Résumé
Isenya est le premier site acheuléen fouillé sur les hauts plateaux du Kenya. Sa richesse en vestiges lithiques et fauniques en fait dès maintenant un gisement important pour la connaissance des hominidés du Pléistocène moyen. Isenya est inclus dans un contexte sédimentaire fluviatile, indiquant que les hommes préhistoriques se sont installés sur une barre sableuse, le long d'une rivière qui était alors peut-être pérenne. La convergence des informations géologiques et archéologiques permet d'expliquer la mise en place des vestiges, la positionin situ de plusieurs niveaux d'occupation superposés, le faible degré de perturbation qu'ils ont subi, et l'origine essentiellement anthropique des associations os/pierres. L'industrie lithique est caractérisée par une grande abondance de bifaces et de hachereaux dont les proportions varient dans le temps. Une première analyse de l'ensemble apporte d'ores et déjà des indications sur les comportements techniques: les chaînes opératoires sont décryptées, depuis l'acquisition des matériaux jusqu'à l'obtention des outils. La faune associée à cet outillage est dominée par des animaux de savane ouverte (Alcelaphini etAntilopini). Son étude détaillée mettra en évidence les stratégies d'acquisition du gibier et son mode de consommation. Attirés, entre autres raisons, par la proximité de l'eau et des affleurements de phonolite, source principale de matière première pour l'outillage, les hominidés ont occupé cet enfroit de façon répétée dans un court laps de temps, selon une périodicité à rapprocher sans doute des comportements de subsistance.
Abstract
Isenya is the first Acheulian site excavated in the Eastern Highlands of Kenya. Very rich lithic and faunal remains in a fluviatile sedimentary context indicate hominid activity on a sandy bar next to a river, which was perhaps perennial. Microstratigraphy and archaeological data permit reconstruction of the processes by which the remains were deposited. Severalin situ occupation layers show only a slight degree of perturbation. The bone assemblage is of anthropic origin, and the lithic industry is characterized by an abundance of bifacial pieces, level VI being particularly rich in cleavers. From the analysis of the lithic industry we can obtain some idea of hominid technological behaviour, most notably the operational chains of tool production from the procurement of raw materials to the knapping sequences. The fauna associated with the lithic materials is dominated by animals of the open savanna (Alcelaphini andAntilopini); and its detailed study will allow us to specify the strategies used in the procurement of game and its subsequent consumption. Without doubt, the reasons for hominid occupation at this particular site will be impossible to explain fully. However, choice of this location, where evidence for several different activities has been uncovered, should be considered in terms of the proximity both of water and of outcrops of phonolite, the principal raw material for tool-making. Repeated occupation by hominids over a short time may, perhaps, correspond to the periodicity of their subsistence behaviour.
References
Baker, B. H., Mohr, P. A. and Williams, L. A. J. 1972. Geology of the Eastern Rift of Africa.Geol. Soc. America Special Paper 136:1–67.
Beden, M. 1980.Elephas recki, Dietrich, 1915 (Proboscidea, Elephantidae): évolution au cours du Plio-Pleistocène en Afrique orientale.Geobios 13 (6):891–901.
Behrensmeyer, A. K. 1978. Taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering.Paleobiology 4:150–62.
Behrensmeyer, A. K. and Hill, A. P. (eds.) 1980.Fossils in the Making: vertebrate taphonomy and paleoecology. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Binford, L. R. 1977. Olorgesailie deserves more than the usual book review.Journal of Anthropological Research 33 (4):493–502.
Binford, L. R. 1981.Bones: ancient men and modern myths. New York: Academic Press.
Binford, L. R. 1985. Human ancestors: changing views of their behavior.Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 4:292–327.
Bishop, W. W. 1978. Geological framework for the Kilombe Acheulian site, Kenya. InGeological Background to Fossil Man (ed. W. Bishop): pp. 329–36. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
Bordes, F. 1961.Typologie du Paléolithique Ancien et Moyen. Bordeaux: Delmas.
