Throughout the Holocene, Lake Turkana has been subject to drastic changes in lake levels and the subsistence strategies people employ to survive in this hot and arid region. In this paper, we reconstruct the position of the lake during the Holocene within a paleoclimatic context. Atmospheric forcing mechanisms are discussed in order to contextualize the broader landscape changes occurring in eastern Africa over the last 12,000 years. The Holocene is divided into five primary phases according to changes in the strand-plain evolution, paleoclimate, and human subsistence strategies practiced within the basin. Early Holocene fishing settlements occurred adjacent to high and relatively stable lake levels. A period of high-magnitude oscillations in lake levels Afr Archaeol Rev (2015) ensued after 9,000 years BP and human settlements appear to have been located close to the margins of the lake. Aridification and a final regression in lake levels ensued after 5,000 years BP and human communities were generalized pastoralists-fishers-foragers. During the Late Holocene, lake levels may have dropped below their present position and subsistence strategies appear to have been flexible and occasionally specialized on animal pastoralism. Modern missionary and government outposts have encouraged the construction of permanent settlements in the region, which are heavily dependent on outside resources for their survival. Changes in the physical and cultural environments of the Lake Turkana region have been closely correlated, and understanding the relationship between the two variables remains a vital component of archaeological research.Résumé Tout l'Holocène, le lac Turkana a été soumis à des changements drastiques dans l'altitude des lacs et les stratégies de subsistance des gens utilisent pour survivre dans cette région chaude et aride. Dans cet article, nous reconstruisons la position du lac au cours de l'Holocène dans un contexte paléoclimatique. Mécanismes de forçage atmosphériques sont discutées afin de contextualiser les changements de paysage plus larges qui se produisent en Afrique orientale au cours des 12.000 dernières années. L'Holocène est divisé en cinq phases principales en fonction des changements dans l'évolution altitude du lac, paléoclimats et les stratégies de subsistance humains pratiqués dans le bassin. Premiers établissements de pêche de l'Holocène ont eu lieu à proximité d'altitude d'eau élevés et relativement stables. Une période d'oscillations de grande amplitude dans l'altitude du lac s'ensuit après 9000 années BP et les établissements humains semblent avoir été situé à proximité des marges sur le lac. Aridification et une régression finale du altitude des lacs s'ensuit après 5000 années BP et les communautés humaines sont généralisées éleveurs-pêcheurs-cueilleurs. Au cours de l'Holocène tardif, les altitudes des lacs pourraient avoir chuté en dessous de leur position actuelle et les stratégies de subsistance semblent avoir fait preuve de souplesse et de temps en temps spécialisé sur le pas...
Although there is a general consensus on African origin of early modern humans, there is disagreement about how and when they dispersed to Eurasia. This paper reviews genetic and Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic archaeological literature from northeast Africa, Arabia, and the Levant to assess the timing and geographic backgrounds of Upper Pleistocene human colonization of Eurasia. At the center of the discussion lies the question of whether eastern Africa alone was the source of Upper Pleistocene human dispersals into Eurasia or were there other loci of human expansions outside of Africa? The reviewed literature hints at two modes of early modern human colonization of Eurasia in the Upper Pleistocene: (i) from multiple Homo sapiens source populations that had entered Arabia, South Asia, and the Levant prior to and soon after the onset of the Last Interglacial (MIS-5), (ii) from a rapid dispersal out of East Africa via the Southern Route (across the Red Sea basin), dating to ~74–60 kya.
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