A Dictionary of Archaeology
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K
K2 see BAMBANDYALANO
Kabáh see PUUC
Kabuye One of several areas of Rwanda and adjacent countries of interlacustrine East Africa which has yielded spectacular evidence of early iron-working, including furnace shafts built of hand-moulded clay coils (‘decorated bricks’), and fine specimens of Urewe pottery (see
AGE), mostly dating to c.1500–2200 years ago. See also KATURUKA in the nearby Buhaya region of Tanzania.
F. Van Noten et al: Histoire archéologique du Rwanda
(Tervuren, 1983).
JS
Kabwe see SANGOAN
Kachemak see KODIAK TRADITION
Kadero KHARTOUM NEOLITHIC site in the
central Nile basin of central Sudan, about 20 km north of Khartoum. The settlement middens and cemeteries of Kadero show evidence of the domestication of cattle and the cultivation of cereal crops as early as c.4000 BC. By the end of the 3rd millennium, however, it appears that Kadero and the rest of the central Nile region were virtually deserted, as the focus of Neolithic settlement shifted northwards into Lower Nubia.
L. Krzyzaniak: ‘The Neolithic habitation at Kadero (Central Sudan)’, Origin and early development of foodproducing cultures in northeastern Africa, ed. L. Krzyzaniak and M. Kobusiewicz (Poznan, 1984), 309–15; ––––:
‘Early farming in the Middle Nile Basin: recent discoveries at Kadero (Central Sudan)’, Antiquity 65 (1991), 515–32.
IS
Kadesh see QADESH
Kahun see EL-LAHUN
Kalambo Falls Site in Zambia, at the south end of Lake Tanganyika, of a small basin in which sands, clays and rubble beds have accumulated, together with archaeological deposits in various degrees of disturbance, from ACHEULEAN times down to the Early Iron Age (excavated by J.D. Clark 1956–66). Several Acheulean floors dated to at least 110,000 BP
by AMINO ACID RACEMIZATION, are important not
only for the completeness of their assemblages, but also for their association with well preserved plant remains (logs, twigs, nuts, fruits, seeds, leaves, reeds and pollen). Several pieces of wood and bark are believed to be artefacts, and there is clear evidence of fire, possibly man-made. An arc of stones may mark the site of a hut or windbreak. The succession includes Acheulean, SANGOAN, LUPEMBAN, Later Stone Age and Early Iron Age material, including a good suite of radiocarbon dates. The Iron Age village was occupied from the 4th to the 11th centuries AD and later, and has yielded objects of iron, a copper bangle and several deep pits of uncertain use.
J.D. Clark: The Kalambo Falls prehistoric site I (Cambridge, 1969); G.L. Isaac: ‘The earliest archaeological traces’, The Cambridge history of Africa I, ed. J.D. Clark (Cambridge, 1982), 202–4.
RI
Kalhu see NIMRUD, TELL
Kalibangan Large Harappan site (see INDUS CIVILIZATION) located on the southern bank of the Ghaggar River in Rajasthan, India, which was excavated by Braj Basi Lal and Bal Krishen Thapar (1961–9). It consists of two main mounds (KLB 1 and 2), a third smaller mound and a Harappan cemetery. Two chronological phases have been defined through a series of nearly 40 calibrated radiocarbon dates (Lal 1979: 94): Early Harappan (c.2920–2550 BC) and Mature Harappan (c.2600–1990 BC). Five Early Harappan building
326 KALIBANGAN
phases from Mound KLB 1 provide evidence of dense mud-brick architecture (including standardized brick sizes) and massive enclosure walls. Typical artefacts of the period include terracotta figurines, ground stone and flaked stone implements, ornaments including copper, shell, and ceramic bangles, and agate, carnelian, shell, and copper beads, and six different ceramic wares, including black and white painted red wares, large storage jars with a textured (sandy slip) surface, and buff or grey wares decorated with black and white floral, faunal, and curvilinear motifs (Lal 1979: 70–4). A nearby field has revealed evidence for Early Harappan PLOUGHMARKS.
B.K. Thapar: ‘Synthesis of the multiple data as obtained from Kalibangan’, Radiocarbon and Indian archaeology, ed. D.P. Agrawal and A. Ghosh (Bombay, 1973), 264–71; B.B. Lal: ‘Kalibangan and the Indus civilization’, Essays in Indian protohistory, ed. D.P. Agrawal and D.K. Chakrabarti (Delhi, 1979), 65–97; ––––: ‘Some reflections on the structural remains at Kalibangan’, Frontiers of the Indus Civilization, ed. B.B. Lal and S.P. Gupta (New Delhi, 1985), 55–62.
