Elmenteitan
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| Alternative names | Elmenteitan Culture |
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| Geographical range | Kenya, Africa |
| Period | Mesolithic, Neolithic |
| Dates | before 1,300 BP |
| Type site | Gamble's Cave |
| Major sites | Gamble's Cave, Ngamuriak, Gogo Falls, Njoro River Cave |
| Preceded by | Kenya Stillbay, Highland Savanna PN |
| Followed by | Kenya Wilton |
The Elmenteitan culture was a prehistoric lithic industry and pottery tradition with a distinct pattern of land use, hunting and pastoral practice that appeared and developed on the western plains of Kenya, East Africa during the Mesolithic. It was named by archaeologist Louis Leakey after Lake Elmenteita (also Elementaita), a soda lake located in the Great Rift Valley, about 120 km (75 mi) northwest of Nairobi.
The Elmenteitan was first described by Louis Leakey from excavations at Gamble's Cave (the type site) in 1931 and Njoro River Cave in 1938. Leakey had noticed a locally distinct cluster of the lithic industry and a universal pottery tradition in a restricted area on the plains west of the central Great Rift Valley and at the Mau Escarpment. At Elmenteitan sites, many tool types are present that were common during the Aurignacian, but the Elmenteitan is distinguished by a high percentage of long symmetrical two-edged obsidian blades which were used unmodified and also served as blanks for a great variety of smaller tools.
Since the late Neolithic increasing food-production, animal domestication and mortuary rituals are documented. Progress, growth and continuity is related to wetter periods of more precipitation, resulting from fluctuations and retreating ice sheets.
Typical object and artifact assemblages include large double-edged obsidian microliths and blades, ceramic bowls and shallow stone vessels. Domestic cattle and small stock was raised and herded in combination with hunting, fishing and foraging. Patterns and degree of subsistence economy varied greatly depending on location and local and temporal climate. Unlike earlier and neighboring contemporary cultures, such as the Highland Savanna PN, regular cremation of the dead took place in caves (e.g. Egerton Cave, Keringet Caves). Njoro River Cave, first excavated in 1938 by Mary Leakey, served as a mass-burial site. Associated finds include beads, blades, stone bowls, palettes and pottery vessels, finds that are interpreted as evidence for a certain form of burial ritual. All Elmenteitan excavation sites are associated with potsherds where pottery was fully developed. Ceramic vessels are mainly undecorated. Several rare, but very distinctive ornamental designs such as irregular punctuation and rim millings were also found. Occasionally small bowls with out-turned rims, handles with holes or horizontal lugs were discovered.
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