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TheSavanna Pastoral Neolithic (SPN; formerly known as theStone Bowl Culture) is a collection of ancient societies that appeared in theRift Valley ofEast Africa and surrounding areas during a time period known as thePastoral Neolithic. They wereSouth Cushitic speakingpastoralists who tended to bury their dead incairns, whilst their toolkit was characterized by stone bowls, pestles, grindstones and earthenware pots.[1]
Through archaeology,historical linguistics andarchaeogenetics, they conventionally have been identified with the area's firstAfroasiatic-speaking settlers. Archaeological dating of livestock bones and burial cairns has also established the cultural complex as the earliest centre of pastoralism and stone construction in the region.
The makers of the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic culture are believed to have arrived in the Rift Valley sometime during the Pastoral Neolithic period (c. 3,000 BC-700 AD). Through a series of migrations fromHorn of Africa, these earlyCushitic-speaking pastoralists broughtcattle andcaprines southward from theSudan and/orEthiopia into northernKenya, probably usingdonkeys for transportation.[2] According to archaeological dating of associated artifacts and skeletal material, they first settled in the lowlands of Kenya between 5,200 and 3,300 ybp, a phase referred to as theLowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic. They subsequently spread to the highlands of Kenya andTanzania around 3,300 ybp, which is consequently known as theHighland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic phase.[1][3]
Excavations in the area indicate that the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic peoples were primarily cattle pastoralists.[1] They milked this livestock, and also possessedgoats,sheep, and donkeys.[4] They typically buried their deceased incairns. Their toolkit was characterized by a blade and bladelet-basedlithic industry,[5]earthenware pots, stonebowls andpestles, and occasionalgrindstones.[6] The Savanna Pastoral Neolithic peoples sometimes hunted medium and large game on the plains,[1] and during the culture's lowland phase, they likewise fished inLake Turkana.[1]
Sonia Mary Cole (1954) indicates that certain pestles and grindstones that she excavated from ochreous levels were stained withochre, while others from the carbonized layers were not. She consequently suggests that the latter were instead used for grindinggrain.[7] Other scholars have argued that there is no direct archaeological evidence that SPN peoples cultivated grains or other plant domesticates.[8]
Although detailed information on this segment of Africanprehistory is not abundant, data so far available reveal a succession of cultural transformations within the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic. The transformations seem to have been fostered by both environmental change and population movements.[9] Among these changes was the apparent abandonment of the stone bowls at around 1,300 years before present.[10]
Ancient DNA analysis of a Savanna Pastoral Neolithic bone excavated at theLuxmanda site in Tanzania found that the specimen carried a large proportion of ancestry related to thePre-Pottery Neolithic culture of theLevant, similar to that borne by modernAfroasiatic-speaking populations inhabiting theHorn of Africa. This suggests that the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic culture bearers may have beenCushitic speakers.[11] Further research has shown that the Pastoral Neolithic people, supported the previously identified three-component model: Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Levantine groups, Stone Age East African foragers, and individuals related to present-dayDinka.[12][13]
The SPN peoples are believed to have spoken languages from theSouth Cushitic branch of theAfroasiatic.[1][14] According toChristopher Ehret, linguistic research suggests that these Savanna Pastoral Neolithic populations were the first Afroasiatic speakers to settle in the Central Rift Valley and surrounding areas. The region was at the time of their arrival inhabited byKhoisan hunter-gatherers who spokeKhoisan languages and practiced anEburran blade industry.[3] Recent genetic analysis of ancient remains has proven that the population of the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic were also responsible for the pastoralistElmenteitan culture that lived in the Rift Valley during the same period.[15]
The linguistic chronology of the historic population movements into the Central Rift Valley as well as the present and past distribution of Afro-Asiatic speakers further suggests that SPN peoples likely spokeSouth Cushitic languages.[1] Ehret (1998) proposes that among these idioms were the now extinct Tale and Bisha languages, which were identified on the basis ofloanwords.[16] These early Cushitic speakers in the region largely disappeared following theBantu Expansion.[2]
The Savanna Pastoral Neolithic culture was initially distributed at elevations below 1100 m in lowland northern Kenya (Lowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic). Its range later extended to the highlands between central Kenya and northernTanzania, at elevations above 1,500 m (Highland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic). The preferred settlement location for SPN sites was open wooded grassland on well-drained, gentle slopes of between 1,500 m to 2,050 m.[1]
The Savanna Pastoral Neolithic makers' characteristic stone bowls have been recovered from their occupation sites andburial cairns.[1]
Their material culture was typified by several pottery styles, up to three of which may be found at a single site. Early SPN herders in theTurkana Basin produced nderit pottery (previously known as Gumban A). The most diagnostic SPN pottery farther south isNarosura pottery, and some scholars group Akira (TIP), Maringishu (trellis motif), and herringbone-motif wares in with the SPN as well.[1]
Regarding funerary tradition, the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic peoples erected stone cairns in open spaces, rock shelters, crevices or against walls. The deceased were buried with several items, including stone bowls, pestle rubbers and ochre palettes. Largeobsidian blades and other tools were occasionally among the mortuary objects.Incisor removal was not a common feature of this population.[1]
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