REAL

Resilience in East African Landscapes

  • Welcome
  • About us
  • People
    • Advisory Board
    • Researchers
      • David Anderson
      • Franziska Bedorf
      • Michael Bollig
      • Lowe Borjeson
      • Colin Courtney Mustaphi
      • Benoit Hazard
      • Paul Lane
      • Rob Marchant
      • Dirk Verschuren
      • Mats Widgren
    • Early Stage Researchers
      • Christine Adongo
      • Maxmillian Chuhila
      • Chris de Bont
      • Aynalem Degefa
      • Esther Githumbi
      • Marie Gravesen
      • Rebecca Kariuki
      • Eric Kioko
      • Nik Petek
      • Annemiek Pas Schrijver
      • Anna Shoemaker
      • Geert van der Plas
    • Associate Partners
  • Projects
  • News
    • REAL News
    • Conferences and workshops
    • Training
    • Fieldwork
    • Outreach
  • Resources
    • Cartography and Geospatial
      • Maps and Data
      • GIS Tutorials and Resources
    • Links
    • Research Permits
  • Publications
    • REAL Publications
    • Laboratory Protocols
    • Lexicon
    • Library Archive
    • Palaeo- Glossary
  • Contact us
  • ARCC Project 2017-2021
    • ARCC project overview
    • ARCC blog
  • Annemiek Pas Publications
  • BSX

Baringo Fieldwork Pt. 3 – The final step

Four months in the hot Baringo sun was not enough for the archaeological team of Baringo, so we returned for a third and final time. This time we wanted to blow everyone away with our discoveries and, by the end of the fieldwork in July, we surprised even ourselves. The fieldwork had everything: beautiful and colourful stratigraphy, nice finds, interesting oral history to each site, and a good amount of danger posed by free-roaming cattle.

Glen puts on his happy face for another season of excavations

Glen puts on his happy face for another season of excavations

We continued where we left off in March, so we returned to the village of Lorrok. This time we excavated the site Murua Olkileku. It is a former settlement, established by the Olkileku age-set of to the Ilchamus ethnic community just over a hundred years ago. It looks likely that this was a manyatta, as the settlement was very short lived, but its main characteristic is a large mound of decomposed dung at the centre of the site. Of course, we had to put a trench right at the centre of the dung. Decomposed dung is very interesting for archaeologists studying pastoralism in East Africa, however, inhaling the fine dust from it was less than pleasurable. Our second trench was set at the edge of the settlement, where we encountered a hearth, ash deposits, and fine lenses. While we found some interesting finds, such as spear points, the finds were sparse and our main findings will likely come from geochemical and phytolith analyses.

The team is excavating the living quarters at Murua Olkileku

The team is excavating the living quarters at Murua Olkileku

When we refilled the trenches at Lorrok we had to say goodbye to our comfortable base in Kiserian village and set up a camp at the site of Ilchamus Lekeper. Lekeper was a famous settlement in the 18-hundreds. Many caravans looking to trade and buy ivory, grains, gum copal, and other commodities visited it. Lekeper also had a vast and well-developed irrigation system, which was able to produce an extraordinary grain surplus that the people would sell to the caravans.

It is at Lekeper that many team members felt threatened by cattle. While we lay down to rest our tired eyes after a long day of work, the cattle would storm our camp, completely indifferent to our tents. Thankfully, our reliable driver rose to the task and drove the herd away from our campsite. The people who were too lazy and sleepy to get up during the night got a chance to excavate another day.

Lekeper turned out to be the most interesting site of all. We found pierced shells, a number of glass beads, and house remains with floors, which have been found only a handful of times in East Africa. The settlement was also burnt down after an attack by a Maasai group, clearly shown in the stratigraphy across the whole site. In our final days we even found some irrigation furrows likely belonging to the same period as Ilchamus Lekeper, but these led to a swamp and areas that are cultivated even today.

The team also undertook flotation at the Molo River next to the site

The team also undertook flotation at the Molo River next to the site

The fieldwork turned out to be extremely successful, and I would like to thank Wilson Tiren, Glen Nakure, Victor Iminjili, Henry Mwangi, Benson Kones, Pauline Lekimoe, William Letasiyo, Charles Muriithi, Jennifer Lentapuru, Jesinta Maitano, Tabitha Nakure, John Muasya, Onesmas, Maggie Lemaiki, Fernandos Kredgie, Sandra Nampiso, Sheilah Lemangi, John Kanyingi, and Kevin Ndiema.

Victor studies the stratigraphy as we finished the excavation

Victor studies the stratigraphy as we finished the excavation

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Latest News

New paper on past Mount Kenya forest fires

  New paper out on long term forest fire interactions on Mount Kenya https://t.co/TCIiA5VXJl … [Read More...]

ARCC land use scenario discussions at NM-AIST, Arusha

On 30 March 2022, Rob Marchant led discussions on land use and land cover change scenarios developed … [Read More...]

Swiss Society for African Studies newsletter

  The latest Newsletter 2021/1 from the Swiss Society for African Studies features an ARCC … [Read More...]

Talk on East African futures

  Rebecca Kariuki (The Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Tanzania … [Read More...]

More News

  • About us
  • People
  • Projects
  • Training
  • Resources
  • Contacts

Site information

REAL is a Marie Curie Actions InnovativeTraining Network (ITN), funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme.

Find us on Facebook:

Find us on Facebook:

Coordinating partner

Prof. Paul Lane
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History,
Uppsala University, and
Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge

Copyright © 2023

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.