CS
Kalina Point see GOMBE POINT
Kalomo culture Central African Iron Age culture, first identified by Ray Inskeep as a result of excavations at Kalundu mound about 5 km southeast of Kalomo. Bryan Fagan later excavated Isamu Pati 16 km to the west, and the long stratigraphic succession at the two sites was virtually the same. As research progressed, however, the cultural affinities of the ceramic units were reassessed. Inskeep originally placed the entire sequence in the Kalomo culture, but David Phillipson excluded the lower unit, renaming it the Kalundu Early Iron Age (EIA) group. Based on excavations at Kumadzulo and other sites, Joseph Vogel excluded the upper unit at Isamu Pati, restricted the concept to Fagan’s 11th–12th century mid-Kalomo, and derived it from the Shongwe EIA Tradition (Situmpa- Kumadzulo-Dambwe) in the Victoria Falls area.
The MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS of material
from Gundu, 90 km northeast of Kalomo, prompted Huffman to separate Shongwe and reinstate the late Kalomo pottery at Isamu Pati. Thus in the 13th–14th centuries AD, Kalomo was contemporaneous with Kangila and INGOMBE
ILEDE.
R. Inskeep: ‘Some Iron Age sites in northern Rhodesia’, SAAB 17 (1962), 136–80; B.M. Fagan: Iron Age cultures in Zambia I (London, 1967); D.W. Phillipson: ‘The Early Iron Age in Zambia: regional variants and some tentative
conclusions’, JAH 9 (1968), 191–211; J.O. Vogel:
Kumadzulo: an Early Iron Age village site in southern Zambia (Lusaka, 1971); T.N. Huffman: Iron Age migrations: the ceramic sequence in southern Zambia
(Johannesburg 1989).
TH
Kaminaljuyú Large centre in the northern valley of Guatemala that flourished from the Middle Preclassic to the Classic period (i.e. c.800 BC–AD 900). Kaminaljuyú is believed to have controlled the large El Chayal OBSIDIAN quarry as well as the trade network that distributed it throughout the Maya highlands and lowlands. Strong influences from TEOTIHUACAN in the Early Classic period (c.AD 300–600), seen in the architecture, pottery and burials, were uncovered by early excavations (Kidder et al. 1946) and interpreted in terms of conquest of this site by the central Mexicans. Later work at other sites elsewhere in the valley suggests that a ‘PORT OF TRADE’ existed in the region and involved complex three-way trading relationships between Teotihuacán, Kaminaljuyú and the lowland Maya.
A.V. Kidder et al.: Excavations at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, C.I.W. Pub. 561 (Washington, D.C., 1946); K.L. Brown: ‘The valley of Guatemala: a highland port of trade’, Teotihuacan and Kaminaljuyu: a study in prehistoric cultural contact, eds W. T. Sanders and J.W. Michels (University Park, 1977), 205–395.
PRI
Kanesh see KÜLTEPE
Kansyore Type of East African pottery, named after an island in the Kagera river which flows into the west side of Lake Victoria. Kansyore pottery illustrates pre-Iron Age cultural and economic developments in the Lake region and perhaps over a broader area of East Africa. In view of its texture, open shapes and profuse indented decoration, a derivation from the early Holocene pottery of the Nile Valley ‘Aqualithic’ or ‘Khartoum horizon’ has been surmised; this theory is supported by the lakeside, riverbank and island situations of many Kansyore sites (see AQUATIC CIVILIZATION; Sutton 1977). Other archaeologists consider such comparisons superficial and deceptive, regarding Kansyore pottery as a late development in the final two millennia BC, that is shortly before the Iron Age. Radiocarbon results (Robertshaw 1991) tend to support this dating, but they are not entirely unambiguous, and the possibility of these late manifestations emerging from a much more ancient
eastern African tradition is not ruled out. The fishing element is pronounced at the more typical Kansyore sites on rivers flowing into Lake Victoria (Kansyore Island itself and, on the eastern side, Ugunja and GOGO FALLS), all of which are situated above rapids where preferred species of fish can be caught.
S. Chapman: ‘Kansyore Island’, Azania 2 (1967), 165–91; J.E.G. Sutton: ‘The African aqualithic’, Antiquity 51 (1977), 25–34; P.T. Robertshaw: ‘Gogo Falls: a complex site east of Lake Victoria’, Azania 26 (1991), 63–195.
