Later Stone Age lithic raw material use at Lukenya Hill, Kenya

This dissertation is based on ten months of fieldwork carried out at Lukenya Hill, Kenya, and the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi, from September 1993 to June of 1994. Lithic raw material use and typology in five Later Stone Age (LSA) assemblages are described and used to infer prehistoric settlement patterns around Lukenya Hill. Through a survey of LSA occurrences in sub-Saharan Africa and a review of paleoenvironmental conditions in the continent's major climatic zones, I argue that arid savannas such as the Athi Plains posed the continent's greatest challenge to humans. I discuss the methodology of the study of lithic raw material use and technological organization, evaluate the progress of such studies in African archaeology, and develop a set of expectations for settlement patterns and raw material use at Lukenya Hill in light of the area's particular food and lithic resources.;Excavations carried out at GvJm62 in 1994 are reported and the site's formation processes are examined through stratigraphic and sedimentological study. Raw material and typology in lithic assemblages from GvJm62 and from sites GvJm16, GvJm19, GvJm22, and GvJm46 are described and compared. Electron microprobe analysis of obsidian artifacts from GvJm62 identified the source localities of raw materials. Differences in typology and raw material source use among the Lukenya Hill sites show that the sites differed in function, size, and duration of occupation. Earlier assemblages are based on the expedient production of local quartz flakes and scrapers. They were longer-term occupations and part of less mobile adaptations. Later assemblages include larger amounts of chert and exotic obsidian used to manufacture microliths. These occupations were shorter-term and part of more mobile settlement patterns. Settlement pattern changes may have been related to changing population densities, inter-band social relationships, or environmental change.