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Hyrax Hill
Hyrax Hill is a prehistoric site near Nakuru in the Rift Valley Province, Kenya, Rift Valley province of Kenya. It is a rocky spur roughly half a kilometer in length, with an elevation of 1,900 meters above sea level at its summit. The site was first discovered in 1926 by Louis Leakey during excavations at the nearby Nakuru Burial Site, and Mary Leakey conducted the first major excavations between 1937 and 1938. There are two distinct areas of occupation at Hyrax Hill: one which was occupied during the Pastoral Neolithic and late Iron Age#africa, Iron Age, and one which was occupied by the Sirikwa people, Sirikwa earlier in the Iron Age. Hyrax Hill is named after the hyrax, a small mammal that lives in rocky areas. Hyraxes were once common in the rocky crevasses of Hyrax Hill, but their numbers have dropped in recent years due to the rapid urbanization of the surrounding area. Hyrax Hill is the location of Hyrax Hill Prehistoric Site and Museum. History of excavation Louis Lea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nakuru County
Nakuru County is a county in Kenya. It is county number 32 out of the 47 Kenyan counties. Nakuru County is a host to Kenya's Fourth City – Nakuru City. On 1 December 2021, President Uhuru Kenyatta awarded a City Charter status to Nakuru, ranking it with Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu as the cities in Kenya. With a population of 2,162,202 (2019 census), it is the third most populous county in Kenya after Nairobi County and Kiambu County, in that order. With an area of 7,496.5 km2, it is Kenya's 19th largest county in size. Until 21 August 2010, it formed part of Rift Valley Province. Population Religion Religion in Nakuru County Sites of interest Nakuru County is home to Lake Nakuru, Lake Elmenteita and Lake Naivasha, which are some of the Rift Valley soda lakes. Lake Nakuru is best known for its thousands, sometimes millions of flamingoes nesting along the shores. The surface of the shallow lake is often hardly recognizable due to the continually shifti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Midden
A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupation. These features provide a useful resource for archaeologists who wish to study the diets and habits of past societies. Middens with damp, anaerobic conditions can even preserve organic remains in deposits as the debris of daily life are tossed on the pile. Each individual toss will contribute a different mix of materials depending upon the activity associated with that particular toss. During the course of deposition sedimentary material is deposited as well. Different mechanisms, from wind and water to animal digs, create a matrix which can also be analysed to provide seasonal and climatic information. In some middens individual dumps of material can be discerned and analysed. Shells A shell midden or shell mound is an arc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zebu
The zebu (; ''Bos indicus''), also known as indicine cattle and humped cattle, is a species or subspecies of Bos taurus, domestic cattle originating in South Asia. Zebu, like many Sanga cattle breeds, differs from taurine cattle by a fatty hump on their shoulders, a large dewlap, and sometimes drooping ears. They are well adapted to withstanding Tropical climate, high temperatures and are farmed throughout the tropics. The zebu is used as a draught animal, draught and riding animal, dairy cattle and beef cattle, as well as for byproducts such as Hide (skin), hides and Feces, dung for fuel and manure. Some small breeds such as Nadudana also known as the Miniature Zebu, miniature zebu are also kept as pets. In some regions, zebu have significant Cattle in religion#In Indian religions, religious meaning. Taxonomy Both scientific names ''Bos taurus'' and ''Bos indicus'' were introduced by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, with the latter used for humped cattle in China proper, China. The ze ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donkey
The donkey or ass is a domesticated equine. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a separate species, ''Equus asinus''. It was domesticated in Africa some years ago, and has been used mainly as a working animal since that time. There are more than 40 million donkeys in the world, mostly in underdeveloped countries, where they are used principally as Working animal, draught or pack animal, pack animals. While working donkeys are often associated with those living at or below subsistence, small numbers of donkeys or asses are kept for breeding, as pets, and for livestock protection in developed countries. An adult male donkey is a ''jack'' or ''jackass'', an adult female is a ''jenny'' or ''jennet'', and an immature donkey of either sex is a ''foal''. Jacks are often mated with horse, female horses (mares) to produce ''mule, mules''; the less common hybrid of a stalli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equus (genus)
''Equus'' () is a genus of mammals in the perissodactyl family (biology), family Equidae, which includes wild horse, horses, Asinus, asses, and zebras. Within the Equidae, ''Equus'' is the only recognized Extant taxon, extant genus, comprising seven living species. Like Equidae more broadly, ''Equus'' has numerous extinct species known only from fossils. The genus originated in North America and dispersed into the Old World and South America during the Early and Middle Pleistocene. Equinae, Equines are odd-toed ungulates with slender legs, long heads, relatively long necks, manes (erect in most subspecies), and long tails. All species are herbivorous, and mostly grazers, with simpler digestive systems than Ruminantia, ruminants but able to subsist on lower-quality vegetation. While the domestic horse and donkey (along with their feral horse, feral descendants) exist worldwide, wild equine populations are limited to Africa and Asia. Wild equine social systems are in two forms; a H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheep
Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated sheep. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Numbering a little over one billion, domestic sheep are also the most numerous species of sheep. An adult female is referred to as a ''ewe'' ( ), an intact male as a ''ram'', occasionally a ''tup'', a castrated male as a ''wether'', and a young sheep as a ''lamb''. Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe and Asia, with Iran being a geographic envelope of the domestication center. One of the earliest animals to be domesticated for agricultural purposes, sheep are raised for fleeces, meat ( lamb, hogget or mutton), and milk. A sheep's wool is the most widely used animal fiber, and is usually harvested by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goats
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the family Bovidae, meaning it is closely related to the sheep. It was one of the first animals to be domesticated, in Iran around 10,000 years ago. Goats have been used for milk, meat, wool, and skins across much of the world. Milk from goats is often turned into cheese. In 2022, there were more than 1.1 billion goats living in the world, of which 150 million were in India. Goats feature in mythology, folklore, and religion in many parts of the world, including in the classical myth of Amalthea, in the goats that pulled the chariot of the Norse god Thor, in the Scandinavian Yule goat, and in Hinduism's goat-headed Daksha. In Christianity and Satanism, the devil is sometimes depicted as a goat. Etymology The Modern English word ''goat'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are called cows and mature male cattle are bulls. Young female cattle are called heifers, young male cattle are oxen or bullocks, and castrated male cattle are known as steers. Cattle are commonly raised for meat, for dairy products, and for leather. As draft animals, they pull carts and farm implements. Cattle are considered sacred animals within Hinduism, and it is illegal to kill them in some Indian states. Small breeds such as the miniature Zebu are kept as pets. Taurine cattle are widely distributed across Europe and temperate areas of Asia, the Americas, and Australia. Zebus are found mainly in India and tropical areas of Asia, America, and Australia. Sanga cattle are found primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. These types, sometime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sirikwa
The Sirikwa culture was the predominant Kenyan hinterland Archaeological culture, culture of the Pastoral Iron Age, c.2000 BP. Seen to have developed out of the Elmenteitan culture of the East African Pastoral Neolithic c.3300-1200 BP, it was followed in much of its area by the Kalenjin languages, Kalenjin, Maa languages, Maa, western and central Kenyan communities of the 18th and 19th centuries. The archaeological evidence indicates that from about AD 1200, the Central Rift and Western Highlands of Kenya were relatively densely inhabited by a group (or groups) of people who practiced both cereal cultivation and pastoralism. They made occasional use of metals and created distinctive roulette-decorated pottery. These people are principally known from their characteristic settlement sites, commonly known as Sirikwa holes, 'Sirikwa holes or hollows'. These comprise a shallow depression, sometimes reinforced at the edges by stone revetments, around which habitation structures were b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radiocarbon Dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotopes of carbon, isotope of carbon. The method was developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby. It is based on the fact that radiocarbon () is constantly being created in the Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere by the interaction of cosmic rays with atmospheric nitrogen. The resulting combines with atmospheric oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide, which is incorporated into plants by photosynthesis; animals then acquire by eating the plants. When the animal or plant dies, it stops exchanging carbon with its environment, and thereafter the amount of it contains begins to decrease as the undergoes radioactive decay. Measuring the amount of in a sample from a dead plant or animal, such as a piece of w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cushitic Languages
The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As of 2012, the Cushitic languages with over one million speakers were Oromo, Somali, Beja, Afar, Hadiyya, Kambaata, and Sidama. Official status The Cushitic languages with the greatest number of total speakers are Oromo (37 million), Somali (22 million), Beja (3.2 million), Sidamo (3 million), and Afar (2 million). Oromo serves as one of the official working languages of Ethiopia and is also the working language of several of the states within the Ethiopian federal system including Oromia, Harari and Dire Dawa regional states and of the Oromia Zone in the Amhara Region. Somali is the first of two official languages of Somalia and three official languages of Somaliland. It also serves as a language of instruction in Djibouti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Ehret
Christopher Ehret (27 July 1941 – 25 March 2025), was an American scholar of African history and African historical linguistics who was particularly known for his efforts to correlate linguistic taxonomy and reconstruction with the archeological record. He was a professor at UCLA for almost half a century and published many works, including ''Reconstructing Proto-Afrasian'' (1995) and ''Ancient Africa'' (2023). He authored around seventy articles on a range of historical, linguistic, and anthropological subjects. These works include monographic articles on Bantu subclassification; on internal reconstruction in Semitic; on the reconstruction of proto-Cushitic and proto-Eastern Cushitic; and, with Mohamed Nuuh Ali, on the classification of the Somali languages. He contributed to a number of encyclopedias on African topics and on world history, such as Volume III of UNESCO ''General History of Africa'' book series for which he wrote a chapter on the East Africa, East African i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
