Human settlement successions and lithic technology in the Kalokol area (west Lake Turkana, Kenya) during the African Humid Period

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Kalokol Basin on the west side of Lake Turkana, northern Kenya, has yielded three sites dating to the African Humid Period (AHP), a wet phase with intermittent dry spells that characterised the African climate c. 15.0–5.5 kya. Drawing on the chronological and lithic datasets from the three sites, this paper examines human settlement successions and the associated lithic technology in the region during the AHP. The radiocarbon dates signify at least six episodes of human settlement, occurring approximately 13.6–13.3, 11.24–10.77, 10.24–10.20, 7.27–7.02, 6.26–6.00 and 3.61–3.47 kya. The notion of ‘settlement’ as applied here implies either long-term or short-term human activities at the sites. During these successive settlements, people employed similar survival strategies: they exploited local stone raw materials, consumed aquatic resources from the lake using specialised bone points and settled near riparian settings. Their lithic technology is best characterised by preferential knapping of locally available chert and chalcedony and the production of geometric microliths and a range of flakes from expedient and formal cores. The finds from the Kalokol Basin contribute to improving our understanding of human adaptive strategies in the wider Lake Turkana Basin during the AHP.