JS
Kao-ch’eng-hsien (Gaochengxian) see T’AI-
HSI-TS’UN
Kapova Cave (Kapovaya, Shulgan Tash) Upper Palaeolithic cave with rock paintings, situated in the southern Urals in the valley of the Belaya River, 200 km south of the town of Ufa, Bashkirstan, Russia. The cave, a rare example of Upper Palaeolithic rock art in eastern Europe, was discovered by A.V. Ryumin in 1959 and investigated by O.N. Bader in the 1960s and 1970s. Since 1982 the site has been excavated by V.E. Shchelinsky. The paintings, in four separate galleries, represent animals (mammoth, horse, rhinoceros) and signs and geometric symbols (trapezes, triangles, a truncated cone, a square with loops). Two radiocarbon dates obtained from samples of charcoal indicate dates of around 14680±150 (LE-3443) and 13390±300 (GIN-4853) BP.
O.N. Bader: Kapovaya pesˇcˇra [Kapova Cave] (Moscow, 1965); V.E. Shchelinsky: ‘Some results of new investigations at the Kapova Cave in the southern Urals’, PPS 55 (1989), 181–91.
PD
Kapwirimbwe Early Iron Age facies (cultural subdivision) in Zambia, named after a site on the outskirts of Lusaka. Along with Chondwe and Kalundu it formed the original core of David Phillipson’s Western Stream. The cluster of styles has been renamed the Kalundu Tradition to avoid confusion with the historical classification of Bantu languages. Multidimensional stylistic analyses show that Kapwirimbwe is related to the ‘LYDENBURG Tradition’ (see also BAMBATA POTTERY) and other similar facies in South Africa and that it was the product of Eastern Bantu speaking people. The full settlement organization is not yet known, but the excavation of the type-site yielded storage pits, cattle bones and metal-working debris.
KARANOVO 327
D.W. Phillipson: ‘The Early Iron Age site at Kapwirimbwe, Lusaka’, Azania 3 (1968), 87–105; ––––:
The later prehistory of eastern and southern Africa (London, 1977); T.N. Huffman: Iron Age migrations: the ceramic sequence in southern Zambia (Johannesburg, 1989).
TH
K-Ar see POTASSIUM-ARGON DATING
Karanog MEROITIC settlement-site and cemetery (c.300 BC–AD 350), located in Lower Nubia about 60 km south of Aswan. By the 3rd century AD, it had become a major town. Unlike other Meroitic centres (e.g. Faras or Qasr Ibrim) it was protected by a huge three-storey mud-brick ‘castle’ rather than a surrounding enclosure wall. Adams (1976) has suggested that Lower Nubian towns such as Karanog may have been controlled by local feudal rulers rather than being part of the Upper Nubian Meroitic kingdom itself.
C.L. Woolley and D. Randall–MacIver: Karanog, the Romano-Nubian cemetery (Pennsylvania, 1910); ––––:
Karanog, the town (Pennsylvania, 1911); W.Y. Adams: ‘Meroitic north and south: a study in cultural contrasts’, Meroitica 2 (1976), 11–26.
IS
Karanovo Large tell near Nova Zagora in the Tundza valley of central Bulgaria that has provided an important cultural and pottery sequence from the earliest Neolithic, in perhaps the 7th millennium BC, through the Copper Age to the Bronze Age. Karanovo levels I–IV are Neolithic; V–VI are Chalcolithic; VII is Early Bronze Age. Karanovo I is important as the type site of an early farming culture – very roughly contemporary with other early farming cultures in eastern Europe
such as ˇ – which appears at other sites in
STARCEVO
central and southern Bulgaria (notably AZMAK tell). It is characterized by white bowls painted in red with geometric designs (with some instances of incised and plastic decoration), including a distinctive vessel form – the pedestalled bowl. The first phase of the settlement may already have comprised over 50 small (c.7 m square) houses – although some estimates suggest no more than 15 or so – set closely together in rows. The houses were simple and timber framed, with hearths and ovens. Level II continues the cultural tradition established in level I, although the ceramic decoration is relatively less rich. Karanovo III is Middle Neolithic, while IV and V are Late Neolithic. Level VI represents a rich Gumelnit¸a culture phase, with distinctive bowls painted with graphite
328 KARANOVO
and a rich copper industry with copper axes exhibiting carefully cast-in shaftholes; by Karanovo VI, the size of houses had increased substantially.
V. Mikov: ‘The prehistoric mound of Karanovo’, Archaeology 12 (1959), 88–97; S. Hiller and G. Georgiev: Tell Karanovo (Salzburg, 1984, 1986, 1987).
RJA
Karatepe see HITTITES
Karbuna (Corbuna) Hoard and settlement related to the early phases of the TRIPOLYE culture, located near the village of the same name in Central Moldova. The hoard was secreted in an anthropomorphic vessel, which had been placed in a storage pit dug between the dwellings of the Tripolye settlement. The vessel contained 852 artefacts, of which 444 were copper implements such as spiral bracelets, cylindrical beads, various plates (including anthropomorphic examples) and various types of copper celts. The tools were forged, and the copper ore originated from the Balkan-Carpathian region.
