pillar sites’ ou sites à piliers fournissent le plus ancien exemple connu en Afrique orientale d'architecture monumentale. La construction et l'utilisation de ces sites sont datées à ~5000-4000 cal. BP. Cette innovation sociale prit place pendant une période de changements environnementaux et économiques dramatiques: le niveau du lac Turkana baissa de façon spectaculaire, de vastes plaines s'ouvrirent entre le lac et les collines volcaniques voisines, et l’élevage fut ajouté au répertoire précédent de pêche, cueillette et chasse. La culture matérielle que l'on retrouve dans ces ‘pillar sites’ laisse à penser que ceux-ci appuyaient diverses pratiques commémoratives, y compris mais non limité à la sphère mortuaire, et qu'ils ont peut-être été bâtis et utilisés par plusieurs groupes sociaux.

Keywords:

• megaliths
• pillar sites
• monumental architecture
• mortuary archaeology
• pastoralism
• Turkana Basin

Acknowledgements

Fieldwork in West Turkana has been funded by the Turkana Basin Institute (2007), the National Geographic Society (Waitt Grant to John Shea in 2008, CRE Grant to Elisabeth Hildebrand in 2009), and the US National Science Foundation (BCS 1124419 to Elisabeth Hildebrand 2011-present). Jarigole dates and ceramic analysis were also funded by NSF (DIG-0752042) and Wenner-Gren (#7786) grants to Katherine Grillo in 2007–9. We are grateful to the National Museums of Kenya for facilitating our field and laboratory research and to the Turkana Basin Institute for crucial logistical support. Our home institutions of Washington University, the University of Kiel (Grillo) and Stony Brook University (Hildebrand) sustained us during analysis and writing. Most of the perspectives presented here were developed based on data from the 2009 field season, whose crew included J. Shea, A. Beyin, J. Etabu, A. Janzen and C. Ogola. We thank S. Brandt and S. Pilliard for contributing valuable perspectives and sources and S. Pfeiffer and J. Shea and two anonymous scholars for reviewing this paper. Finally, we thank the people of northwestern Kenya, on whose stewardship the future conservation of these sites depends. This is Publication #5 of the Later Prehistory of West Turkana project.