| dc.description.abstract | In this study, I explore the Middle Stone Age (MSA) technological and
subsistence adaptive strategies at two Sites in Kenya, Muguruk in Western Kenya,
and Prospect Farm in Kenya's Central Rift Valley. This work is different from two
previous studies at the two sites because of its approach, organization and
treatment of data. Two major studies have been done at the two sites, yet both of
them preoccupied themselves with trench studies, with strong emphasis on time
and space. The reader is led from one time sequence to another, and from one
quantitative result to another. Real activities that might have taken place at the two
sites, is only cursorily probed. In this study I have explored the MSA adaptive
strategies in the vein of the experimenter, adopting a general holistic approach. The
research strategy allows for direct comparisons and contrasts to be made between
the products of the experiments and the excavated materials. This enabled me to
investigate the cognitive and socio - economic conditions of adaptation to lithic
technology as it was done by the inhabitants of Muguruk and Prospect Farm. The
replicated and used stone tools, are compared to those recovered from the two
sites, in order to understand the complexity of the derived behaviour patterns in
MSA stone tool makers. Based on the analysis of wear edges, and patterns on
different tools from Muguruk and Prospect Farm, the Levalois technology appears
quiet adequate to accommodate the notion of fairly skilled tool makers. Several
characteristics of Levalois points, scrapers and knives including standardization of
tool angles and evidence from experimentation with re-sharpening of blunted tool
edges, suggest a portable serviceable tool system. The Levalois technology seem to
have been maintainable and therefore indicative of a versatile approach to
subsistence economy
The results also suggest that: the makers of Muguruk and Prospect Farm
artifacts, belonged to one general tradition and that as much as the people of MSA
were mobile, they also stayed in certain places for longer periods of time or at least
re-used the same places many times over. | en |
