Hyrax Hill
| Hyrax Hill | |
|---|---|
 Hyrax Hill Site
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| Location | Kenya |
| Coordinates | 0°16′56″N 36°6′14″E / 0.28222°N 36.10389°ECoordinates: 0°16′56″N 36°6′14″E / 0.28222°N 36.10389°E |
| Region | Nakuru County |
| Occupation | Site I: 5000 and 200 years ago; Site II: 1500 to 800 years ago |
| First excavated | 1937-1938 |
Hyrax Hill is a prehistoric site near Nakuru in the Rift Valley province of Kenya. It is a rocky spur roughly half a kilometer in length, with an elevation of 1,900 meters above sea level at its summit. The site was first discovered in 1926 by Louis Leakey during excavations at the nearby Nakuru Burial Site, and Mary Leakey conducted the first major excavations between 1937 and 1938. There are two distinct areas of occupation at Hyrax Hill: one which was occupied during the Neolithic and late Iron Age, and one which was occupied by the Sirikwa earlier in the Iron Age.
Hyrax Hill is named after the hyrax, a small mammal that lives in rocky areas. Hyraxes were once common in the rocky crevasses of Hyrax Hill, but their numbers have dropped in recent years due to the rapid urbanization of the surrounding area.
Hyrax Hill is the location of Hyrax Hill Prehistoric Site and Museum.
Louis Leakey discovered the remains of prehistoric settlements at Hyrax Hill while excavating the nearby Nakuru Burial in 1926. He did not excavate it at the time because he believed it to be a recent occupation, and was busy working at several other sites. Louis Leakey returned to the area in 1937 with his wife, Mary Leakey. It was Mary Leakey who began major excavations at Hyrax Hill. She excavated and named both Site I and Site II between 1937 and 1938. With no carbon dating technology available, dating the sites was difficult at the time. Leakey mistakenly described the Iron Age "Sirikwa Holes" as a pre-Iron Age village with "pit-dwellings." Excavations at the site were not undertaken again until after Hyrax Hill was obtained by the National Museums of Kenya in 1965, at which time one of the Sirikwa holes was fully excavated by Ron Clark and museum staff for display at the museum.
Hyrax Hill is located near Lake Nakuru. 5000 to 6000 years ago, during the occupation of Site I, a wetter climate meant that lake levels were as much as 100 meters higher than their present levels. Hyrax Hill was a peninsula at this time, which jutted out into the north side of the lake. The occupants would have had access to a steady supply of fresh water, as well as fish. Mary Leakey identified the ancient rocky beach of the lake in her 1938 excavations. The early occupation of Site I lies directly on the ancient beach, and she was able to use this and relative dating to date this portion of the site.
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Wikipedia