Middle holocene fishing strategies in east africa: Zooarchaeological analysis of Pundo, a Kansyore shell midden in Northern Nyanza (Kenya)

International Journal of Osteoarchaeology

Volumn 20, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 88-112

  Prendergast, M E ^a   Lane, P J ^b  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF YORK   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

East Africa; Fishing; Holocene; Hunter gatherers; Kansyore; Shell midden; Zooarchaeology

Indexed keywords

EID: 77952827141     PISSN: 1047482X     EISSN: 10991212     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/oa.1014     Document Type: Article

References (83)

1. Adamson D, Clark JD, Williams MAJ. 1974. Barbed bone points from Central Sudan and the age of 'Early Khartoum'. Nature 249: 120-123.
2. Arkell AJ. 1949. Early Khartoum. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
3. Ashley C. 2005. Ceramic Variability and Change: a perspective from Great Lakes Africa. Unpublished PhD thesis, University College London.
4. Barthelme J. 1985. Fisher-Hunters and Neolithic Pastoralists in East Turkana, Kenya. BAR International Series 254: Oxford.
5. Behrensmeyer K. 1978. Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering. Paleobiology 4: 150-162.
6. Binford LR. 1981. Bones: Ancient Men and Modern Myths. Academic Press: New York.
7. Blumenschine RJ. 1988. An experimental model of the timing of hominid and carnivore influence on archaeological bone assemblages. Journal of Archaeological Science 15: 483-502.
8. Blumenschine RJ. 1995. Percussion marks, tooth marks and experimental determinations of the timing of hominid and carnivore access to long bones at FLK Zinjanthropus, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution 29: 21-51.
9. Blumenschine RJ, Selvaggio MM. 1988. Percussion marks on bone surfaces as a new diagnostic of hominid behavior. Nature 333: 763-765.
10. Blumenschine RJ, Selvaggio MM. 1991. On the marks of marrow bone processing by hammerstones and hyenas: their anatomical patterning and archaeological implications. In Cultural Beginnings: Approaches to Understanding Early Hominid Life Ways in the African Savanna, Clark JD (ed.). Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Forschunginstitut für Vorund Frühgeschichte, Monographien 19: Bonn; 17-32.
11. Blumenschine RJ, Marean CW. 1993. A carnivore's view of archaeological bone assemblages. In From Bones to Behavior: Ethnoarchaeological and Experimental Contributions to the Interpretation of Faunal Remains, Hudson J (ed.). Southern Illinois University: Carbondale, IL; 273-300.
12. Boulenger GA. 1901. Les Poissons du Basin du Congo. L'Etat Indépendant du Congo: Brussels.
13. Brain CK. 1981. The Hunters or the Hunted? An Introduction to African Cave Taphonomy. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
14. Brelsford WV. 1946. Fishermen of the Bangwelu Swamps. Rhodes-Livingstone Institute: Livingstone.
15. Brewer DJ. 1986. Cultural and Environmental Change in the Fayum, Egypt: An Investigation Based on Faunal Remains. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Tennessee (Knoxville).
16. Bunn HT. 1981. Archaeological evidence for meat-eating by Plio-Pleistocene hominids from Koobi Foora and Olduvai Gorge. Nature 291: 574-577.
17. Bunn HT. 1982. Meat-eating and Human Evolution: Studies on the Diet and Subsistence Patterns of Plio-Pleistocene Hominids in East Africa. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley.
