Oula Seitsonen

The Transition to Farming in Eastern Africa: New Faunal and Dating Evidence from Wadh Lang'o and Usenge, Kenya

The exploratory investigation of two sites in Kenya throws new light on the transition from a ‘stone age’ to an ‘iron age’. The model of widespread cultural replacement by Bantu-speaking iron producers is questioned and instead the authors propose a long interaction with regional variations. In matters of lithics, ceramics, hunting, gathering, husbandry and cooking, East African people created local and eclectic packages of change between 1500BC and AD500.

Pastoral Neolithic sites on the southern Mbulu Plateau, Tanzania

As part of a larger project examining the introduction of herding into northern Tanzania, surveys and excavations were conducted at the southern edge of the Mbulu Plateau, documenting the presence of Narosura ceramics dating to the early third millennium BP, as well as a Later Stone Age occupation dated via ostrich eggshell to the tenth millennium BP. This marks the southernmost extent of the Pastoral Neolithic in eastern Africa. The paucity of sites attributable to early herding in this area may be due to a lack of survey in landscapes likely to have been preferred by livestock owners and to extensive contemporary cultivation in those same areas. Links can be drawn between the study area and previously documented sites with Narosura materials near Lake Eyasi, and between the study area and obsidian sources in the Lake Naivasha area of the Rift Valley, making the plateau and its surroundings a potentially promising area for further research.

Lithics use at Kansyore sites in East Africa: technological organisation at four recently excavated sites in Nyanza Province, Kenya

Recently a series of active investigations have been launched on aspects of the Kansyore tradition such as ceramics, subsistence and chronology. However, Kansyore lithic assemblages have been little studied and its quartz-based technology has often been simply dubbed as ‘non-descript.’ Here I attempt an overview of the organisation of Kansyore lithic technology based on assemblages from four recently excavated sites in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Kansyore lithics show apparent longevity of use, remaining essentially unchanged between c. 6000 cal. BC and cal. AD 500, despite major changes in ceramics and subsistence economy. Based on the lithics it seems that early Kansyore settlement patterns could have been more mobile, becoming increasingly residentially sedentary over time. However, this was not a complete change, but instead a matter of increasing emphasis on sedentism, since even some early Kansyore sites are indicative of moderate delayed-return subsistence systems and seasonally sedentary settlement patterns. These interpretations based on studying Kansyore stone tool assemblages are also supported by the analyses of other finds from the studied sites.

Pastoralists in the northeastern Mara Plains, Kenya: archaeological investigations of the Pastoral Neolithic and the Pastoral Iron Age

During the 1980s, a fairly detailed picture was constructed of the prehistory of the Loita-Mara region, Narok District, southwestern Kenya, up to Elmenteitan times. However, the archaeological sequence after the Elmenteitan period remained poorly understood. Researchers from the University of Helsinki therefore undertook an initial examination of this post-Elmenteitan period in 1984 and 1986. This paper presents results of the work thus undertaken and of the oral histories collected. Field survey in the northeastern Mara Plains identified a host of Pastoral Iron Age (PIA) sites and many late or post-Elmenteitan sites, provisionally named ‘Oldorotua’ and thought likely to date, based on currently available evidence, to the transition between the Pastoral Neolithic and the Pastoral Iron Age. Two PIA sites were excavated, an iron-smelting/working furnace (GuJe 32) and a few hundred years old boma (GuJf 70). In addition, oral histories were also collected from local informants. Based on these field studies a preliminary culture-historical base sequence for the area is proposed, ranging from Pastoral Neolithic times to the twentieth century. This can be used as a working hypothesis for future research in the area.

“The good, the bad, the weird”: Stone Age and Early Metal Period radiocarbon dates and chronology from the Karelian Isthmus, North-West Russia

In this paper all the Stone Age and Early Metal Period (ca. 8600 cal BC — 300 AD) radiocarbon dates from the Karelian Isthmus, Russia, are compiled and their archaeological usability assessed using a set of evaluation principles. The quality of radiometric dates from such a large area has rarely been methodologically examined in Finnish or North-West Russian archaeology, and is applied here for the first time on the present material. Special attention is given to the discussion on the deficiencies and limitations of the current data. Based on the 81 dates evaluated as useful, a tentative radiocarbon chronology is presented for the study area. This is generally in sequence with the chronologies of the nearby areas, but suggests some differences especially towards the end of Stone Age, as well as the presence of biases caused by taphonomic and research-related factors.

Ahvola 1918: Archaeological Reconnaissance of a Finnish Civil War Battlefield

Abstract The Finnish Civil War (1918) has received very little attention from the archaeologists until recently. This paper describes the first archaeological investigation of a Civil War battlefield in the Karelian Isthmus, nowadays northwest Russia. The battlefield of Ahvola, which saw one of the decisive battles of the war, was surveyed briefly in November 2007. With relatively little subsequent landuse, the general landscape has remained roughly similar to that of the early twentieth century, and the remains of field fortifications have been preserved unexpectedly well. Thus the fields of Ahvola hold high potential for more widespread archaeological studies in future. The present survey, along with two earlier surveys of Finnish Civil War battlefields, provides important base data for future research on the subject.

Archaeological research in the northern Lake Manyara Basin, Tanzania 2003 - 2004

Abstract The University of Helsinki, Department of Archaeologys “Cultural ecology of the East African savanna environment in a long-term historical perspective”—project between 2002 and 2004 focused on the prehistory of the Northern Tanzanian Rift Valley and its environs. The main research emphasis has been on the vast Late Iron Age Engaruka complex, but during the fieldwork several other new sites were also encountered. This paper presents the new archaeological observations made in the northern Lake Manyara Basin, Tanzania, with a special emphasis on the test excavations conducted at the multi-period Misfortune Hill site. The preceramic Late Stone Age lithic assemblage obtained from the excavations is described in detail. On the basis of this some tentative implications for prehistoric behaviour and site-use are discussed. These provide a basis for wider behavioural studies in the future.