Kilombe

Kilombe

Kilombe is a large Acheulean hand-axe site in the central Rift Valley of Kenya.  It was found in the 1970s, and its geology investigated by W.B. Jones and WW. Bishop.  Its age is estimated in the range 800,000-1,000,000 years.  Excavations took place under John Gowlett’s direction.

The large numbers of hand-axes allowed study both from excavation and surface collection.  The recorded data can now be studied in new ways (recent papers).

Gowlett, J.A.J. (in press 2006). The elements of design form in Acheulian bifaces: modes, modalities, rules and language.  In: Goren-Inbar, N. and G. Sharon (eds) Axe Age: Acheulian Tool-making from Quarry to Discard. Equinox, London.

Gowlett J.A.J. (2005). Seeking the Palaeolithic Individual in East Africa and Europe during the Lower-Middle Pleistocene.  In: C.S. Gamble, M. Porr (eds.) The hominid individual in context: archaeological investigations of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic landscapes, locales and artefacts. Routledge, London, pp 50-67.

Gowlett, J.A.J.  1999. Lower and Middle Pleistocene archaeology of the Baringo Basin. In: Andrews, P. and Banham, P. (eds) Late Cenozoic environments and hominid evolution: a tribute to Bill Bishop. Geological Society, London, pp 123-141.

Gowlett, J.A.J.  1993. Le site Acheuleen de Kilombe: stratigraphie, geochronologie, habitat et industrie lithique. L'Anthropologie 97 (1), 69-84.6 (2).

Crompton, R.H. and Gowlett, J.A.J. 1993. Allometry and multidimensional form in Acheulean bifaces from Kilombe, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 25, 175-199.

Gowlett, J.A.J. 1991   Kilombe - Review of an Acheulean site complex.  In Clark, J.D. (ed.) Approaches to Understanding Early Hominid life-ways in the African Savanna.Romisch - Germanisches Zentralmuseum Forschungsinstitut fur Vor- und Fruhgeschichte in Verbindung mit der UISSP, 11 Kongress, Mainz, 31 August - 5 September 1987, Monographien Band 19, Dr Rudolf Habelt GMBH, Bonn, pp 129-136.

Gowlett, J.A.J. 1988. A case of Developed Oldowan in the Acheulean ? World Archaeology 20, 1, 13-26. (in JSTOR)

Gowlett, J.A.J.  1985. Kilombe (Kenya). Nyame Akuma 26, 21-22.

Gowlett, J.A.J.  1982. Procedure and form in a Lower Palaeolithic industry: stoneworking at Kilombe, Kenya.  Studia Praehistorica Belgica (D. Cahen, Ed.) Tailler! Pour quoi faire?  Prehistoire et technologie lithique II, 101-110.

Gowlett, J.A.J.  1980. Acheulean sites in the Central Rift Valley, Kenya. In Leakey, R.E. and Ogot, B.A. (eds.) Proceedings of the 8th Panafrican Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Studies, Nairobi,1977. TILLMIAP, Nairobi, pp 213-217.

Gowlett, J.A.J. 1978. Kilombe - an Acheulian site complex in Kenya. In Bishop, W.W. (ed.) Geological background to fossil man. Edinburgh, Scottish Academic Press, pp 337-360.

Pointed biface of trachyte photographed at Kilombe
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