The nature of inter-group relations among prehistoric hunter-gatherers remains disputed, with arguments in favour and against the existence of warfare before the development of sedentary societies. Here we report on a case of inter-group violence towards a group of hunter-gatherers from Nataruk, west of Lake Turkana, which during the late Pleistocene/early Holocene period extended about 30 km beyond its present-day shore. Ten of the twelve articulated skeletons found at Nataruk show evidence of having died violently at the edge of a lagoon, into which some of the bodies fell. The remains from Nataruk are unique, preserved by the particular conditions of the lagoon with no evidence of deliberate burial. They offer a rare glimpse into the life and death of past foraging people, and evidence that warfare was part of the repertoire of inter-group relations among prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Here we report on a case of inter-group violence towards a group of hunter-gatherers from Nataruk, west of Lake Turkana, which during the late Pleistocene/early Holocene period extended about 30 km beyond its present-day shore 3 . Ten of the twelve articulated skeletons found at Nataruk show evidence of having died violently at the edge of a lagoon, into which some of the bodies fell. The remains from Nataruk are unique, preserved by the particular conditions of the lagoon with no evidence of deliberate burial. Press, 2004) Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. The Andaman Islanders: A Study in Social Anthropology (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1922) Schapera, I. The Khoisan peoples of South Africa (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1930) Wright, Q. A Study of War (Univ. Chicago Press, 1942) Keely, L. H. War before Civilization (Oxford Univ. Press, 1996) Wendorf, F. in The Prehistory of Nubia (ed. Wendorf, F. ) Vol. 2 , 954–1040 (Southern Methodist Univ. Press, 1968) Google Scholar Robbins, L. H. The Lothagam Site (Michigan State Univ., 1974) Robbins, L. H. Lake Turkana archaeology: the Holocene. Ethnohistory 53 , 71–93 (2006) Article MathSciNet Google Scholar Beyin, A. Recent archaeological survey and excavation around the Greater Kalakol area, West Side of Lake Turkana: Preliminary Findings. Nyame Akuma 75 , 40–50 (2011) ADS Google Scholar Robbins, L. H. Bone artefacts from the Lake Rudolf Basin, East Africa. Curr. Anthropol. 16 , 632–633 (1975) Article Google Scholar Barthelme, J. W. Fisher-Hunters and Neolithic Pastoralists in East Turkana, Kenya (British Archaeological Reports, 1985) Forman, S. L., Wright, D. K. & Bloszies, C. Variations in water level for Lake Turkana in the past 8500 years near Mt. Porr, Kenya and the transition from the African Humid Period to Holocene aridity. Quat. Sci. Rev. 97 , 84–101 (2014) Article ADS Google Scholar Angel, J. Achyuthan View author publications Search author on: PubMed   Google Scholar A. Wilshaw View author publications Search author on: PubMed   Google Scholar R. A. Foley View author publications Search author on: PubMed   Google Scholar Contributions M.M.L. directed the study and fieldwork; M.M.L., F.R., A.M., A.W., J.E.E., J.L., H.M., D.M.M., A.Mu., B.C., H.A., and R.A.F. participated in the fieldwork and excavations; M.M.L., F.R., J.E.E., J.L., H.M., and D.M.M. excavated the Nataruk skeletons; M.M.L., F.R., R.K.P., A.W., A.L., and K.C. cleaned, prepared, and reconstructed the fossils at the Turkana Basin Institute research laboratories; M.M.L. and R.K.P. did the OSL date; R.G. examined all materials at the Turkana Basin Institute for dating, and did the uranium-series dates; M.M.L. wrote the paper, with contributions from R.A.F., R.G., R.K.P., A.W., E.M., R.W., and J.-L.S. Corresponding authors Correspondence to M. Mirazón Lahr or R. A. Foley . Ethics declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing financial interests. Additional information The human remains from the site of Nataruk are curated for the National Museums of Kenya (KNM-WT 71251-71277) at the Turkwel Station of the Turkana Basin Institute, Kenya. Extended data figures and tables Extended Data Figure 1 Location of Nataruk and distribution of finds within the site. a , Geographical relation of the site of Nataruk to other similarly dated sites in the area and to the reconstructed palaeo-shorelines of Lake Turkana at different extents during the early Holocene transgression (440 m above sea level (a.s.l.), 430 m