Late Pleistocene age and archaeological context for the hominin calvaria from GvJm-22 (Lukenya Hill, Kenya)

Abstract

Kenya National Museums Lukenya Hill Hominid 1 (KNM-LH 1) is a Homo sapiens partial calvaria from site GvJm-22 at Lukenya Hill, Kenya, associated with Later Stone Age (LSA) archaeological deposits. KNM-LH 1 is securely dated to the Late Pleistocene, and samples a time and region important for understanding the origins of modern human diversity. A revised chronology based on 26 accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates on ostrich eggshells indicates an age range of 23,576–22,887 y B.P. for KNM-LH 1, confirming prior attribution to the Last Glacial Maximum. Additional dates extend the maximum age for archaeological deposits at GvJm-22 to >46,000 y B.P. (>46 kya). These dates are consistent with new analyses identifying both Middle Stone Age and LSA lithic technologies at the site, making GvJm-22 a rare eastern African record of major human behavioral shifts during the Late Pleistocene. Comparative morphometric analyses of the KNM-LH 1 cranium document the temporal and spatial complexity of early modern human morphological variability. Features of cranial shape distinguish KNM-LH 1 and other Middle and Late Pleistocene African fossils from crania of recent Africans and samples from Holocene LSA and European Upper Paleolithic sites.

Those marvellous millennia: the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa

“…Furthermore, single-nucleotide polymorphisms in southern Africans suggest that ancestors of populations that today speak Khoe and San languages diverged from other populations sometime after 100,000 years ago (Schlebusch et al 2012). A new study of the Lukenya Hill, Kenya, fossil remains from the Last Glacial Maximum implies that an extinct form was represented in East Africa even after the demise of the MSA (Tryon et al 2015), so greater than expected variability may occur until fairly late within the African Homo sapiens lineage.…”

“…A revision of the Zimbabwean LSA was undertaken by Walker (1995) and a similar revision of the MSA will be necessary when the country's political uncertainties abate. Much can be gained from revisiting 'old' MSA collections, as demonstrated at Klein Kliphuis in South Africa (MacKay 2010;Mackay and Welz 2008) and, more recently, Lukenya Hill in Kenya (Tryon et al 2015), and there are many outstanding collections in Zimbabwean storerooms. Technological studies of Zimbabwe's MSA lithics may help to establish the relationship, if any, between these sites and their southern neighbours.…”

The origin and evolution ofHomo sapiens

“…There is also growing evidence of the survival of even younger elements of archaic morphology into the late Pleistocene at sites like Eyasi, Iwo Eleru and Lukenya Hill (e.g. [40,41,[97][98][99]). …”

A demographic perspective on the Middle to Later Stone Age transition from Nasera rockshelter, Tanzania

“…Together, these shifts imply key changes in hominin technological and social systems that anticipate the behavioural systems of extant and historic hunter-gatherers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Most of the East African Late Pleistocene archaeological record was made by morphologically diverse populations of Homo sapiens [8], but some fossil and genetic evidence hint at the possibility of the late persistence of archaic taxa [9,10].…”

“…At Enkapune ya Muto (Kenya), available evidence suggests that the MSA-LSA transition may be more than 40-50 ka with a complex pattern of change, but the site chronology is limited by infinite radiocarbon dates and only summary descriptions of the archaeological data are available [1,18]. At GvJm-22 at Lukenya Hill (Kenya), new radiocarbon dates suggest that the transition occurred approximately 26-50 ka, but dated material were sampled from older excavations that mixed key strata, and thus the tempo of change cannot be determined [8,19]. A number of MSA sites from the Lake Victoria basin are as young as approximately 35-50 ka, but overlying LSA deposits are absent [20 -22].…”