TRANSPORT AND SUBSISTENCE PATTERNS AT THE TRANSITION TO PASTORALISM,KOOBI FORA,KENYA

The Turkana Basin in Kenya has an extensive record of Holocene activities relating to mobility and economy of foraging and herding communities. Obsidian is only known from a few key localities in northern Kenya. As such, the use of obsidian as a toolstone material, commonly used during the mid‐Holocene, provides one way to trace exchange, interaction and population movements during the transition to pastoralism. We employ X‐ray fluorescence to characterize obsidian artefacts from four Pastoral Neolithic assemblages. Data reveal a highly mobile and diversified population that used watercraft to access and transport obsidian resources. Specifically, the use of the North Island obsidian source in Lake Turkana indicates that boat use was significant during this transitional period. The incorporation of watercraft transport and aquatic resources in our analyses of Pastoral Neolithic sites affords a greater understanding of subsistence, mobility and economy in this important period in East African prehistory.