a.s.l., 420 m a.s.l.), on the basis of SRTM 90 m DEM (version 4.1) (source: CGIAR-CSI, http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org ); background image: hillshade based on SRTM 90 m DEM (version 4.1) (source: CGIAR-CSI, http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org ). d , Geomorphological setting of the site of Nataruk, showing pattern of drainage and the small geological fault to the east; background image: ArcGIS Online Basemap - World Imagery (version 2 October, 2014) (source: Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, i-cubed, USDA, USGS, Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya. Nature 529 , 394–398 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16477 Download citation Received : 31 July 2015 Accepted : 23 November 2015 Published : 20 January 2016 Issue date : 21 January 2016 DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16477 Share this article Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Ten out of twelve skeletons, discovered near what was once a small lagoon, show evidence of having undergone violent deaths. There were no signs of deliberate burial, and several individuals have multiple major traumatic lesions — including an obsidian bladelet embedded in one of the skulls. The authors interpret this assemblage as the aftermath of a violent inter-group encounter that took place some 10,000 years ago on the fertile shores of Lake Turkana. show all Associated content Collection 100 years of Australopithecus Contesting the massacre at Nataruk Christopher M. Stojanowski Andrew C. Seidel Jane E.

Reconstructing hominin paleoecology is critical for understanding our ancestors' diets, social organizations and interactions with other animals. Most paleoecological models lack fine-scale resolution due to fossil hominin scarcity and the time-averaged accumulation of faunal assemblages. Here we present data from 481 fossil tracks from northwestern Kenya, including 97 hominin footprints attributed to Homo erectus. These tracks are found in multiple sedimentary layers spanning approximately 20 thousand years. Taphonomic experiments show that each of these trackways represents minutes to no more than a few days in the lives of the individuals moving across these paleolandscapes. The geology and associated vertebrate fauna place these tracks in a deltaic setting, near a lakeshore bordered by open grasslands. Hominin footprints are disproportionately abundant in this lake margin environment, relative to hominin skeletal fossil frequency in the same deposits. Accounting for preservation bias, this abundance of hominin footprints indicates repeated use of lakeshore habitats by Homo erectus. Clusters of very large prints moving in the same direction further suggest these hominins traversed this lakeshore in multi-male groups. Such reliance on near water environments, and possibly aquatic-linked foods, may have influenced hominin foraging behavior and migratory routes across and out of Africa. Theories regarding how global climate change affects local environmental conditions and alters hominin land use and behavior feature prominently in paleoanthropology 1 2 3 4 . Unfortunately, the fossil record typically lacks the precision to address questions of hominin paleoecology at fine temporal and spatial scales because fossil assemblages comingle remains from many thousands of years and multiple habitats. Such issues of scale make it difficult to separate biological variation within a single habitat from variation across neighboring or consecutive habitats. Typically, tracks were infilled by fine or silty sand prior to deposition of the following silt layer. In some cases this depositional couplet was repeated multiple times. No soil development or root traces occur within the footprint layers, showing these surfaces were quickly buried after the tracks were emplaced. Taphonomic experiments conducted on modern human footprints made on muds along the shores of Lake Turkana show that on average human footprints retain fine detail for 1.3 days ( Fig. 3 ), consistent with data from non-hominin fauna in similar environments 8 . Higher abundances of fossils from browsing bovids collected from contemporaneous ITC deposits approximately 5 km further away from the paleolake indicate a transition to mixed grasslands/shrublands ( Supplementary Note 2 ). Similar conditions are found today bordering modern Lake Turkana, where a zone affected by the high water