The Lothagam North Pillar Site, registered as GeJi9, is an archaeological site on the west side of Lake Turkana in Kenya dating to the

Pastoral Neolithic The Pastoral Neolithic (5000 BP - 1200 BP) refers to a period in Africa's prehistory, specifically Tanzania and Kenya, marking the beginning of food production, livestock domestication, and pottery use in the region following the Later Stone Age. ...

. It is a communal cemetery, built between 3000 BCE and 2300 BCE by the region's earliest

herders A herder is a pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic or transhumant management of stock, or with common land grazing. ...

. It is thought to be

eastern Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historica ...

's largest and earliest monumental cemetery. The main burial mound is flanked by

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

s, stone circles, and cairns and is believed to hold the remains of hundreds of individuals. Many of the people buried at Lothagam North were adorned with stone beads, ivory, animal teeth, rings or other ornaments.

Background

The site is the oldest of six known pillar sites in the area and was in use for almost five hundred years. It is hypothesized that towards the end of

African humid period The African humid period (AHP) (also known by other names) is a climate period in Africa during the late Pleistocene and Holocene geologic epochs, when northern Africa was wetter than today. The covering of much of the Sahara desert by grasses, ...

, nomadic peoples would return to the site to bury their dead. The changing climate caused the lake to recede revealing fertile land for herbivores to feed on. The use of the site ended with the end of the humid period. The change in the climate may have forced the local inhabitants to move elsewhere. Recent research published in the '' Journal of Anthropological Archaeology'' has argued that the cemetery was for all members of this community, not just the leaders. Each person was buried in a central mortuary cavity approximately deep. At the bottom of the mortuary cavity, pits with additional burials were carved into soft sandstone bedrock. Many burials were covered by sandstone slabs brought in from elsewhere. The cemetery was a planned and multi-generational project.

References

External links

* {{Archaeological sites in Kenya Archaeological sites in Kenya Lake Turkana Cemeteries in Kenya Archaeological sites of Eastern Africa

Background

See also

References

External links