Bordes, F. 1975. Sur la notion de sol d'habitat en préhistoire paléolithique.Bull. de la Société Préhistorique Française 72:139–44.
Brain, C. K. 1981.The Hunters or the Hunted? an introduction to African cave taphonomy. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Brugal, J. P. 1986. Un nouveau site acheuléen au Kenya, Isenya (Kajiado District): contribution à la connaissance du paléoenvironnement des Hominidés du Pleistocène moyen. InChangements en Afrique durant le Quarternaire, Passé-Présent-Futur. (Symposium International I.N.Q.U.A.): pp. 53–6. Dakar: I.F.A.N.
Brugal, J. P. and Defleur, A. à paraître. Approche expérimentale de la fracturation des os des membres de grands mammifères.
Bunn, H. T. 1982.Meat-eating and Human Evolution: studies on the diet and subsistence patterns of Plio-Pleistocene hominids in East Africa. Ph.D. thesis. University of California, Berkeley.
Bunn, H., Harris, J., Isaac, G., Kaufulu, Z., Kroll, E., Toth, N. and Behrensmeyer, A. 1980. FxJj 50: an early Pleistocene site in northern Kenya.World Archaeology 12:109–36.
Bye, A. B., Brown, F. H., Cerling, T. E. and McDougall, I. 1987. Increased age estimate for the Lower Palaeolithic hominid site at Olorgesailie, Kenya.Nature 329:237–9.
Chavaillon, J. 1976. Les habitats acheuléens de Melka Kunturé. InProceedings of VII P.C.P.Q.S., Addis Ababa 1971 (edds. B. Abebe, Chavaillon and J. Sutton): pp. 57–61. Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Government.
Chavaillon, J. 1980. Chronologie archéologique de Melka Kunturé (Ethiopie). InProceedings of VIII P.C.P.Q.S., Nairobi 1977 (eds. R. E. F. Leakey and B. A. Ogot): pp. 200–1. Nairobi: T.I.L.L.M.I.A.P.
Clark, J. D. and Kurashina, H. 1976. New Plio-Pleistocene archaeological occurrences from the plain of Gadeb, Upper Webi Shebele Basin, Ethiopia, and a statistical comparison of the Gadeb sites with Early Stone Age assemblages. InLes Plus Anciennes Industries en Afrique (pré-tirage, IX Congrès U.I.S.P.P., Nice) (eds. J. D. Clark and Gl. Isaac): pp. 158–216.
Clutton Brock, J. and Grigson, C. (eds.) 1983.Animals and Archaeology: 1 — hunters and their prey. Oxford, B.A.R. International Series 163.
Delany, M. J. 1982.Mammal Ecology. Glasgow and London: Blackie.
Eisenmann, V. 1979. Le genreHipparion (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) et son intérêt biostratigraphique.Bull. Soc. Géol. France 21(3): 277–81.
Eisenmann, V. 1980. Caractères spécifiques et problèmes taxonomiques relatifs à certains hippararions africains. InProceedings of VIII P.C.P.Q.S., Nairobi 1977 (eds. R. E. F. Leakey and B. A. Ogot): pp. 77–81. Nairobi: T.I.L.L.M.I.A.P.
Eisenmann, V. 1985. Les équidés des gisements de la vallée de l'Omo en Ethiopie (collections françaises). InLes Faunes Plio-Pleistocènes de la Basse Vallée de l'Omo (Ethiopie), (Cahiers de Paléontologie): pp. 15–55. Paris: C.N.R.S.
Gowlett, J. 1979. Kilombe — an Acheulian site complex in Kenya. InGeological Background to Fossil Man (ed. W. Bishop): pp. 337–60. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
Gowlett, J. 1980. Acheulian sites in the central Rift Valley, Kenya. InProceedings of VIII P.C.P.Q.S., Nairobi 1977 (eds. R. E. F. Leakey and B. A. Ogot): pp. 19–22. Nairobi: T.I.L.L.M.I.A.P.
