100th century BCE
Upper Awash valley, Ethiopian plateau
Melka Kunture is an open archaeological locality on the Ethiopian plateau preserving a stratified Middle Stone Age sequence above deposits associated with the Acheulian Complex. Its Garba III locality contains seven levels with changing proportions of hand-axes, bifaces, scrapers, points, burins, and end-scrapers. Obsidian dominates the light-duty tools, while much of the debitage is non-Levallois. The undated sequence may illuminate the interval between the Acheulian and the main Middle Stone Age complex.
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The Story
Melka Kunture lies in the upper valley of the Awash on the Ethiopian plateau, at an altitude of about 2,440 metres. Middle Stone Age deposits occur in ferruginized sands, gravels, and tuffs of Upper Pleistocene age, overlying a formation containing the Acheulian Complex. The locality therefore preserves an important archaeological succession in a high-altitude setting within the Ethiopian Rift.
The Garba III site contains seven stratified Middle Stone Age levels. The lowest is described as a living floor associated with fauna and includes rare choppers, small pointed, cordiform, and sub-triangular hand-axes, together with a cleaver. The overlying level contains small bifaces, side-scrapers, Mousterian points, parti-bifacially retouched points, and rare burins and end-scrapers.
Upper levels accentuate the Upper Palaeolithic elements of the sequence. Light-duty tools were made predominantly from obsidian, but the debitage was mostly non-Levallois. Because the sequence remains undated, its precise chronological position is unresolved, although it may represent part of the interval between the Acheulian and the main Middle Stone Age complex.
100th century BCE
Upper Awash valley, Ethiopian plateau
Melka Kunture is an open archaeological locality on the Ethiopian plateau preserving a stratified Middle Stone Age sequence above deposits associated with the Acheulian Complex. Its Garba III locality contains seven levels with changing proportions of hand-axes, bifaces, scrapers, points, burins, and end-scrapers. Obsidian dominates the light-duty tools, while much of the debitage is non-Levallois. The undated sequence may illuminate the interval between the Acheulian and the main Middle Stone Age complex.
Continue exploring
The Story
Melka Kunture lies in the upper valley of the Awash on the Ethiopian plateau, at an altitude of about 2,440 metres. Middle Stone Age deposits occur in ferruginized sands, gravels, and tuffs of Upper Pleistocene age, overlying a formation containing the Acheulian Complex. The locality therefore preserves an important archaeological succession in a high-altitude setting within the Ethiopian Rift.
The Garba III site contains seven stratified Middle Stone Age levels. The lowest is described as a living floor associated with fauna and includes rare choppers, small pointed, cordiform, and sub-triangular hand-axes, together with a cleaver. The overlying level contains small bifaces, side-scrapers, Mousterian points, parti-bifacially retouched points, and rare burins and end-scrapers.
Upper levels accentuate the Upper Palaeolithic elements of the sequence. Light-duty tools were made predominantly from obsidian, but the debitage was mostly non-Levallois. Because the sequence remains undated, its precise chronological position is unresolved, although it may represent part of the interval between the Acheulian and the main Middle Stone Age complex.
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