Massive monumental cemetery built by Eastern Africa's earliest herders discovered in Kenya
Monday, August 20, 2018 - 17:20
in Paleontology & Archaeology
An international team has found the earliest and largest monumental cemetery in eastern Africa. The Lothagam North Pillar Site was built 5,000 years ago by early pastoralists living around Lake Turkana, Kenya. This group is believed to have had an egalitarian society, without a stratified social hierarchy. Thus their construction of such a large public project contradicts long-standing narratives that a stratified social structure is necessary to enable the construction of large public monuments.