jump to the content
Recherche avancée

Great Rift Valley Ecosystem

Les noms des biens figurent dans la langue dans laquelle les Etats parties les ont soumis.

Kenya (Afrique)

Date de soumission : 09/11/2001
Critères:
Catégorie : Mixte
Soumission préparée par :
National Museums of Kenya - Office of the Director General
Coordonnées
a) Koobi Fora 36°06'E, 03°55'N b) Olorgessailie 30°06' E, 00°17°N c) Hyrax Hill 1°35'E, 36°26'N …etc (see in notes)
Ref.: 1580

Thèmes

  • Paysages culturels

Description

a) Koobi-Fora - This cultural landscape comprises approximately 700 square miles of fluvial and lacustrine sediments representing a broadly continuous sequence of deposition from the Pliocene (4.0 million) to the Middle Pliestocene (0.7 million) years old. The greatest body of evidence for early hominid development has been obtained from this cultural landscape and range in age from 4.0 million years (Australopithecus anamensis) to 1.4 million years ago (Homo erectus). Artefact sites are dated from 2.0 million years to 1.3 million years. Fossil pollen has provided unparallel information on ancient floras in the region.

b) Olorgesailie - This cultural landscape is characterized by in-situ displays of prehistoric materials, including numerous stone hand axes representing one of the oldest forms of human technology and fossilized skeletons of extinct species of elephant and hippopotamus. It is one of the most intensively studied cultural landscape in the Rift Valley outside Olduvai Gorge and it preserves a fairly long record of how hominids for a million years shifted their land-use activities in response to changing climates. The Olorgesailie Formation is divided into 14 members

distinguished on the basis of lithology and stratigraphic position and ranges from approximately 1.07 and 0.50 million years.

c) Hyrax Hill - This site has evidence of a Neolithic occupation, a cemetery together with stone walled enclosures. The other faunal and cultural remains that were found in the site were domestic sheep, oxen skeletal parts, and pottery with spouts and handles.

d) Kariandusi - This is a Lower Paleolithic site and possibly the first Acheulian factory site to be found in situ in East Africa. It has a time range of about 0.7 to 1.0 million years, Lower Pleistocene Age.

e) Lothagam - This cultural landscape has been proposed for nomination to the UNESCO Geo-site and Geo-parks List. It has a unique geological sequence and is known for its scenic beauty. Evidence of hominids and hominoids ranging from 7 - 3.2 million years Late Miocene to Early and Mid Pliocene have been found at this cultural landscape. It also preserves a long record of African mammalian species ancestors to both extinct and extant forms. f) Kanapoi

- This is also a cultural landscape, which has yielded the remains of an early human ancestor, Australopithecus anamensis which, is dated between 4.2 - 4.1 million years in age.

West Turkana - This is a cultural landscape ranging in age from 4.0 million to 0.7 million years ago. It preserves records of hominid cultural change over nearly 2 5 million years including the oldest workshop site where over 150 flaked cores have been re-fitted to their original form before they were struck by hominids. This gives the present humanity insight into the intelligence of early ancestors. Nariokotome, the site where the most complete skeleton of Homo erectus has been found, is also located in this cultural landscape. Other fossils found here include the remains of Australopithecus boisei, Homo habilis and Archaic Homo sapiens. This landscape has also yielded the world's most complete skeleton of Homo erectus. The type specimen of Kenyanthropus platyops, the sister species of "Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) and dated between 3.5 -3.2 comes from this cultural landscape.

g) Tugen Hills - This is a cultural landscape in the northern Kenya Rift Valley and preserves a long succession of fossiliferous sediments ranging in age from 10 million to Recent. These sediments provide the opportunity to investigate the pattern of Neogene faunal change in details not well documented else where in the sub-Saharan Africa. It is the type of site of the 6.0 million year old hominid ancestor Orrorin tugenensis which is the most likely ancestors of the African Apes and early hominids.