Edaphic and Topographic Constraints on Exploitation of the Central Kenya Rift by Large Mammals and Early Hominins

Abstract

Our aim in this paper is to create a palaeoenvironmental and spatio-temporal framework for interpreting human land use and exploitation of large mammals in the Central Kenya Rift over the past 2 million years, with particular reference to the Nakuru-Elmenteita-Naivasha basin and its adjacent rift flanks on the Kinangop Plateau and Mau escarpment. We pay particular attention to the tectonic and volcanic history of the region, and to the system of lakes that have undergone periodic expansion and contraction during the Pleistocene in response to climatic and tectonic controls. We use this information to reconstruct topographic features as they would have existed at different periods of the past and their likely influence on patterns of large-mammal movements. In addition we present a systematic mapping of variations in the mineral nutrients of soils -soil edaphics -based on 150 analyses of trace elements in modern soil and vegetation samples. Soil edaphics play an important role in animal and human health today, with serious deficiencies in some areas, and would have exerted an important constraint on animal distributions and movements in the past. We show how soil-edaphic properties vary across the region and demonstrate a close relationship between them and the underlying geology and sediments, which allows us to project patterns back into the past and extrapolate them over larger areas. Using this combination of variables, we construct maps that help to place archaeological sites into their wider regional setting. We focus in particular on the Acheulean site of Kariandusi and show that it occupied a unique window of opportunity in place and time for trapping mammals constrained to move through a narrowly defined topographic bottleneck between edaphically-rich areas. We infer that the site was used for a simple form of ambush hunting and briefly explore the implications for differential site use, formation, preservation and visibility.

How did Homo erectus reach Java? Least-cost pathway models and a consideration of possible Sumatran routes

“…Dennell 2008) or the distribution of regional topographic and edaphic constraints (e.g. Devès et al 2014;Kübler et al 2016), may be equally important in determining the success for the recovery of early hominins and associated faunas from these islands.…”

Lithological and Topographic Impact on Soil Nutrient Distributions in Tectonic Landscapes: Implications for Pleistocene Human-Landscape Interactions in the Southern Kenya Rift

“…In a paleoanthropological context, the study of landscape complexity and related heterogeneity on soil parameters derived from long-term geological processes can serve as proxy for long-term environmental variability-a factor that has been identified as key element in human evolution studies (Potts, 1996;Potts, 1998;Potts, 2013;Potts et al, 2018). Geologically controlled and topographically accessible corridors of reliable vegetation cover and soils high in vital nutrients thus represent potential paleo-migration corridors of grazing animal herds (Devès et al, 2014;Kübler et al, 2015;Kübler et al, 2016) and regions of importance for hominin subsistence strategies and enhanced hominin mobility over long periods of time (Figure 9).…”

“…Understanding the factors that determine variations in soil nutrient levels is important, not only for agricultural and livestock research, but also for other disciplines including ecology and paleoanthropology, which can exploit knowledge of the longterm distribution and availability of soil nutrients. This helps to better understand paleoecological conditions in regions of early human presence, and deduce regional-scale mobility patterns of animals and humans in past and present (Sturdy and Webley, 1988;McNaughton, 1990;Murray, 1995;Sturdy et al, 1997;Devès et al, 2014;Devès et al, 2015;Kübler et al, 2015;Kübler et al, 2016;Kübler et al, 2019;Eckmeier et al, 2020;Junginger and Kübler, 2020;Kübler et al, 2020).…”

Evolutionary Geography and the Afrotropical Model of Hominin Evolution

“…One of the variables that promotes a high level of mosaicism in a region is a variable topography, or high relief. King and colleagues have made a strong case for linkage between high relief and hominin evolution in Africa [57][58][59]. The argument is that traits such as bipedalism are advantageous in regions with high relief, as well as providing suitable habitats in terms of resource availability and distribution.…”