table of the present-day lake excludes woody rooted trees and brush, allowing only water-adapted grasses and sedges to survive. Avian tracks are common (N = 29) and consistent with a lakeshore bordered by a grassland environment. This could result in a spatial and environmental bias in the footprint record compared with the skeletal fossil material from the ITC, which was preserved in depositional environments with varying proximity to the lake margin. However, most of the skeletal fossils preserved in the ITC also are from rapidly deposited lithofacies associated with fluvial and deltaic processes. All of the taxa in question were highly mobile and thus should fairly represent the faunal community that had access to lake margin environments. We have attempted to adjust for repeated printing in our analyses (by correcting for number of track making limbs per individual, estimated stride length, body mass). However, each of these corrections increased relative hominin abundance in our dataset (e.g. an individual bovid makes four tracks per stride compared with the two per stride made by a hominin). We have conservatively chosen to use the Near-water microhabitats may have had a strong selective role in altering the behavior and evolution of H. erectus. Although our fossil survey findings and previous faunal analyses indicate that Homo was commonly associated with grassland habitats 36 , finer scale ecological data presented here suggest that at 1.5 Ma in the northern Turkana Basin at least some of these grasslands were near water and likely edaphic 36 . Further, oxygen isotope data collected from H. erectus teeth show lower δ 18 O values than earlier Homo , consistent with better-watered habitat and food 37 . Methods Taphonomic experiments To assess the durability and unique preservational conditions of the Ileret fossil tracks, five unshod modern human subjects created footprints (N = 118) on the moist, sub-aerial and shallow water-covered silty muds along the shores of Lake Turkana. The experimental tracks were photographed, measured and their shape parameters were recorded every 6–12 hours over the first 3–7 days following emplacement. Sporadic assessment of remaining tracks occurred for up to 30 days. Tracks were classified as either high definition (ridges between the toes present; Day 0 & 1), recognizable (outline visible, identifiable as a human print; Day 2) or absent ( Fig. 3B ). Hominins are abundant in both the track excavations (right) and random test squares (center) relative to their scarcity in the skeletal fossil record (left) from the same strata (data in Supplementary Note 6 ; asterisk = 0.0005 > P > 0.00009). Based on these samples, hominin print prevalence indicates frequent and repeated use of lake margin habitats. Figure 5 Random sampling of test square locations. Large grid squares (500 m 2 ; SQ#) divide the collection areas (bounded in red). Smaller numbered squares overlay exposed Okote Mb. deposits and were used to assemble a sample of unbiased sites. Random numbers were generated in proportion to the number of Okote Mb.

The Omo-Turkana Basin, including the hominin fossil sites around Lake Turkana and the sites along the lower reaches of the Omo River, has made and continues to make an important contribution to improving our murky understanding of human evolution. This review highlights the various ways the Omo-Turkana Basin fossil record has contributed to, and continues to challenge, interpretations of human evolution. Despite many diagrams that look suspiciously like comprehensive hypotheses about human evolutionary history, any sensible paleoanthropologist knows that the early hominin fossil record is too meager to do anything other than offer very provisional statements about hominin taxonomy and phylogeny. If history tells us anything, it is that we still have much to learn about the hominin clade. Thus, we summarize the current state of knowledge of the hominin species represented at the Omo-Turkana Basin sites. We then focus on three specific topics for which the fossil evidence is especially relevant: the origin and nature of Paranthropus; the origin and nature of early Homo; and the ongoing debate about whether the pattern of human evolution is more consistent with speciation by cladogenesis, with greater taxonomic diversity or with speciation by anagenetic transformation, resulting in less taxonomic diversity and a more linear interpretation of human evolutionary history.

