|
Gademotta7°57′N 38°38′E / 7.950°N 38.633°E The Gademotta Formation in the Main Ethiopian Rift Valley is known for its Middle Stone Age archaeological sites. It is located west of Lake Ziway. In addition to the type-site, which assumes the same name, the formation contains a cluster of sites at Kulkuletti, some 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) away. The near-lake environment and locally available obsidian may have attracted the continuous/repeated occupation of the area by Middle and Late Pleistocene hominins. The Gademotta Formation site-complex was discovered in the early 1970s by a team of researchers under the leadership of Fred Wendorf and Romuald Schild.[1] This team conducted several excavations in 1972 and 1973, recovering tens of thousands of stone artifacts. Renewed research in the Gademotta Formation was encouraged by new techniques that allowed for a more precise 40Ar/39Ar[clarification needed] age of the site published in 2008.[2] An age of over 279,000 years old is published for the oldest Middle Stone Age site in the Formation.[2][3] Although similar in age with the oldest Middle Stone Age site in the Kapthurin Formation, Kenya,[4] the oldest occupation at Gademotta is characterized by technological elements that are exclusively attributable to the Middle Stone Age. Stone-tipped throwing spears of that age have been studied.[3][5] References
|