18. Caneva I, Garcea E, Gautier A, Van Neer W. 1993. Pre-pastoral cultures along the Central Sudanese Nile. Quaternaria Nova 3: 177-252.
19. Chaix L. 2003. La faune des sites mésolithiques et néolithique de la zone du Nil Bleu (Soudan Central). In The Blue Nile Project. Holocene Archaeology in Central Sudan, Fernández VM (ed.). Complutum: Madrid; 373-396.
20. Clark JD. 1989. Shabona: an Early Khartoum settlement on the White Nile. In Late Prehistory of the Nile Basin and the Sahara, Krzyzaniak L, Kobusiewicz M (eds). Archaeological Museum of Poznan: Poznan; 387-410.
21. Dale D. 2007. An Archaeological Investigation of the Kansyore, Later Stone Age Hunter-Gatherers in East Africa. Unpublished PhD thesis, Washington University in St. Louis.
22. Dale D, Marshall F, Pilgram T. 2004. Delayed-return hunter-gatherers in Africa? Historic perspectives from the Okiek and archaeological perspectives from the Kansyore. In Hunters and Gatherers in Theory and Archaeology, Crothers GM (ed.). Center for Archaeological Investigations: Carbondale, IL; 340-373.
23. Dobbs CM. 1927. Fishing in the Kavirondo Gulf, Lake Victoria. Journal of the East African Natural History Society 3: 97-110.
24. Domínguez-Rodrigo M, Barba R. 2006. New estimates of tooth mark and percussion mark frequencies at the FLK Zinj site: the carnivore-hominid-carnivore hypothesis falsified. Journal of Human Evolution 50: 170-194.
25. Domínguez-Rodrigo M, Barba R, Egeland C. 2007. Deconstructing Olduvai. A. Taphonomic Study of the Bed I Sites. Springer-Verlag: New York.
26. Fernández VM (ed.). 2003. The Blue Nile Project. Holocene Archaeology in Central Sudan. Complutum Volume 14: Madrid.
27. Fisher JW. 1995. Bone surface modifications in zooarchaeology. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 1: 7-65.
28. Garcea EA. 2006. Semi-permanent foragers in semiarid environments of North Africa. World Archaeology 38: 197-219.
29. Gayet M, Van Neer W. 1990. Caractères diagnostiques des épines de quelques silures africains. Journal of African Zoology 104: 241-252.
30. Goudswaard KPC, Witte F, Chapman LJ. 2002a. Decline of the African lungfish (Protopterus aethiopicus) in Lake Victoria (East Africa). African Journal of Ecology 40: 42-52.
31. Goudswaard KPC, Witte F, Katunzi EFB. 2002b. The tilapiine fish stock of Lake Victoria before and after the Nile perch upsurge. Journal of Fish Biology 60: 838-856.
32. Gowlett JAJ, Hedges REM, Law IA, Perry C. 1987. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 5. Archaeometry 29: 125-155.
33. Graham M. 1929. The Victoria Nyanza and its Fisheries. A. Report on the Fishing Survey of Lake Victoria 1927-1928. Fisheries Laboratory: Lowestoft.
34. Greenwood PH. 1966. The Fishes of Uganda. The Uganda Society: Kampala.
35. Greenwood PH. 1968. Fish remains. In The Prehistory of Nubia, Wendorf F (ed.). Fort Burgwin Research Center and Southern Methodist University Press: Dallas, TX; 100-109.
36. Greenwood PH. 1986. The natural history of the African lungfishes. Journal of Morphology Suppl. 1: 163-179.
37. Haaland R. 1992. Fish, pots and grain: Early and mid-Holocene adaptations in the central Sudan. African Archaeological Review 10: 43-64.
38. Haaland R. 1995. Sedentism, cultivation and plant domestication in the Holocene Middle Nile region. Journal of Field Archaeology 22: 158-174.
39. Harvey P. 2005. Transitions on the Shore of Lake Victoria: a Faunal Analysis of Wadh Lang'o. Unpublished MSc thesis, University College London.
