Lake Turkana, located in the north-western fringe of the Kenyan Rift Valley, is the largest freshwater lake in a desert area and has always played a key role in the cultural dynamics of the region. Although it represents an ideal laboratory for the study of cultural strategies adopted by human groups to cope with Holocene environmental variations, it has been only marginally investigated archaeologically, with an interdisciplinary research program still missing. Our 2019 project, continuing and expanding the activities undertaken in 2016 and 2018, will investigate the cultural dynamics of the region from c. 12,000 to 4000 years ago. The main aims of the project are: 1) to detail the sequence of climatic and environmental changes in the Early-Middle Holocene and to analyse the changes in subsistence strategies; 2) to define the socio-cultural dynamics of the different groups of hunter-gatherer-fishers living on Lake Turkana and their cross-cultural connections; 3) to trace the cultural and symbolic trajectories of early herders, investigating the relationships between rock art, funerary and ceremonial sites, and settlements; 4) to analyse the diversity of the modern populations living around Lake Turkana through a genetic approach; and 5) to favour the bi-directional transfer of knowledge and capacity building. These objectives will be achieved through a landscape approach in a diachronic perspective, and through a multidisciplinary strategy that includes remote sensing studies, fieldwork (surveys and excavations) and laboratory activities on archaeological and biological finds. The main stratigraphic excavation will be carried out by in the Early-Middle Holocene site of Lowasera, a key context for African prehistory. Overall, the activities will be developed by applying cutting-edge technologies in the fields of archaeological research and rock art, environmental studies, petrologic analyses of the artefacts, phenotype of human remains, isotopes and genetic studies.
Inter- and multi-disciplinarity are the distinctive traits of this project. The inclusion of new participants, including young and experienced researchers, and the integration of new scientific profiles further enrich a long-lasting and effective team that guaranteed relevant results in similar projects carried out in Northern African contexts (Libya and Tunisia).
The continuous improvement of the theoretical and methodological background and implementation of cutting edge-methods of analyses have critical importance on the outline of the research and the adopted strategies.
As briefly summarized in the previous paragraphs, the Turkana area has an exceptional potential for the reconstruction of cultural dynamics of human groups that were living there in periods of severe environment transformations due to climatic changes. However, the few and sporadic projects (at the turn of the 1980s and in the last decade) focused on specific topics and archaeological features, proposing independent models, not dealing with possible connections of a complex landscape.
For the first time, the cultural interactions between the human groups of the Early and Middle Holocene living along the Turkana area will be studied with a systematic approach including surveys at a different scale, test and extensive excavations and laboratory analyses. Different methodologies in the field of archaeological, paleoenvironmental and geomorphological research (e.g. remote sensing, geomorphological field survey, GIS, digital recording, absolute dating) as well as in anthropological and genetic studies (skeletal and dental biology, isotope investigation, analysis of faunal and botanical remains, aDNA etc) will be adopted.
In-depth analyses of the different contexts analysed will allow to reconstruct the economic and socio-cultural dynamics of the specific groups of hunter-gatherers and fishers, as well as of the first herders. However, a landscape approach and the analyses of mobility indicators (e.g. the geochemical/petrological analysis and typological analysis of lithic and pottery artefacts, the isotope analyses of human and animal remains, and the modern genetic reconstructions) will open new perspectives on the patterns of occupation of the region and the interactions between different groups.
On a more general level, the understanding of the mechanisms of transition from acquisitive to productive subsistence basis (i.e., from hunting-gathering-fishing to herding) is again at the centre of international debate in Africa and beyond. East Africa plays a strategic role in this scenario, and new data from Late Turkana will have a strong impact on the scientific community.
Finally, the training program of Kenyan students and curators - to be carried out throughout the activities, both in the field and in the laboratory - the engagements of local communities, and the strict partnership with the other local institutional and independent stakeholder (National Museums of Kenya and Trust for African Archaeology) fit in the best practices of modern and inclusive research in Africa.