100th century BCE
Gadamotta, Lake Zwai, Ethiopian Rift
Gadamotta is an Ethiopian Middle Stone Age obsidian procurement and workshop locality overlooking Lake Zwai. Seven occupation floors occur within volcanic sediments, including ashes possibly older than 180,000 years. The assemblages include factory waste, flaking concentrations, finished tools, resharpening flakes, Levallois cores, bifacial points, side-scrapers, end-scrapers, and blades. The site appears to have received repeated seasonal visits for replenishing raw-material supplies, although its earliest chronology depends on dates that the source says require confirmation.
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The Story
Gadamotta occupies the rim of an ancient caldera overlooking Lake Zwai in the Galla Lakes area of the Ethiopian Rift. Middle Stone Age populations returned to the obsidian outcrops over a long period to replenish their supplies of raw material. The archaeological remains consist largely of extensive spreads of factory waste, with smaller and denser concentrations of flaking debris.
Seven occupation floors are known at two localities. One concentration forms a shallow saucer-shaped depression about 30 centimetres deep and 7.5 metres across, possibly a communal living or workshop camp. It yielded finished tools, resharpening flakes, and small reduced Levallois cores, while nearby deposits preserved remains of hippopotamus, alcelaphine antelopes, and zebra, indicating an open savanna environment supported by reasonably distributed rainfall.
The assemblages show limited developmental change, although bifacial points and side-scrapers are more frequent in lower horizons. End-scrapers and blades struck from non-Levallois cores increase toward the top. The workshops probably represent seasonal visits, after which completed tools and many cores were transported to residential sites near Lake Zwai or along the Awash River.
100th century BCE
Gadamotta, Lake Zwai, Ethiopian Rift
Gadamotta is an Ethiopian Middle Stone Age obsidian procurement and workshop locality overlooking Lake Zwai. Seven occupation floors occur within volcanic sediments, including ashes possibly older than 180,000 years. The assemblages include factory waste, flaking concentrations, finished tools, resharpening flakes, Levallois cores, bifacial points, side-scrapers, end-scrapers, and blades. The site appears to have received repeated seasonal visits for replenishing raw-material supplies, although its earliest chronology depends on dates that the source says require confirmation.
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The Story
Gadamotta occupies the rim of an ancient caldera overlooking Lake Zwai in the Galla Lakes area of the Ethiopian Rift. Middle Stone Age populations returned to the obsidian outcrops over a long period to replenish their supplies of raw material. The archaeological remains consist largely of extensive spreads of factory waste, with smaller and denser concentrations of flaking debris.
Seven occupation floors are known at two localities. One concentration forms a shallow saucer-shaped depression about 30 centimetres deep and 7.5 metres across, possibly a communal living or workshop camp. It yielded finished tools, resharpening flakes, and small reduced Levallois cores, while nearby deposits preserved remains of hippopotamus, alcelaphine antelopes, and zebra, indicating an open savanna environment supported by reasonably distributed rainfall.
The assemblages show limited developmental change, although bifacial points and side-scrapers are more frequent in lower horizons. End-scrapers and blades struck from non-Levallois cores increase toward the top. The workshops probably represent seasonal visits, after which completed tools and many cores were transported to residential sites near Lake Zwai or along the Awash River.
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