Early herders and monumental sites in
eastern Africa: dating and interpretation
Elisabeth Anne Hildebrand
1
& Katherine M. Grillo
2
Using excavation and radiocarbon dating, the
authors show that construction of megalithic
pillar sites begins in eastern Africa by the
fifth millennium BP, and is contemporary
with the earliest herding in the region.
Mobile herders and/or hunter-gatherers built
and used these sites in a dynamic context
of economic and social change. We are
more familiar with monumentality as an
adjunct of cereal cultivators—but this study
demonstrates a relationship between early
herding and monuments, with clear relevance
to pre-cultivation monumentality of very
much earlier periods elsewhere.
Keywords: sub-Saharan Africa, fifth millennium BP, herders, pillar sites, ostrich eggshells,
radiocarbon
Introduction
Stone or earthen monuments are associated with early food production in many parts
of the world, but their emergence is more evident among early cultivators than among
groups focusing on livestock (Sherratt 1990; Solis et al. 2001; Johansen 2004; Wright
2007; Frachetti 2008). Determining why and how early herders built monumental sites is
a compelling question, b ecause their subsistence economies, mobility patterns and social
institutions would have differed from those of sedentary farmers. Several parts of Africa
offer the opportunity to study monumental architecture among prehistoric herders with no
domestic plants.
During the Early Holocene, the Sahara, Sahel and portions of eastern Africa had
high rainfall and lake levels (Owen et al. 1982; Goudie 1996). Humans living in these
regions used aquatic resources and made barbed bone points and ceramics with wavy-line
1
Anthropology Department, Stony Brook University, SBS 501-South, One Circle Drive, Stony Brook, NY
11794-4364, USA (Email: ehsunysb@yahoo.com)
2
Anthropology Department, Washington University in St Louis, Campus Box 1114, One Brookings Drive, St
Louis, MO 63130, USA (Email: kmgrillo@wustl.edu)
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338
Research
Elisabeth Anne Hildebrand & Katherine M. Grillo
decoration (Robbins 1974; Phillipson 1977; Sutton 1977; Barthelme 1985; Close 1995;
Yellen 1998; Holl 2005), but do not appear to have built monumental sites. Africa’s
first food production—herding—began in the eastern Sahara during the Early Holocene
and initially spread west (Figure 1). As conditions became drier during the early Middle
Holocene, Saharan sites were abandoned (Kuper & Kr
¨
opelin 2006). Herding spread south,
and cattle and caprines were present in the Turkana Basin by 4000
14
CBP(Marshall
et al. 1984), long before evidence for plant food production in the region (Marshall &
Hildebrand 2002).
New social institutions emerged as herding spread. In Egypt, herders erected standing
stones at Nabta during the Early Holocene (Wendorf 1998). In Libya, mortuary
evidence suggests they had ‘cattle cults’ 6400–6000
14
C BP (di Lernia 2006). In
Sudan, herders at Kadero buried their dead in distinct areas with different degrees of
material cultural elaboration c. 5500
14
C BP (Krzyzaniak 1991). Near the Middle Niger,
ephemeral elites may have existed among mobile herding groups c. 5200–3650
14
CBP
(MacDonald 1998).
In north-west Kenya, several ‘pillar sites’ have standing stones, platforms and sometimes
cairns and/or stone circles (Figure 2). Later herding sites in southern Kenya do not appear to
have such complex architecture (Marshall et al. 2011), although cairn building is widespread.
Preliminary studies have attributed north-west Kenyan pillar sites to a spatially extensive
‘mortuary tradition’ linked to the first herders around Lake Turkana (Koch 1994; Nelson
1995), but up to now few pillar sites have been radiometrically dated.
Establishing a definitive chronology for the construction and use of pillar sites can answer
three questions crucial to both local culture history and larger processes of social change. Were
pillar sites contemporary with early herding? Did the practice of monumental construction
spread quickly, or gradually? Was the social significance of pillar sites ephemeral (a fe w
generations) or long-term (many centuries)? In this article we examine existing chronological
data for Middle Holocene sites around Lake Turkana, introduce ne w radiocarbon dates for
five pillar sites and examine their social implications.
Early herding and pillar sites in north-west Kenya
Early herding in north-west Kenya is demonstrated by c. 4000
14
C BP, when cattle and
caprine bones appear at habitation sites Dongodien and GaJi2 in contexts securely dated
via charcoal (Marshall et al. 1984). Several other habitation sites are regarded as Middle
Holocene in age ( Table 1), but have insecure dates based on aquatic shell (Broecker &
Walton 1959) or bone (Collett & Robertshaw 1983).
