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Archaeological Perspectives on Risk and Community Resilience in the Baringo Lowlands, Kenya

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Archaeological Perspectives on Risk and Community Resilience in the Baringo Lowlands, Kenya Studies in Global Archaeology 24 Cover photos © Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (B&W photo); Wilson Tiren (colour photo) Archaeological Perspectives on Risk and Community Resilience in the Baringo Lowlands, Kenya Nik Petek Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Sweden 2018 Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Humanistiska teatern, Engelska parken, Thunbergsvägen 3H, Uppsala, Monday, 11 June 2018 at 13:00 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Dr. Matthew Davies (University College London). Abstract Petek, N. 2018. Archaeological Perspectives on Risk and Community Resilience in the Baringo Lowlands, Kenya. Studies in Global Archaeology 24. 294 pp. Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University. ISBN 978-91-506-2701-5. This historical ecological research provides a detailed insight into the risk avoidance and resilience building strategies in the Lake Baringo basin in Kenya through the lens of archaeology. It explores how changes in subsistence, habitation, and landscape shaped each other and how that affected the available strategies of risk avoidance and resilience building. While the focus is on the history and archaeology of the Ilchamus, a Maa community currently occupying the area, the research additionally investigated the late Holocene of the Baringo lowlands to provide a basis for the discussion on risk and resilience. A combination of remote sensing, foot surveys, excavation, and spatial statistic methods establishes a culture history for the region, showing that the Lake Baringo basin has been part of the pastoralist cultural sphere for the past three millennia and that the Rift Valley bottom possibly acted as a frontier between different archaeological cultures. By the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th century the area was occupied by Ilchamus. They established densely aggregated settlements and a vast irrigation system in order to enmesh themselves into the local, regional, and global exchange system. Through the exchange system, they would ensure their ‘social survival’ and build social contracts as part of their resilience building strategies, which continued to be practiced even as the Ilchamus subsistence and habitation practices as well as the political situation changed. However, as archaeological assemblages and ethnoarchaeological and historical data show, throughout their 200-year history community conformity and consolidation were central forces in the formation of an Ilchamus identity and a strong community resilience. The environmental degradation of the Lake Baringo area has been the subject of studies for almost a century with the subsistence practices of the local communities seen as a key cause for it. This research moves beyond blame but instead explores the options available and choices taken by the Ilchamus community in specific environmental and political contexts. I hope that this thesis provides some insights into new avenues of exploration of how we can develop and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities, such as Ilchamus. Keywords: Risk spiral, community resilience, archaeology, pastoralism, Baringo, Kenya, history, Ilchamus, Njemps, spatial statistics, East Africa, Holocene, environment, environmental degradation, colonialism, ethnogenesis, community conformity, survey, remote sensing, habitation, subsistence Nik Petek, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Box 626, Uppsala University, SE-75126 Uppsala, Sweden. © Nik Petek 2018 ISSN 1651-1255 ISBN 978-91-506-2701-5 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-349027 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-349027) To Emily, my family, and friends who supported me through my years as a student and sacrificed so much. In return you get this book… Contents 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research contribution .............................................................................................................. 4 1.2 Baringo and its inhabitants ...................................................................................................... 7 1.2.1 Climate ............................................................................................................................ 7 1.2.2 Geology ........................................................................................................................... 8 1.2.3 Flora and Fauna ............................................................................................................... 9 1.2.4 Ilchamus and other communities ................................................................................... 10 1.3 Previous research ................................................................................................................... 14 1.3.1 Other research in Baringo .............................................................................................. 14 1.3.2 Archaeological research in Baringo .............................................................................. 18 1.3.3 Archaeology, the environment and sustainability ......................................................... 19 1.4 Contextualisation and thesis outline ...................................................................................... 20 2 Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 24 2.1 Recording of boma features ................................................................................................... 24 2.2 Survey and Shovel-Test-Pitting ............................................................................................. 25 2.3 Excavation ............................................................................................................................. 26 2.4 Environmental sampling ........................................................................................................ 27 2.5 Flotation and macro plant remains ........................................................................................ 28 2.6 Interviews .............................................................................................................................. 28 2.7 Finds recording ...................................................................................................................... 29 2.8 Faunal analysis ...................................................................................................................... 33 2.9 Introduction to the statistical analyses ................................................................................... 34 3 Survey of the southern Baringo lowlands - results ........................................................................ 38 3.1 Background to the remote sensing and foot survey ............................................................... 38 3.2 The nature of the survey and potential biases ........................................................................ 39 3.3 Survey issues ......................................................................................................................... 39 3.4 Results ................................................................................................................................... 40 3.4.1 Artefact scatters ............................................................................................................. 40 3.4.2 Surveying bomas ........................................................................................................... 53 3.5 The archaeological sites of Baringo ...................................................................................... 59 3.5.1 Kiserian 1 (KIS1) .......................................................................................................... 59 3.5.2 Lorrok 1 (LOR1) ........................................................................................................... 59 3.5.3 Lorrok 2 (LOR2) ........................................................................................................... 63 3.5.4 Lorrok 3 (LOR 3) .......................................................................................................... 65 3.5.5 Lorrok 4 (LOR4) ........................................................................................................... 65 3.5.6 Oltioki (OLT) ................................................................................................................ 68 3.5.7 Sokotei 1 (SOK1) .......................................................................................................... 73 3.5.8 Sokotei 2 (SOK2) .......................................................................................................... 78 3.5.9 Sokotei 3 (SOK3) .......................................................................................................... 83 3.5.10 Sokotei 4 (SOK4) .......................................................................................................... 89 3.5.11 Sokotei 5 (SOK5) .......................................................................................................... 94 3.5.12 Sokotei 6 (SOK6) .......................................................................................................... 99 3.5.13 Sokotei 7 (SOK7) .......................................................................................................
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