Koobi Fora Koobi Fora is a region around Koobi Fora Ridge, on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana, Kenya. It is in the territory of the nomadic Gabbra people.[1] The term East Turkana can be used for the whole area.[2] The ridge is an outcrop of mainly Pliocene/Pleistocene sediments. It is composed of claystones, siltstones, and sandstones that preserve numerous fossils of land mammals, including early hominin species. The ridge is being eroded into a badlands terrain by a series of ephemeral rivers that drain into the northeast portion of modern Lake Turkana. In 1968 Richard Leakey established the Koobi Fora Base Camp on a large sandspit projecting into the lake near the ridge, which he called the Koobi Fora Spit. A survey and numerous excavations showed the region was a source of hominin fossils from the last 4.2 million years. Far exceeding the number of humanoid fossils are the non-humanoid fossils, which give us a look at the fauna and flora as far back as the Miocene. In 1973, the government of Kenya reserved the region as Sibiloi National Park, establishing a headquarters for the National Museums of Kenya on Koobi Fora Spit. Koobi Fora refers primarily to a region around Koobi Fora Ridge, located on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana in the territory of the nomadic Gabbra people. According to the National Museums of Kenya, the name comes from the Gabbra language: The ridge itself is an outcrop of mainly Pliocene/Pleistocene sediments. It is composed of claystones, siltstones, and sandstones that preserve numerous fossils of terrestrial mammals, including early hominin species. Presently, the ridge is being eroded into a badlands terrain by a series of ephemeral rivers that drain into the northeast portion of modern Lake Turkana. In 1968 Richard Leakey established the Koobi Fora Base Camp on a large sandspit projecting into the lake near the ridge, which he called the Koobi Fora Spit. Consequently, the government of Kenya in 1973 reserved the region as Sibiloi National Park, establishing a headquarters for the National Museums of Kenya on Koobi Fora Spit. The reserve is well-maintained and is well-guarded by friendly but armed park police. Protection of sites and especially of wildlife are of prime concern. Exploration and excavation continue under the auspices of the Koobi Fora Research Project (KFRP), which collaborates with a number of interested universities and individuals across the world. Formerly the term Koobi Fora has been used to mean one or two initial sites, or the sand spit. Today it can mean any or all points in Sibiloi National Park. The term East Turkana also has come into use with the larger meaning. Fossils are labelled with a KNM (Kenya National Museums) accession number, assigned on no other basis than the order in which it was assigned. The number may be preceded in scholarly literature by KNM, KNM-ET or KNM-ER, where ET and ER stand for East Turkana and East Rudolf, respectively, or just plain ER. Some notable areas are as follows. Area 131 Known as the location of Skull 1470, which was discovered by Bernard Ngeneo in 1972, reconstructed by Meave Leakey, and later reconstructed and named Homo habilis by Richard Leakey as possibly the first of the genus Homo. Then Homo rudolfensis was found by Richard Leakey below the 1.89 million year old KBS tuff; thus, it is older than that date, but is conventionally dated to it. Searching for and finding fossils in such a large area is difficult. One solution has been to organise all persons present into a group to sweep a designated area. Richard Leakey devised a method that produced better results: he organised and trained a search team of Kenyans, which became known as "the hominid gang", under the leadership of Kamoya Kimeu—"hominid" was then the term used for the present-day meaning of "hominin". They found the majority of the 200-plus hominin fossils discovered to date. Koobi Fora is perhaps best known for its specimens of the genus Homo, but those of the genus Australopithecus also have been found. The following species are represented:

New Australopithecus boisei specimens from east and west Lake Turkana, Kenya. New specimens of Plio-Pleistocene Australopithecus boisei are described from east and west Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya. These include a cranium and partial mandible from deposits close to 2.5 Myr and two partial crania and two mandibles from later horizons. The earlier fossils enable us to decipher, for the first time, some of the in situ evolution of this species within the Turkana Basin. The following are among the important changes in the cranium through time: 1) increase in size and change in shape of the braincase, 2) changes in the meningeal vessel pattern and possibly in the venous drainage pattern, 3) increased flexion of the cranial base and decreased prognathism, and 4) changes in the temporal bone to bring about a more vertical posterior face of the petrous pyramid and the development of a strong articular eminence. Published in American journal of physical anthropology (1988)

anemensis had about the same diet as a modern gorilla. Their diet stayed the same regardless of what environment they lived in.[16] A. anamensis mostly ate plants, including both fruits and tougher foods like nuts.[11][17] Fossils First specimen The first fossilized specimen of the species, though not recognized as such at the time, was a single arm bone. It was found in Pliocene strata in the Kanapoi region of East Lake Turkana by a Harvard University research team in 1965. The specimen was tentatively assigned at the time to Australopithecus and dated about four million years old. 1987 specimen Little additional information was uncovered until 1987, when Canadian archaeologist Allan Morton (with Harvard University's Koobi Fora Field School) discovered fragments of a specimen sticking out of a hillside east of Allia Bay, near Lake Turkana, Kenya.