Olorgesailie Prehistoric Site

 With great success, the Prehistory Club has organized two different excursions to Olorgesailie Prehistoric site, which were guided by Dr. Rick Potts of the Smithsonian Institution. In attendance during the first excursion were over 120 Club members, including students from Moi University and Nairobi University. The second excursion whose target was high school students was attended by over 100 students from Nairobi School and Moi Girls' School Nairobi, and few other Prehistory Club members. During the two excursions, Dr Potts talked about research at Olorgesailie. It is of note that the second excursion took place one day after the first hominid (Homo erectus) from Olorgesailie had been published. This being the first hominid since investigations at the site started in the 1940s, Dr. Potts ecstatically treated the audience with the history on the search for the makers of the thousands of handaxes at the site.

Located in Kajiado District (Rift Valley Province), Olorgesailie is an ancient lake basin eroded today by wind and rain over a wide area. From its arid gullies and plains, a wealth of scientific evidence has been discovered regarding past environments and early human life. The body of evidence includes abundant stone artifacts, animal and plant fossils and a geological history of habitat change. The Olorgesailie area offers the most important record in the world concerning early human activity, animal populations, vegetation and climate change over the past 1 million years. The region is an invaluable scientific and educational resource for present and future generations of students, families and tourists. It represents one of the National Museums of Kenya's’ best opportunities for encouraging Kenyans and foreign visitors to learn about the nation’s rich natural heritage.

 About 1 million years ago, a large volcanic eruption sealed off a major river drainage in the southern Kenya rift valley. As a result, Olorgesailie became a lake basin, which is indicated by the large accumulation of lake sediments throughout the area. Over time the lake expanded, contracted and sometimes disappeared altogether.  Around 200,000 ago faulting and land uplift emptied the basin of lake water. Erosion has overtime uncovered a great abundance of human artifacts and fossil animals and plants.

Since 1985, Olorgesailie has been a focus for research conducted under an international  agreement between the NMK and the Smithsonian Institution in USA. This collaboration has resulted in many excavations, surveys and geological studies that establish Olorgesailie as one of the most important early sites in Kenya and world-wide. Although still in progress, this research has provided important scientific development such as

·                    Precise dating of environment change in the southern Kenyan Rift Valley

·                    Recovery of a large sample of fossil animals, representing the best available record of when and how East African communities of modern mammal species first evolved, which is important to conservation biology

·                    New excavation methods which help in understanding the history of use of past landscapes by early humans and how they adapted to environmental change.

All collections obtained by excavation and field records from the Olorgesailie research are housed at the NMK, Nairobi where they are available for study by Kenyan students and scientists as well as by visiting researchers.

The main area that contains national antiquities (prehistoric sites?) includes the Legemunge and Oltepesi Plains, the nearby Ol Keju Nyiro River and the Southern flack of Mount Olorgesailie. This area is approximately 15 square kilometers. A small area of this land is occupied by the Olorgesailie Prehistoric site which is under the care of the NMK. The large concentration of stone handaxes, representing one of the oldest forms of human technology, has attracted visitors to Olorgesailie since the 1940s. In the early 1960s, a formal Museum was built  which included a visitor path for viewing the archaeological heritage of this site. With the assistance of the Smithsonian Institution (USA), the Olorgesailie Museum and the visitors' trail were rebuilt in 1994, and have began to attract a wider enthusiastic audience of students and other visitors.

Olorgesailie is located along one of the last major roads leading out of Nairobi  that has yet to be converted significantly by commercial development. The pace of change over the past ten years indicates however that Olorgesailie will likely be consumed by construction and development within the next decade. This will cause irreparable loss to the natural heritage and antiquities of Olorgesailie beyond the small area of the Site Museum compound. The latter area provides an adequate visitors path but represents only a small fraction of the currently exposed terrain preserving valuable artifacts, fossils and data concerning Kenya’s prehistory.

The scientists involved in the ongoing work at Olorgesailie have established good relationship with the local people (Maasai) who use the area for grazing and moving livestock. Beginning in 1988, the NMK became aware that the area of greatest scientific and educational interest has been divided and purchased.  It is now the case that all the land outside the Site Museum compound is owned by someone. Under the conditions of the excavation permit (issued annually) the land owners can prevent the NMK from recovering antiquities of their property.

Protection of the Olorgesailie Area

There are compelling reasons to set aside the Olorgesailie area beyond the Site Museum itself, for conservation and protection of the National Museums. Olorgesailie preserves an unparalleled archive of ancient human technology and activities representing the past 1 million years. Equally unparalleled is its records of changing climates and geological events over the same period.  The research program currently established at Olorgesailie is the first project anywhere designed to relate past environmental change and the origin of mankind. Current research at Olorgesailie science stimulates significant new discoveries.  The Olorgesailie region thus represents a unique prehistoric site that should be made available to Kenyan students, the public and scientists to visit and study for many decades to come.

Information about Olorgesailie courtesy of Dr. Rick Potts, Smithsonian Institution, USA