Lothagam North Pillar Site

Lothagam North Pillar Site
LocationTurkana County, Kenya

The Lothagam North Pillar Site, registered as GeJi9, is an archaeological site at Lothagam on the west side of Lake Turkana in Kenya dating to the Pastoral Neolithic and the Holocene. It is a communal cemetery, built between 3000 BCE and 2300 BCE by the region's earliest herders as rainfall in the area decreased and Lake Turkana receded.[1][2][3] It is thought to be eastern Africa's largest and earliest monumental cemetery.[4]

The burial site study and excavation were led by Elisabeth Hildebrand from 2009 to 2014.[1] The burial site is flanked by megaliths, stone circles, and cairns, and is believed to hold the remains of hundreds of individuals.[3] Many of the people buried at Lothagam North were adorned with stone beads, ivory, animal teeth, rings, or other ornaments.[2]

  1. ^ a b Hildebrand, Elisabeth; et al. (2018). "A monumental cemetery built by eastern Africa's first herders near Lake Turkana, Kenya". PNAS. 115 (36): 8942–8947. Bibcode:2018PNAS..115.8942H. doi:10.1073/pnas.1721975115. PMC 6130363. PMID 30127016.
  2. ^ a b Dvorsky, George (20 August 2018). "Ancient Cemetery Packed With Hundreds of Bodies Discovered in Kenya".
  3. ^ a b Maya Wei-Haas (20 August 2018). "Ancient Riches Discovered at Mysterious Burial Monument". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 20 August 2018.
  4. ^ Specktor, Brandon (22 August 2018). "Massive, Ancient Stone Monument in Kenya Held More Than 500 Bodies, 400 Gerbil Teeth". Live Science.

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