G.P. Sergeev: ‘Rannetripol’skii klad u sela Karbuna’ [An early Tripolye hoard near the village of Karbuna], Sovetskaya arheologija 1 (1963), 135–51; N.V. Ryndina:
Drevneisˇee metalloobrabatyvajuesˇcˇee proizvodstvo Vostocˇnoi Evropy [The most ancient metal-working industry of Eastern Europe] (Moscow, 1971).
PD
Kariandusi ACHEULEAN site of Middle Pleistocene age in an area of diatomite beds in the Kenya Rift Valley, overlooking Lake Elmenteita. It was examined by Louis Leakey in the 1920s and more recently by Gowlett. Kariandusi’s cleavers, handaxes and other tools are remarkable for being made of obsidian, available from nearby Mount Eburru and the Naivasha basin. The dating is unclear, but some layers could be as much as 0.75 million years old. The site and its surrounds have been affected by rift faulting as well as gully erosion and lake-level changes, rendering them instructive for geological and geomorphological demonstration.
L.S.B. Leakey: The Stone Age cultures of Kenya colony
(Cambridge, 1931); J.A.J. Gowlett: ‘Acheulian sites in the Central Rift valley, Kenya’, Proceedings of the 8th Panafrican Congress of Prehistory 1977 (Nairobi, 1980), 213–7.
JS
Karmir Blur see URARTU
Karnak (anc. Ipet-sut) Massive collection of Egyptian temples and shrines, covering over a hundred hectares in the northeastern area of modern Luxor and dating from at least as early as the Middle Kingdom (c.2040–1640 BC) until the end of the Roman period (c.AD 395). It comprises three major sacred ‘precincts’ dedicated to the deities Amon-Re, Mut and Monthu, each of which was surrounded by trapezoidal mud-brick enclosure walls. The enclosures also included a number of smaller temples dedicated to Ptah, Opet and Khonsu respectively. The earliest axis of the temple of Amon-Re extended from west to east, incorporating the Great Hypostyle Hall of Ramesses II (c.1290–1224 BC), which is over 0.5 ha in area. The second axis extended the temple southwards and included the so-called ‘cachette court’, where thousands of royal and private statues were discovered hidden under the floor. Karnak lay at the heart of the city of Thebes (anc. Waset), which served as one of the most important Egyptian administrative centres for much of the pharaonic period.
G. Legrain: Les Temples du Karnak (Brussels, 1929); Centre Franco-égyptien d’étude des temples de Karnak: Cahiers de Karnak, 6 vols (1943–82); P. Barguet: Le temple d’Amon-Re à Karnak: essai d’exégèse (Cairo, 1962).
IS
Kartan culture Tool assemblage consisting of steep-edged scrapers and HORSE HOOF CORES, found mainly around Kangaroo Island and the adjacent mainland of South Australia. The tools have been picked up largely from surface scatters, but are thought to be Pleistocene in age. The predominant distribution is around lagoons, streams and swamps.
R.J. Lampert: The great Kartan mystery (Canberra, 1981).
CG
karum see ASSYRIA, KÜLTEPE
Kashiwagi B A series of five Late Jomon bankenclosed cemeteries in Hokkaido, Japan (c.2500–1000 BC). One contained 21 burials within the central enclosure, 18 in the surrounding bank and a further five outside the bank. This spatial organization, along with the varied burial forms and grave goods, indicates complex social relations at a time of ecological change.
F. Ikawa-Smith and F. Kanjodori: ‘Communal cemeter-
ies of the late Jomon in Hokkaido’, Pacific Northeast Asia in prehistory, ed. C.M. Aikens and S.N. Rhee (Pullman, 1992), 83–90.
SK
Kassites (Akkadian: Kashshu) Ancient Near Eastern non-Semitic people who were originally based in the central ZAGROS (roughly corresponding to the Luristan area of modern Iran), to the south of the homeland of the GUTIANS and Lullubi. They emerged from obscurity in the early 2nd millennium BC, achieving political control of Mesopotamia, during the 16th–13th centuries BC at roughly the same time as the rise of the HURRIANS and HITTITES in Anatolia. Like most other new arrivals in Mesopotamia, the Kassites are initially visible only through their unusual personal names, which began to appear in cuneiform texts in Babylonia during the 17th century BC, indicating their gradual peaceful influx into the population, usually as agricultural workers. Although no texts written exclusively in the Kassite language have survived, their language was clearly agglutinative and possibly related to Elamite.
