2. Prehistoric Pastoralists and Social Responses to Climatic Risk in East Africa

Environments and trypanosomiasis risks for early herders in the later Holocene of the Lake Victoria basin, Kenya

“…The presence of tsetse flies in eastern Africa has been used as an explanation for observed patterns of subsistence diversity among early pastoralists in the Lake Victoria basin (21,28) and for limited southward movement (15,20,29,30). A range of zoonoses posed threats for early herders, but trypanosomiasis risks have an especially widespread effect on human communities, even today (10,12,13,30).…”

“…In modern and precolonial times, herders have controlled tsetse fly numbers by heavy grazing, burning and destruction of woody areas, and managed livestock to avoid areas with abundant tsetse (10,31,32). It is not unreasonable to assume, then, that bushy, tsetse-rich environments would have impeded heavy reliance on livestock by early herders and may have even created a boundary beyond which it was difficult for large numbers of herders to settle (20,33). Despite an abundance of archaeological sites, however, terrestrial paleoecological data for the Holocene in Kenya are scarce and have been based primarily on lacustrine archives, rather than sites themselves.…”

“…Herding strategies also differed between Wadh Lang'o and Gogo Falls, with cattle making up 1% or less of the domestic fauna at Wadh Lang'o (n = 88 below datum 140-190 cm; n = 156 below datum 140-160 cm; SI Appendix, Table S5) compared with 32% (n = 328) at Gogo Falls. In strong contrast with these sites in the Lake Victoria basin, there is no fishing and very little hunting in Elmenteitan sites on the plains of southern Kenya (19,20). Cattle, sheep, and goats make up 97-100% of the fauna at the open air settlement sites in the Lemek-Mara, including Ngamuriak, Sugenya, and Oldorotua, as well as the Central Rift Valley rock shelter of Maasai Gorge (SI Appendix, Table S5).…”

“…Elmenteitan sites occur to the north in Laikipia, on the Mau Escarpment, on the southern end of the Loita Hills and the northern Mara Plains, and at Gogo Falls (the westernmost extent) (18). Despite opportunities for hunting, fauna from Elmenteitan sites on the Mara plains are >90% domestic (19,20). The exception to this is the site of Gogo Falls, which has a diverse and abundant faunal assemblage, including…”

Archaeological ceramics from eastern Africa: past approaches and future directions

“…Nderit ceramics have been found at sites as far south as northern Tanzania, suggesting that at least some of this group may have later moved down through the Central Rift Valley (Gifford-Gonzalez 1998). In a subsequent phase of what collectively becomes known as the Pastoral Neolithic, highly specialised pastoralist groups occupy central Kenya and northern Tanzania, moving into some territories where Kansyore-producing hunter-gatherers likely already resided (Bower 1991;Lane 2004;Marshall et al 2011). The ceramics produced, used and discarded by these herding groups were abundant and varied, and archaeologists have been trying to make sense of them since the 1920s by classifying them, reclassifying them and then classifying them again (Karega-Mũnene 2003).…”