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Lake-level changes and hominin occupations in the arid Turkana basin during volcanic closure of the Omo River outflows to the Indian Ocean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2018

Xavier Boës ,
Sandrine Prat ,
Vincent Arrighi ,
Craig Feibel ,
Bereket Haileab ,
Jason Lewis  and
Sonia Harmand
Xavier Boës*
Affiliation:
French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, 12 Rue Louis Maggiorini, 69500 Lyon-Bron, France CNRS/MNHN/Sorbonne Universités, UMR 7194, Musée de l’Homme, Palais Chaillot, 17 Place du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris Cedex 16, France
Sandrine Prat
Affiliation:
CNRS/MNHN/Sorbonne Universités, UMR 7194, Musée de l’Homme, Palais Chaillot, 17 Place du Trocadéro, 75116 Paris Cedex 16, France
Vincent Arrighi
Affiliation:
French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, 13 rue du Négoce, 31650 Saint-Orens-de-Gameville, France
Craig Feibel
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA Department of Anthropology and Center for Human Evolutionary Studies, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901, USA
Bereket Haileab
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Carleton College, Northfield, MN 55057, USA
Jason Lewis
Affiliation:
Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-4364, USA
Sonia Harmand
Affiliation:
Turkana Basin Institute, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-4364, USA CNRS, UMR 7055, Préhistoire et Technologie, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, 21 allée de l’Université, 92023 Nanterre, France
*
*Corresponding author at: French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, 12 Rue Louis Maggiorini, 69500 Lyon-Bron, France. E-mail address: xavier.boes@inrap.fr (X. Boës).
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Abstract

In the East African Rift, the western margin of Lake Turkana (northern Kenya) exposes Mio-Plio-Pleistocene lake sediments with dated volcanic horizons constraining basin dynamics at the astronomical time scale. Since the late Pliocene, coastal archaeological sites have formed within the lacustrine dynamics. Here, lake levels are reconstructed from 2.4 to 1.7 Ma using sedimentary facies and water/depth-controlled sediment association. The lacustrine stratigraphy is measured with a total station, and cyclostratigraphy is derived from tephrochronology. The water depths are evaluated from paleochemical properties of lake sediments analyzed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Our reconstruction highlights that Lake Turkana rose during 100 ka insolation/eccentricity maxima periods in response to higher monsoonal inputs of the Omo River. However, Lake Turkana also expanded through an insolation minimum at 2.17–1.95 Ma. This asynchronous lake phase coincides with volcanic closure of the Omo River and Lake Turkana outflow sill to the east and the Indian Ocean. An archaeological hiatus occurs during this endorheic lake phase, and alkalinity increases at the beginning of the hiatus. The lake rose again during insolation/eccentricity maxima at 1.9–1.7 Ma, and a new outflow sill opened to the west and the Nile basin. Hominin coastal occupations return during this exorheic/freshwater lake phase.

Keywords

Early PleistoceneLake TurkanaWest TurkanaOmo Group depositsNachukui Formationpaleolakeseccentricityhominin evolution
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 91 , Issue 2 , March 2019 , pp. 892 - 909
Copyright
Copyright © University of Washington. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2018 

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