In terms of material culture the most important surviving site of the Kassite period is Aqar Quf, west of modern Baghdad, where the city of Dur Kurigalzu was founded by Kurigalzu I (c.1400BC). Much of the art and architecture at Aqar Quf – including an unusually well-preserved ziggurat and the painted palace of the 12th-century Kassite ruler Marduk-apla-iddin – is distinctly Babylonian in appearance, indicating the degree to which the Kassite rulers of Babylon had simply assimilated the indigenous material culture. However, there are a number of Kassite innovations, such as the use of moulded baked bricks for the external decoration of buildings, the introduction of the KUDURRU (a ceremonial stele recording land transfers), and the increased use of horses in warfare. The CYLINDER SEALS of the Kassite period included a number of innovative geometrical and figurative motifs as well as the archaizing use of lengthy cuneiform texts in the Sumerian language. There are also a number of surviving buildings which appear to be Kassite rather than Babylonian in style, and the earliest surviving Kassite temple is the shrine constructed by Karaindash (c.1465 BC) at URUK.
Although the Kassite dynasty in Babylonia is regarded as a comparative ‘dark age’, this is partly a result of the neglect of archaeologists, since thousands of surviving Kassite-period documents (including an extensive archive from NIPPUR) remain unpublished. Oates (1986: 101–2) argues
KATURUKA 329
that the Kassite administration was not only unusually stable but also characterized by a move towards a more ‘feudal’ form of society, in which the concept of the king as sole ‘law-giver’ was gradually eroded by the transfer of land into communal and tribal ownership.
K. Balkan: Kassitenstudien I (New Haven, 1954); K. Jaritz: ‘Quellen zur Geschichte der Kassu-Dynastie’,
Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientforschung 6 (1958), 187–265; U. Seidl: ‘Die babylonischen Kudurru-reliefs’, Baghdader Mitteilungen 4 (1968), 7–220; J.A. Brinkman:
Materials and studies for Kassite history I (Chicago, 1976); J. Oates: Babylon, 2nd edn (London, 1986), 83–104.
IS
Katelai see GANDHARA GRAVE CULTURE
Kathu Pan Shallow 3 ha basin in the northwest Cape region, South Africa, which has yielded significant evidence of the African Stone Age. The site is seasonally flooded and the floor is formed of variable strata of peat, silty sand, gravel, and calcified sand, to a depth of up to 11 m below the modern surface, overlying 40 m of calcrete and 30 m of sands, clays and gravels. The massive calcrete and subjacent deposits are of Tertiary age. Excavations by P. Beaumont (1979–90) revealed mainly shallow deposits of Holocene age. However, where there has been collapse, into solution cavities in the Tertiary calcretes, longer sequences are exposed. At KP1 two Acheulean horizons (one designated ‘FAURESMITH’) are overlain by Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age occurrences. Pollen and faunal remains enhance the significance of the site.
P.B. Beaumont: ‘Kathu Pan’, Guide to archaeological sites in the northern Cape, ed. P.B. Beaumont and D. Morris (Kimberley, 1990), 75–100.
RI
Katuruka Located near the western shore of Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania, this site, together with other sites excavated by Peter Schmidt, has stimulated discussion about the nature and dating of the East African EARLY IRON AGE. In local tradition Katuruka is associated with a king, Rugamora Mahe, who is thought to have ruled in the 18th century AD. The main archaeological materials however, including plentiful remains of iron-working, both here and at other sites associated with the same ruler or culture-hero, belong to the Early Iron Age. They include fine examples of Urewe pottery, and have been dated to about 2000 years ago. Certain of the radiocarbon results from Katuruka suggested at first that the
330 KATURUKA
origins of this Early Iron Age between the great lakes might be considerably older. On the basis of these dates and results obtained at Katuruka, Kemondo Bay and other sites nearby, as well as experiments in furnace building and smelting and the use of ethnographic analogies, Schmidt (1978) argued that the local early iron technology was remarkably sophisticated and original, obtaining exceptionally high temperatures through preheated air; this proved to be a source of considerable controversy in African archaeology from the 1960s to 1980s (e.g. Rehder 1986).
P.R. Schmidt: Historical archaeology: a structural approach to an African culture (Westport, 1978); S.T. Childs and P.R. Schmidt: ‘Experimental iron smelting’, African iron working: ancient and traditional, ed. R. Haaland and P. Shinnie (Oslo and Oxford, 1985); J.E. Rehder: ‘Use of preheated air in primitive furnaces: comment on views of Avery and Schmidt’, JFA 13 (1986), 351–3.
