À partir de Cᵉ siècle av. J.-C.
Western shoulder of the Ethiopian Rift Valley, Ethiopia
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Melka Kunture is a stratified archaeological site complex on the western shoulder of Ethiopia’s Rift Valley, about 50 kilometres south of Addis Ababa. Sediments accumulated where earth movements obstructed the headwaters of the Awash River, producing fluviatile and swamp deposits rich in archaeological sites. The sequence includes Oldowan-like, Developed Oldowan-like, Acheulian, Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age materials, with younger levels extending into the Holocene. Pollen evidence indicates grasslands with variable riverine, mountain and alpine vegetation.
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Le récit
Melka Kunture lies approximately 50 kilometres south of Addis Ababa on the western shoulder of the Ethiopian Rift Valley. Earth movements created a barrier across the headwaters of the Awash River, allowing river and swamp sediments to accumulate intermittently. As these layered deposits eroded, they revealed a large number of archaeological sites spanning a considerable part of the Middle and Late Pleistocene.
The lowest levels contain assemblages compared with the Oldowan and Developed Oldowan, assigned an age of more than 700,000 years on palaeomagnetic evidence. Middle levels contain abundant Acheulian material, although individual occurrences differ greatly from one another. The uppermost beds, attributed to the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene, include material combining normal Acheulian cleavers and diminutive bifaces with possible Middle Stone Age elements such as racloirs and Levallois-made flake tools.
The sequence also contains Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age industries, including bifacial Stillbay projectile points and backed microliths. Melka Kunture is especially valuable because pollen analysis provides information about associated vegetation. Grasslands occurred around all the archaeological sites, while some localities also had riverine forest and others showed more mountain forest and alpine vegetation than exists in the area today.
À partir de Cᵉ siècle av. J.-C.
Western shoulder of the Ethiopian Rift Valley, Ethiopia
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Melka Kunture is a stratified archaeological site complex on the western shoulder of Ethiopia’s Rift Valley, about 50 kilometres south of Addis Ababa. Sediments accumulated where earth movements obstructed the headwaters of the Awash River, producing fluviatile and swamp deposits rich in archaeological sites. The sequence includes Oldowan-like, Developed Oldowan-like, Acheulian, Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age materials, with younger levels extending into the Holocene. Pollen evidence indicates grasslands with variable riverine, mountain and alpine vegetation.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
Melka Kunture lies approximately 50 kilometres south of Addis Ababa on the western shoulder of the Ethiopian Rift Valley. Earth movements created a barrier across the headwaters of the Awash River, allowing river and swamp sediments to accumulate intermittently. As these layered deposits eroded, they revealed a large number of archaeological sites spanning a considerable part of the Middle and Late Pleistocene.
The lowest levels contain assemblages compared with the Oldowan and Developed Oldowan, assigned an age of more than 700,000 years on palaeomagnetic evidence. Middle levels contain abundant Acheulian material, although individual occurrences differ greatly from one another. The uppermost beds, attributed to the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene, include material combining normal Acheulian cleavers and diminutive bifaces with possible Middle Stone Age elements such as racloirs and Levallois-made flake tools.
The sequence also contains Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age industries, including bifacial Stillbay projectile points and backed microliths. Melka Kunture is especially valuable because pollen analysis provides information about associated vegetation. Grasslands occurred around all the archaeological sites, while some localities also had riverine forest and others showed more mountain forest and alpine vegetation than exists in the area today.