High Risk Research in Anthropology: Testing the Archaeological Potential of the Wasiriya Beds, Rusinga Island, Kenya

Supported by the National Science Foundation, Christian Tryon (New York University), Kieran McNulty (University of Minnesota), and colleagues from the National Museums of Kenya will conduct one season's fieldwork on Rusinga, a small Equatorial island near the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria, investigating archaeological sites first noted by Louis Leakey in the 1930s. Although Rusinga is best known for its important Miocene fossils showing the evolution and diversity of apes some 18 million years ago, the present project is the first systematic research effort to focus on younger deposits on Rusinga (geologically defined as the Wasiriya Beds), likely < 300,000 years old. The Wasiriya Beds contain both fossils of extant and extinct mammals as well as Middle Stone Age artifacts, considered to represent the archaeological and behavioral indications of earliest Homo sapiens. Importantly, although biological (fossil and genetic) evidence supports an eastern African origin for Homo sapiens, the Middle Stone Age archaeological record for this region is sparse, with a particular paucity of sites containing both stone artifacts and associated faunal remains. As a result, behavioral differences that may be a key factor in the evolutionary success and global dispersal of our species cannot yet be tied to the very region where they originated.

The field program will test the feasibility of a long-term multidisciplinary project investigating the behavior and environmental context of early Homo sapiens in the eastern margins of the Lake Victoria basin, where the Wasiriya Beds of Rusinga are one of the few localities preserving both stone artifacts and fossils. Fossil fauna from archaeological sites are important for inferring early human diets and hunting strategies and reconstructing the environments that shaped early human adaptations. Their absence from most eastern African archaeological sites has severely limited the capacity to test alternative models of environmental or cognitive change as the causal factors in the behavioral evolution of Homo sapiens. As a result, field survey of key Wasiriya Beds exposures, controlled test excavations, and radiometric age determinations will (1) target identification of in situ (buried) artifacts and fossils, (2) assess their type and abundance, and (3) determine the stratigraphic relationships of the artifacts and fossils. These basic data, presently lacking, are necessary to determine the potential for prolonged research in the Wasiriya Beds.

The impact of any 'High Risk' research such as this feasibility study is, by definition, dependent on the specific results of the study. If the Wasiriya Beds are found to contain fossil mammals in association with Middle Stone Age artifacts, this will lead to a long-term multidisciplinary research project that has clear broader impacts. First, the archaeological project seeks data to address the fundamental issue of modern human origins and to understand why one African-based population subsequently spread throughout the globe replacing other human groups, such as the Neanderthals, an issue of general public interest. Second, like most paleoanthropological research efforts, this would develop into an interdisciplinary activity drawing upon a wide array of scientific disciplines, including archaeology, paleontology, paleoecology, isotopic chemistry, and geology. Third, the Wasiriya Beds project provides ample scope for training and thesis research for both US and Kenyan graduate students. Finally, it highlights the importance of Kenyan prehistory in global issues and will contribute to the expansion of the National Museums of Kenya on Rusinga Island.