JS
Kausambi City of the early Historic period, located by the Yamuna River, about 50 km west of modern Allahabad, India. Excavations conducted by Govardhan Rhaj Sharma (1949–50) exposed remains dating from the PAINTED GREY WARE period (c.1300–600 BC) to the 6th century AD. Massive earth (and later brick) fortifications, cut by 11 gateways, enclose the northern, western and eastern edges of the settlement. Architectural remains include a standing column of the MAURYAN PERIOD, and Sharma’s excavations revealed brick residential and defensive structures, altars, a Buddhist monastery and STUPA foundation, and a large building tentatively interpreted as a palace. Surviving artefacts include terracotta figurines, iron tools and weapons, and many types of coins and seals.
K.K. Sinha: ‘Stratigraphy and chronology of early Kausambi – a reappraisal’, Radiocarbon and Indian archaeology, ed. D.P. Agrawal and A. Ghosh (Bombay, 1973), 231–8; G.R. Sharma: Excavations at Kausambi, 1949–1950
(New Delhi, 1974).
CS
Keatley Creek Village site consisting of 115 house-pits on the Fraser River near Lillooet in western North America, which was excavated by Brian Hayden from 1986 to 1994. The excavation of 21 housepits and 13 smaller pits revealed a sequence of occupations from 2000 BC to AD 1000 belonging
to the PLATEAU PITHOUSE TRADITION.
Occupation at the site ended with the failure of the salmon runs because of catastrophic landslides on the Fraser River.
B. Hayden and J. Ryder: ‘Prehistoric cultural collapse in the Lillooet area’, AA 56 (1991), 50–65; B. Hayden and J. Spafford: The Keatley Creek Site and Corporate Group Archaeology (Vancouver, 1993).
RC
Kebara, Kebaran The recently excavated materials from Kebara, one of the caves in the MOUNT CARMEL region of Israel, are important in the story of HUMAN EVOLUTION for a number of reasons. Firstly, thermoluminescence dates for the site indicate occupation by NEANDERTHALS around 60,000 years ago – much later than the
ANATOMICALLY MODERN HUMAN occupation of
the Qafzeh cave (see QAFZEH AND SKHUL). Similar datings for the Tabun site (see MOUNT CARMEL) seem to confirm that ‘modern’ humans were in the Levant before the Neanderthals. The skeletal material is also of some significance, since Neanderthal burials at the site have provided the most complete Neanderthal pelvis yet known. This fossil seems to indicate differences from modern humans in locomotion, due to the wider separation of the hip joints. (It had earlier been believed that the wider Neanderthal pelvis was associated with longer pregnancies and hence larger foetus size.) Finally, the fossil material includes a Neanderthal hyoid bone. This laryngeal bone appears the same as that of modern people, apparently contradicting claims that the Neanderthals were incapable of speech.
In 1931 Francis Turville-Petre found the first remains of the ‘Kebaran complex’ in Kebara cave. Dating to c.18,000–11,000 BC, this is the earliest group of Levantine EPIPALAEOLITHIC industries, roughly contemporary with the Mushabian complex and eventually evolving into (or superseded by) the ‘Geometric Kebaran’ and the NATUFIAN. Some Kebaran sites were only small seasonal encampments, but others were larger settlements occupied throughout the winter months and showing evidence of the exploitation of fish and cereals such as wheat and barley. Kebaran toolkits typical include groundstone mortars and pestles as well as bladelets and microliths.
B. Arensberg et al.: ‘A Middle Palaeolithic human hyoid bone’, Nature 338 (1989), 758–60; D.O. Henry: From foraging to agriculture: the Levant at the end of the Ice Age
(Philadelphia, 1989), 151–77; O. Bar-Yosef et al.: ‘The excavations in Kebara Cave, Mount Carmel’, CA 33/5 (1992), 497–550.
PG-B/IS
Kechi Beg see QUETTA
Kefkalesi see URARTU
Kelteminar Early cultural tradition of Central Asia named after a site located in the Amu-Darya Syr-Darya interfluve in Khoresmia, Central Asia. The Kelteminar ‘culture’ is often described as ‘Neolithic’ in the literature because of technological developments (particularly the adoption of pottery); however, the economy was entirely based on hunting and gathering. The type site was first identified by Tolstov in 1939, and later intensively explored by Gulyamov, Islamov, Vonogradov, Mamedov and others.
Kelteminar as a hybrid Neolithic/Mesolithic culture. The development of the Kelteminar complex coincided with the wet climatic phase (the Lyavlyakan pluvial), which became noticeable in the Turanian lowland c.6000 BC. At that time, the Amu Darya river was flowing directly to the Caspian Sea, via Sarykamysh lake and Uzboi. A great number of sites emerged along this waterway. A large cluster of sites is located in the ancient deltas of Amu-Darya, notably Akcha-Darya, and along the Zerafshan further south.