40. Holl AFC. 2005. Holocene "aquatic" adaptations in north tropical Africa. In African Archaeology. A. Critical Introduction, Stahl AB (ed.). Blackwell: Malden, MA; 174-186.
41. Johnson TC, Scholz CA, Talbot MR, Kelts K, Ngobi G, Beuning K, Ssemmanda I, McGill JA. 1996. Late Pleistocene desiccation of Lake Victoria and rapid evolution of cichlid fishes. Science 273: 1091-1093.
42. Jubb RA. 1967. Freshwater Fishes of Southern Africa. Balkema: Cape Town.
43. Karega-Mũnene. 2002. Holocene Foragers, Fishers and Herders of Western Kenya. BAR International Series 1037: Oxford.
44. Kendall RL. 1969. The ecological history of the Lake Victoria basin. Ecological Monographs 39: 121-176.
45. Lane P, Ashley C, Oteyo G. 2006. New dates for Kansyore and Urewe wares from Northern Nyanza, Kenya. Azania 41: 123-138.
46. Lane P, Ashley C, Seitsonen O, Harvey P, Mire S, Odede F. 2007. The transition to farming in eastern Africa: new faunal and dating evidence from Wadh Lang'o and Usenge, Kenya. Antiquity 81: 62-81.
47. Lejju BJ, Robertshaw P, Taylor D. 2006. Africa's earliest bananas? Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 102-113.
48. Lowe-McConnell RH. 1956. Observations on the biology of Tilapia (Pisces-Cichlidae) in Lake Victoria, East Africa. East African Fisheries Research Organization, Supplementary Publication 1. East African High Commission: Kampala.
49. Marshall F, Stewart KM. 1995. Hunting, fishing and herding pastoralists of western Kenya: the fauna from Gogo Falls. Archaeozoologia 7: 7-27.
50. Mire S. n.d. Preliminary report on the fauna from Usenge 1 and 3. Manuscript on file at the British Institute in East Africa library, Nairobi (http://www.biea.ac.uk/library_pages/index.htm).
51. Mlewa CM, Green JM. 2004. Biology of the Marbled lungfish, Protopterus aethiopicus Heckl, in Lake Baringo, Kenya. African Journal of Ecology 42: 338-345.
52. Muli JR, Mavuti KM. 2001. The benthic macrofauna community of Kenyan waters of Lake Victoria. Hydrobiologia 458: 83-90.
53. Ochumba PBO, Manyala JO. 1992. Distribution of fishes along the Sondu-Miriu River of Lake Victoria, Kenya with special reference to upstream migration, biology and yield. Aquaculture and Fisheries Management 23: 701-719.
54. Peters J. 1991. Mesolithic fishing along the Central Sudanese Nile and the Lower Atbara. Sahara 4: 33-39.
55. Phillipson DW. 1977. Lowasera. Azania 12: 1-32.
56. Pickering TR, Egeland CP. 2006. Experimental patterns of hammerstone percussion damage on bones: implications for inferences of carcass processing by humans. Journal of Archaeological Science 33: 459-469.
57. Potts RP, Shipman P. 1981. Cutmarks made by stone tools on bones from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Nature 291: 577-580.
58. Prendergast ME. 2008. Forager variability and transitions to food production in secondary settings: Kansyore and Pastoral Neolithic economies in East Africa. Unpublished PhD thesis, Harvard University.
59. Prendergast ME, Luque L, Domínguez-Rodrigo M, Diez Martín F, Mabulla A, Barba R. 2007. New excavations at Mumba Rockshelter (Tanzania). Journal of African Archaeology 5: 163-189.
60. Reimer PJ, Baillie MGL, Bard E, Bayliss A, Beck JW, Bertrand CJH, Blackwell PG, Buck CE, Burr GS, Cutler KB, Damon PE, Edwards RL, Fairbanks RG, Friedrich M, Guilderson TP, Hogg AG, Hughen KA, Kromer B, McCormac FG, Manning SW, Ramsey CB, Reimer RW, Remmele S, Southon JR, Stuiver M, Talamo S, Taylor FW, van der Plicht J, Weyhenmeyer CE. 2004. IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 26-0 ka BP. Radiocarbon 46: 1029-1058.
