Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene Settlements in West Turkana (Northern Kenya): New Radiocarbon Dates

Lake Turkana in northern Kenya has played a central role in generating archaeological and paleoclimatic datasets relevant to studying key transitions in human prehistory. Generally, despite its rich Plio-Pleistocene hominin fossil record, the later prehistory of the basin, particularly the period between 50 and 10 ka, remains comparatively underexplored. In this paper, we discuss new radiocarbon dates from two recently excavated sites in West Turkana, namely Kokito 01 (GcJh11) and Kokito 02 (GcJh12). The sites span the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene (14–10 ka), a time of substantial ecological and cultural changes globally. Site chronologies are interpreted with reference to fluctuating lake levels during the African Humid Period. Welldated sites from this timespan are scarce in the Turkana Basin, and the new radiocarbon dates are important for establishing human settlement history and associated cultural developments in the region during shifting climatic conditions at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.