Numerous sites were found in the Amu-Darya Syr-Darya interfluve, notably in the Lyavlyakan area in the present-day Kyzyl-Kum desert. This clustering is due to the large number of fresh-water lakes that formed in the area during the climactic optimum (Vinogradov and Mamedov 1975; Vinogradov 1981). Pollen analysis shows that the river floors were covered by tugai forests of fir, pine, birch, alder, oak, hornbeam and hazel. The faunal remains found at Kelteminar sites consist of wild animals adapted to tugai forests, open steppes and desert mountains (red deer, fallow, deer, boar, kulan, saiga, gazelle, mouflon, camel etc.). Hunting of water fowl (mallard, teal, grebe, cormorant, golden eye etc.) and fishing (pike, carp, catfish, pike-perch) were also important. Food-gathering included a wide spectrum of edible plants (pomegranate, apricots, wild olives), small animals (tortoise, agama) and molluscs (Vinogradov 1981). The lithic technology included grinding stones, mortars and pestles as well as blades with sickle gloss. However, the absence of domesticated cereals suggest that subsistence was based entirely on foraging strategies, and Vinogradov (1981) suggests that these tools were used for harvesting and processing wild plants. The pottery style reveals contacts with truly agricultural groups to the south
(e.g. ANAU, JEITUN and NAMAZGA).
A.V. Vinogradov and E.D. Mamedov: Pervobytnyi Ljavljakan (Moscow, 1975); A.V. Vinogradov: Drevnie
KENYA CAPSIAN 331
ohotniki i rybolovy Sredneaziatskogo Mezhdurech’ja
(Moscow, 1981).
PD
Kemondo Bay see KATURUKA
Kempen project Survey of the archaeology of an area of the southern Netherlands organized by the University of Amsterdam since 1981 adopting ‘a historico-anthropological perspective’. The major objective was to analyse the ways in which early medieval society in the area changed in response to intensified contacts with the core regions of Austrasia (the heart of the Frankish kingdom). This has involved intensive field survey, excavations of villages and cemeteries, notably at Dommelen, an analysis of the written sources and the place-name evidence. The data showed dramatic changes in the later 7th and the early 8th centuries AD, as the area became dependent upon Austrasia.
F. Theuws: ‘Landed property and manorial organisation in Northern Austrasia: some considerations and a case study’, Images of the past: studies on ancient societies in northwestern Europe, ed. N. Roymans and F. Theuws (Amsterdam, 1991), 299–407.
RH
Kenniff Cave This sandstone cave in southern Queensland produced the first evidence for the Pleistocene occupation of Australia, with a date of 19,000 BP from the lowest levels. The site was also important in distinguishing the
TOOL AND SCRAPER TRADITION found in the lower layers, from the AUSTRALIAN SMALL TOOL
TRADITION in the upper part. The cave was rich in artefacts and contains rock art.
D.J. Mulvaney and E.B. Joyce: ‘Archaeological and geomorphological investigations on the Mt Moffatt Station, Queensland, Australia’, PPS 31 (1965), 147–212.
CG
Kenya Aurignacian see KENYA CAPSIAN
Kenya Capsian Term used to encompass most of the Late Stone Age industries of the Eastern Rift Valley and flanking highlands of Kenya, although their stages or facies have been better defined recently (Ambrose 1984). Essentially the same as Louis Leakey’s ‘Kenya Aurignacian’, they are typically blade industries made of obsidian obtained from Mount Eburru and other nearby sources in the Lake Naivasha basin; most archaeological occur-
332 KENYA CAPSIAN
rences are within 100 km of these sources and the term ‘Eburran’ is therefore preferred by some recent workers. The industries range in date from early in the Holocene (if not the terminal Pleistocene) through perhaps as much as 10,000 years, with some late derivations in the final millennia BC. Although later manifestations of this tradition contain increasing numbers of crescents, small tools and flakes, the Kenya Capsian rarely became truly microlithic; backed blades, outils écaillés, various scrapers and blade-derived tools remained distinctive.
L.S.B. Leakey: The Stone Age cultures of Kenya colony
(Cambridge, 1931); S.H. Ambrose: ‘The introduction of pastoral adaptations to the highlands of East Africa’, From hunters to farmers; the causes and consequences of food production in Africa, ed. J.D. Clark and S.A. Brandt (Berkeley, 1984), 212–39.
JS
Kephala Settlement and cemetery on the island of Kea, dated to about 4000 BC, revealing some of the earliest evidence for copper-working in the Cyclades. The cemetery of built stone tombs or cists is also the earliest known in the islands, and was found to contain finely worked marble vessels and terracotta figurines. The site is seen as a precursor
of the classic CYCLADIC CULTURE.
J.E. Coleman: Keos I: Kephala, a Late Neolithic settlement and cemetery (Princeton, 1974).
