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The technological and socio-economic organization of the Elmenteitan early herders in southern Kenya (3000–1400 BP)

approach this question, DARE has, over the course of three field seasons between December 2013 and February 2016, sought to obtain complimentary sets of diachronic data for cultural and environmental change at the local level. As this study was the first to systematically investigate the western MSV, all aspects of the research began as exploratory in nature. Of primary importance was the creation of an anchoring sequence of material culture and settlement organisation from which further analysis of change could be conducted. This was accomplished through combining traditional archaeological techniques, such as pedestrian survey and stratigraphic excavations, with advanced geophysical and GIS methods. Additionally, in order to establish the requisite spatially and temporally refined climate sequence for the region, this study developed a novel combination of palaeoenvironmental analyses to chart shifts in animal and vegetation communities through faunal, macrobotanical, pollen and phytolith analyses, as well as precipitation regimes using isotopic signatures from aquatic gastropods. In contrast to the prevailing large-scale climate sequences for West Africa, the results of these analyses have revealed a local environment that, although unpredictable, resisted the dramatic aridification occurring across the broader region. Within this revised environmental context, the peoples of the Diallowali site system successfully exploited a number of complimentary subsistence practices, including millet cultivation and cattle and sheep/goat husbandry, as well as hunting a wide variety of wild game and aquatic fauna. The results of this work have revealed several key aspects of the complex and interconnected socio-ecological landscape that existed along the MSV during the Later Stone Age and Early Iron Age. Firstly, the results of both the magnetometer survey and test excavations confirmed that the visible mounds are only a portion of a relatively large, interconnected site system extending over more than 20 ha. Secondly, the variety of subsistence practices, especially those with competition for seasonal resources (i.e. ideal zones for grazing and fishing vs. millet cultivation), suggests the presence of dynamic social relations between various groups that prevented insurmountable conflict. While other communities in West Africa, such as those of the Inland Niger Delta, tended towards hyper-specialisation resulting in physical separation of subsistence groups, at Diallowali hunting, plant collecting, fishing, agriculture and animal husbandry were all practised by individuals inhabiting the same integrated sites. This thesis explores how diversification and cooperation, rather than specialisation, developed as the successful risk-buffering strategy that allowed the peoples of the MSV to prosper, within the context of a chaotic environment, for over 700 years.