Nine possible pillar sites have been recorded near Lake Turkana (Figure 3). Five of these—
Jarigole, Lothagam North, Lothagam West, Kalokol and Manemanya—have massive pillars
of columnar basalt and raised platforms. Each would have required coordinated labour by a
large group to transport pillars up to 800kg in weight from sources up to 2km away, and to
build platforms up to 500m
3
in volume that may have required perhaps 50 000 short trips
carrying loads of rock and sediment in baskets or animal skin containers (Hildebrand et al.
2011).
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Early herders and monumental sites in eastern Africa
Figure 1. Left) the spread of herding through northern and eastern Africa before 2500 BP. African cattle were domesticated in the eastern Sahara during the Early Holocene, sheep and
goats entered Africa slightly later, and herding spread west and then south (after Marshall & Hildebrand 2002: 110). Southern portions of the continent had no domesticates until
after 2500 BP, and routes of spread are still under discussion. Right) distribution of the major vegetation types in Africa around 5000 BP (after Adams n.d.), around the time herding
was spreading south from the Blue/White Nile confluence. During the next 1000 years, conditions would have become drier in most parts of northern and eastern Africa, causing these
vegetation belts in these areas to shift toward the equator. Areas near Lake Turkana would have continued to harbour sparsely wooded grassland. The spread of herding into eastern (and
later southern) Africa appears to have followed a grassland corridor between moist tropical rainforest, and rugged uplands with Afromontane vegetation.
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Figure 2. Three pillar sites west of Lake Turkana: top left) distant view of GeJi10, taken from the west side of Lothagam
Ridge; arrow points to site; top right) close view of GeJi10 (pillar extends >1m above ground); centre) aerial view of GeJi9;
arrow points to the platform which is 30m across; 15 cairns and stone circles lie to the east (right); bottom left) main pillar
area and adjacent cairn at GcJh3; bottom right) alignment of pillars at GcJh3. Local Turkana residents customarily place a
small stone near a pillar when passing. Kalokol Road is visible behind the site.
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Early herders and monumental sites in eastern Africa
Table 1. Prior dates obtained from possible Middle Holocene sites in the Turkana Basin, moving clockwise from the north end of Lake
Turkana. Dates judged insecure are those from shell (due to the uptake of ancient carbon by aquatic organisms, Broecker & Walton 1959) and
bone (Collett & Robertshaw 1983). Dates in bold (on charcoal) are deemed reliable and appear in Figures 4 & 5. Clear occurrences of Nderit
pottery are indicated in bold in the comments column.
Site name (SASES #) Provenience for dating material Material dated:
14
C BP Reference and comments
Stone Bowl site (FwJj5) Unit B archaeological horizon Mammal bone apatite: 4000
+
−
140 Barthelme 1985: 193–213
Site has Ileret pottery.
FxJj12N Lower horizon Human bone apatite: 3245
+
−
155 Barthelme 1985 regards human bone as possibly
intrusive or contaminated.
Nderit pottery found in Upper Horizon
deposits.
GaJi3 Unit B Fish bone: 4650
+
−
185 Barthelme 1985: 128–33
Associated with fish bones, bone harpoons.
GaJj9 Human bone, burial 2 Apatite: 3125
+
−
210 Barthelme 1985: 257–61
Pottery has possible Nderit affinities.
GaJi2 Lower horizon (single sample,
subdivided)
Charcoal: 3970
+
−
60
Charcoal: 4160
+
−
110
Barthelme 1985: 143
Nderit pottery is present in deposits.
Dongodien (GaJi4) Unit 5C (single sample,
subdivided)
Charcoal: 3890
+
−
60
Charcoal: 3945
+
−
135
Barthelme 1985: 181
Nderit pottery is present in deposits.
Unit 5C Humic acid residue: 4100
+
−
125
Fish bone: 4580
+
−
170
Mammal bone: 3405
+
−
130
Barthelme 1985: 177
Il Lokeridede (GaJi23) Not specified Charcoal: 4180
+
−
60 Koch 1994; Koch et al. 2002
Nderit sherds are present on surface.
Lokori Human bones (burials) Apatite: 1200
+
−
140
Collagen: 2285
+
−
165
Lynch & Robbins 1979; Soper 1982
Bb9 Lakebeds Shell: 8320
+
−
180
Burned earth: 2260
+
−
100
Phenice et al. 1980: 176
Nderit sherds are on surface.
Bb14 Charred clay is eroding from
profile
Charred clay: 5020
+
−
220 Robbins 1972: 364
Nderit
sherds are next to the charred clay.
Kangatotha Palaeoshoreline surface Shell: 4800
+
−
100 Thompson 1966: 9; Robbins 1972: 364
Nderit sherds are on surface.
Aipa (GdJi2) Surface feature: burned earth,
butchered bovid
Burned earth: 5420
+
−
80 Robbins 1980: 123, pers. comm.
Nderit sherds are on surface.
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