Elmenteitan

A Pastoral Neolithic stone industry of early East Africa in a restricted area on the west side of the central Rift Valley in Kenya. Typical artifact assemblages include large double-edged obsidian blades, plain pottery bowls, and shallow stone vessels. Domestic cattle and small stock were herded. The dead were cremated, as at the mass-burial site at Njoro River Cave (c 1000 BC), one of the earliest Elmenteitan sites. The industry continued into the 1st millennium AD. The name also applies to the Pastoral Neolithic and Iron Age pottery tradition associated with the stone artifacts.

A Neolithic industry which occurs in a restricted, well-watered highland area on the west side of the central Rift Valley in Kenya. Typical artefact assemblages include large double-edged obsidian blades, plain pottery bowls and shallow stone vessels of unknown function. Domestic cattle and small stock were herded; it is not yet known whether cereal agriculture was also practised. The dead were cremated, as at the mass-burial site at Njoro River Cave. The latter, dated to clOOO be, appears to be one of the earliest Elmenteitan sites; but the industry continued into the 1st millennium ad. The Elmenteitan is best regarded as a localized and specialized facies of the Pastoral Neolithic complex of East Africa.