Farming and Herding in Eastern Africa: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives

Abstract

The inception of agriculture in eastern Africa is a major topic of discussion among Africanist archaeologists, although very sparse evidence exists. Questions range from whether domestication was a local invention or whether it was introduced from the Near East, Asia, or elsewhere outside of Africa. These questions have remained unanswered because wild progenitors and models of the spread of African domesticates are yet to be established using undisputable data. The paucity of direct data has therefore necessitated the use of objects of material culture such as pottery, beads, burial cairns, architectural structures, and so on as indicators of pastoralism and cereal farming. In addition to the origins of African domesticates, research in eastern Africa has concerned itself with questions of farming technologies from later archaeological and historical times to the present. The remains of elaborate farming systems with extensive irrigation networks have drawn considerable attention. Though not unchanged, some of these farming systems remain in contemporary use in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.

Changes to water management and declining pastoral resilience in Marsabit County, northern Kenya: The example of Gabra wells

“…Northern Kenya has some of the harshest climatic conditions in eastern Africa. Despite this, pastoral economies have been maintained here for around 5000 years since the appearance of the first livestock around the shores of Lake Turkana, marking the inception of a period that archeologists term the “Pastoral Neolithic” (Lane, 2013; M'Mbogori, 2017). Over the ensuing millennia, climatic conditions have fluctuated between periods of increased rainfall and hence likely expansion of grazing lands, and periods of increased aridity which may have occasioned abandonment of some areas and, as in recent decades, also catastrophic loss of livestock and ensuing food insecurity (Balfour et al, 2020).…”