A monumental cemetery built by eastern Africa's first herders near Lake Turkana, Kenya

Abstract

Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in different environmental and economic settings can reveal diverse reasons for people to form larger social units and express unity through architectural display. In multiple areas of Africa, monumentality developed as mobile herders created large cemeteries and practiced other forms of commemoration. The motives for such behavior in sparsely populated, unpredictable landscapes may differ from well-studied cases of monumentality in predictable environments with sedentary populations. Here we report excavations and ground-penetrating radar surveys at the earliest and most massive monumental site in eastern Africa. Lothagam North Pillar Site was a communal cemetery near Lake Turkana (northwest Kenya) constructed 5,000 years ago by eastern Africa's earliest pastoralists. Inside a platform ringed by boulders, a 119.5-m² mortuary cavity accommodated an estimated minimum of 580 individuals. People of diverse ages and both sexes were buried, and ornaments accompanied most individuals. There is no evidence for social stratification. The uncertainties of living on a "moving frontier" of early herding-exacerbated by dramatic environmental shifts-may have spurred people to strengthen social networks that could provide information and assistance. Lothagam North Pillar Site would have served as both an arena for interaction and a tangible reminder of shared identity.

Keywords: Africa; Holocene; early food production; monumentality; pastoralism.

Fig. 1.

Orthoimage of Lothagam North Pillar Site. The platform is the large, flat elliptical area on the west (left) side of the site; the surrounding boulder ring is eroding into gullies on the northwest side. Nine stone circles are visible to the east, on either side of the pathway. The six raised features south and east of the stone circles are cairns. The lower left inset shows locations of contemporaneous pillar sites around the middle Holocene paleo-shoreline of Lake Turkana: 1, Lothagam North Pillar Site (GeJi9); 2, Lothagam West Pillar Site (GeJi10); 3, Manemanya Pillar Site (GcJh5); 4, Kalokol Pillar Site (GcJh3); 5, Il Lokeridede Pillar Site (GaJi23); and 6, Jarigole Pillar Site (GbJj1). All locations are georeferenced except Il Lokeridede.

Fig. 2.

Stratigraphy revealed by excavations at Lothagam North Pillar Site. (A) South profiles of three noncontiguous excavation units in the platform: eastern platform (1 × 1.6 m, E53-E51.4, 2009), central platform (2 × 2 m, E44-E42, 2012–2014), and western platform (1 × 5 m, E40-E35, 2012–2014). Profiles are positioned so their absolute elevations correspond; the central platform’s uppermost surface is significantly higher than the eastern and western margins. The mortuary cavity is absent in the eastern platform unit, fully present in the central platform unit, and just ending in the E40-E39 portion of the western platform unit. A dashed line indicates the approximate boundary between mortuary deposits and cap fill; however, the two have no obvious differences in sediment matrix and inclusions, and the upper limit of burials does not constitute a flat surface. (B) Photograph of 1- × 4-m excavation trench probing the largest cairn at the eastern edge of the Lothagam North Pillar Site. Sandstone slabs at the western (outer) edge had to have been placed before sandstone slabs nearer to the center; most sandstone slabs dip toward the center of the cairn. Central portions of the cairn fill have rounded boulders and cobbles of basalt or other volcanic rocks and appear to have been placed after the sandstone slabs were laid in.

Fig. 3.

Ornaments and palette recovered from mortuary contexts at Lothagam North. Counterclockwise from upper right. (A) Remnant of headpiece with latticed arrangement of teeth (incisors) from gerbils (cf. Gerbilliscus); portions of the individual’s cranium are visible to the left and upper right of the headpiece. (B) Stone palette with zoomorphic bovine carving. (C) Human finger bones with ivory rings still in place. (D) Cluster of perforated hippo tusks adjacent to cranium of primary burial. Additional secondary human remains, a caprine calcaneus, and the stone palette were found below the scale marker. (E) Detail of hippo tusk perforation; the largest tusk is ∼3 cm wide. (F) Sample of stone and mineral bead pendants and earrings. Pictured materials include amazonite, fluorite, zeolite, talc, hematite, and chalcedony; specific material identifications are given in SI Appendix, Fig. S5.