61. Rinne JA, Wanjala B. 1983. Maturity, fecundity and breeding seasons of the major catfishes (Suborder: Siluroidea) in Lake Victoria, East Africa. Journal of Fish Biology 23: 357-363.
62. Robbins LH. 1984. Late Prehistoric aquatic and pastoral adaptations west of Lake Turkana, Kenya. In Hunters and Farmers, Clark JD, Brandt SA (eds). University of California Press: Berkeley, CA; 206-212.
63. Robertshaw P. 1991. Gogo Falls: Excavations at a complex archaeological site east of Lake Victoria. Azania 26: 63-195.
64. Robertshaw P, Collett D, Gifford D, Mbae NB. 1983. Shell middens on the shores of Lake Victoria. Azania 18: 1-43.
65. Shipman P. 1983. Early hominid lifestyle: hunting and gathering or foraging and scavenging. In Animals and Archaeology: Hunters and their Prey, Clutton-Brock J, Grigson C (eds). BAR International Series 163: Oxford; 31-49.
66. Stager JC, Johnson TC. 2000. A 12,400 C-14 yr offshore diatom record from east central Lake Victoria, East Africa. Journal of Paleolimnology 23: 373-383.
67. Stager JC, Cumming BF, Meeker LD. 2003. A 10,000-year high-resolution diatom record from Pilkington Bay, Lake Victoria, East Africa. Quaternary Research 59: 172-181.
68. Stewart KM. 1989. Fishing Sites of North and East Africa in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene: Environmental Change and Human Adaptation. BAR International Series 521: Oxford.
69. Stewart KM. 1991. Appendix III: Fish remains from Gogo Falls. Azania 26: 179-180.
70. Sundstrom L. 1972. Ecology and Symbiosis: Niger Water Folk. Studia Ethnographica Upsaliensis, Volume 35: Uppsala.
71. Sutton JEG. 1974. The Aquatic civilization of Middle Africa. Journal of African History 15: 527-546.
72. Sutton JEG. 1977. The African aqualithic. Antiquity 51: 25-34.
73. Thomas J. 1934. A travers l'Afrique Equatoriale sauvage. La Rose: Paris.
74. Thompson LG, Mosley-Thompson E, Davis ME, Henderson KA, Brecher HH, Zagorodnov VS, Mashiotta TA, Lin PN, Mikhalenko VN, Hardy DR, Beer J. 2002. Kilimanjaro ice core records: evidence of Holocene climate change in tropical Africa. Science 298: 589-593.
75. Van Neer W. 1986. Some notes on the fish remains from Wadi Kubbaniya (Upper Egypt, Late Palaeolithic). In Fish and Archaeology, Brinkhuizen DC, Clason AT (eds). BAR International Series 294: Oxford; 103-113.
76. Van Neer W. 2004. Evolution of prehistoric fishing in the Nile Valley. Journal of African Archaeology 2: 251-269.
77. Van Neer W, Lesur J. 2004. The ancient fish fauna from Asa Koma (Djibouti) and modern osteometric data on 2 tilapiini and 2 Clarias catfish species. Documenta Archaeobiologiae 2: 143-160.
78. Villa P, Mahieu E. 1991. Breakage patterns of human long bones. Journal of Human Evolution 21: 27-48.
79. Whitehead PJ. 1959. The river fisheries of Kenya. Part 1: Nyanza Province. East African Agricultural Journal 24: 274-278.
80. Witte F, de Winter W. 1995. Appendix II: Biology of the major fish species of Lake Victoria. In Fish Stocks and Fisheries of Lake Victoria. A. Handbook for Field Observations, Witte F, Van Densen WLT (eds). Samara Publishing Ltd: Cardigan; 301-320.
81. Woodburn J. 1980. Hunters and gatherers today and reconstruction of the past. In Soviet and Western Anthropology, Gellner E (ed.). Duckworth: London; 95-117.
82. Woodburn J. 1982. Egalitarian societies. Man 17: 431-451.
83. Yellen JE. 1998. Barbed bone points: tradition and continuity in Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa. African Archaeological Review 15: 173-198.