Howell, F. C. 1961. Isimila: a Paleolithic site in Africa.Scientific American 205 (4): 118–29.
Howell, F. C., Cole, G. H. and Kleindiest, M. R. 1962. Isimila, an Acheulian occupation site in the Iringa Highlands, Southern Highlands Province, Tanganyika. InActes du IV Congrès Panafricain de Préhistoire et d'Etudes du Quaternaire: pp. 43–80. Tervuren: Musée Royal d'Afrique Centrale.
Isaac, G Ll. 1977.Olorgesailie: archaeological studies of a Middle Pleistocene lake basin. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Isaac, G. Ll. 1984. The archaeology of human origins: studies of the Lower Pleistocene in East Africa 1971–81. InAdvances in World Archaeology, vol. 3 (eds. F. Wendorf and A. E. Close): pp. 1–87. Orlando: Academic Press.
Jarman P. J., 1974. The social organisation of antelope in relation to their ecology.Behaviour, 48:215–66.
Kaufulu, Z. 1983.The Geological Context of some Early Archaeological Sites in Kenya, Malawi, and Tanzania. Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Berkeley.
Klein, R. G. and Cruz-Uribe, K. 1984.The Analysis of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Kroll, E. and Isaac, G. Ll. 1984. Configurations of artifacts and bones at Early Pleistocene sites in East Africa. InIntra-Site Spatial Analysis (ed. H. J. Hietala): pp. 4–30. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leakey, M., Tobias, P. V., Martyn, J. E. and Leakey, R. E. F. 1969. An Acheulian industry with prepared core technique and the discovery of a contemporary hominid at Lake Baringo, Kenya.Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 35:48–76.
Leakey, M. D. 1971.Olduvai Gorge, vol. 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leakey, R. E. F. and Leakey, M. G. (eds.) 1978.Koobi Fora Research Project, vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Omi, G. (ed.) 1982.Mtongwe 1980 (Seventh Preliminary Report of African Studies). Chikusa: Nagoya University.
Roche, H., Brugal, J-P., Lefèvre, D. and Texier, P. J. 1987. Premières données sur l'Acheuléen des Hauts Plateaux kenyans: le site d'Isenya (district de Kajiado).C.R. Acad. Sc. Paris, II, 305:529–32.
Schick, K. D. 1986.Stone Age Sites in the Making: experiments in the formation and transformation of Archaeological occurrences. Oxford: B.A.R. International Series.
Shackleton, R. M. 1978. Structural development of the East African Rift System. InGeological Background to Fossil Man (ed. W. Bishop): pp. 19–28. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
Texier, P-J. 1985. Pendiag: a program to produce distribution plans and profile sections of excavation data. InTo Pattern the Past: mathematical methods in archaeology, Amsterdam 1984. PACT series 11I.2:31–43.
Tixier, J. 1957. Le hachereau dans l'Acheuléen nord-africain, notes typologiques.Congrès Préhistorique de France, XV session, 1956:915–23.
Villa, P. 1975–76. Sols et niveaux d'habitats du paléolithique inférieur en Europe et au Proche-Orient.Quaternaria 19:107–34.
Villa, P. 1982. Conjoinable pieces and site formation processes.American Antiquity, 47 (2):276–90.
Voorhies, M. R. 1969.Taphonomy and Population Dynamics of an Early Pliocene Vertebrate Fauna, Knox County, Nebraska. Laramie: University of Wyoming.
Vrba, E. 1980. The significance of bovid remains as indicators of environments and predation patterns. InFossils in the Making: vertebrate taphonomy and paleoecology (eds. A. K. Behrensmeyere and A. P. Hill): pp. 247–71. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Roche, H., Brugal, JP., Lefevre, D. et al. Isenya: état des recherches sur un nouveau site acheuléen d'Afrique orientale. Afr Archaeol Rev 6, 27–55 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01117111
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01117111