RJA
Kerma Settlement site of the early 2nd millennium BC, near the third Nile cataract in Upper Nubia, which is among the earliest surviving towns in tropical Africa. It appears to have been the capital of the kingdom of Kush during the Egyptian Old and Middle Kingdoms; it is therefore the type-site for the Kerma culture (c.2500–1500 BC). The site of Kerma incorporates a large settlement, a cemetery of tumulus-graves and two enigmatic mud-brick structures – known as the deffufa – dating to the 17th century BC. The L-shaped western deffufa, perhaps a fortress or temple (Bonnet 1981), is in the centre of the town, while the eastern deffufa, perhaps a funerary chapel, is part of the cemetery at the southern end of the site; each of them was originally an almost solid block of mud bricks covering an area of roughly 1500 sq.m.
The people of the Kerma (or Kushite) culture were located largely in Upper Nubia and were roughly contemporary with the Lower Nubian C GROUP. The archaeological remains at Kermaculture sites are characterized by a rich variety of
craftwork, including fine metalwork, faience tiles, mica and ivory ornamentation, and the distinctive handmade, tulip-shaped Kerma pottery vessels (the latter primarily discovered in funerary contexts). Kerma-cultures graves usually consisted of an earth tumulus covering a burial pit in which the deceased, clothed in leather and decorated with jewellery, was frequently laid on a bed. The accompanying funerary equipment typically included weaponry, ox-hides and ox-skulls, suggesting that large numbers of oxen may have been slaughtered as part of the funeral ceremony. This ceremony may also have involved large-scale human sacrifice, to judge from the substructures of the main tumuli at Kerma itself, where George Reisner (1923) excavated subdivided corridors containing hundreds of human skeletons which may be the remains of retainers buried alive at the time of the ruler’s burial.
G.A. Reisner: Excavations at Kerma I–V, 2 vols (Cambridge, MA, 1923); B. Gratien: Les cultures Kerma: essai de classification (Lille, 1978); D. O’Connor: ‘Kerma and Egypt: the significance of the monumental buildings Kerma I, II and XI’, JARCE 21 (1984), 65–108; C. Bonnet et al.: Kerma: royaume de Nubie (Geneva, 1990); C. Bonnet: ‘Excavations at the Nubian royal town of Kerma: 1975–91’, Antiquity 66 (1992), 611–25.
IS
Kernonen Early Bronze Age tumulus in Finistère, France, that belongs to a rich group of graves known as the Armorican First Series (see
ARMORICAN FIRST AND SECOND SERIES). The
round mound, about 50 m in diameter and 6 m high, covered a rectangular dry-stone chamber about 5 m long; on the wooden floor of this chamber and within three wooden boxes laid upon it were bronze axes, daggers, flint arrowheads and an amber pendant. The daggers (one of which is long enough to be termed a ‘sword’) originally had hilts of wood studded with gold pins, and this and the general form and richness of the grave have encouraged comparison with the BUSH BARROW grave of the WESSEX CULTURE in southern Britain.
J. Briard: ‘Un tumulus du bronze ancien Kernonen en Plouvorn (Finestère)’, L’Anthropologie 74 (1970), 5–56;
––––: Les tumulus d’Armorique (Paris, 1984); D.V. Clarke et al.: Symbols of power at the time of Stonehenge
(Edinburgh, 1985), 129–35.
RJA
Keros-Syros culture Alternative name for the Early Cycladic II phase (c.2700–2300 BC) of the CYCLADIC CULTURE, defined by the large Chalandriani cemetery on Syros and the site of
Dhaskaleio Kavos on Keros. The Keros-Syros culture produced the classic series of Cycladic figurines.
RJA
Khabur The term ‘Khabur pottery’ is applied to a style of painted ceramic vessel found at sites in northern Mesopotamia during the early 2nd millennium BC.
Khafajeh (anc. Tutub) Early town-site in eastern Iraq consisting of three large mounds on the east bank of the Diyala river, about 20 km above its present confluence with the Tigris. The settlement of Tutub was established in the Protoliterate period and flourished throughout the Early Dynastic period. In the 1930s, the site was carefully excavated by Pinhas Delougaz, who discovered three temples in ‘Tell A’, including one ground-level complex dedicated to the moon-god Sin, which was larger than the Square Temple at ESHNUNNA and dated
KHAMI 333
from the JEMDET NASR period (c.3200 BC) to Early Dynastic III (c.2350 BC). A number of ritual vessels and artefacts were discovered in situ in the earliest strata both of the temple of Sin and in three singleshrine temples among the adjacent domestic buildings. Elsewhere in the city, a platform-temple dating to Early Dynastic II and III (c.2750–2350 BC), the so-called ‘Temple Oval’, was surrounded by an oval enclosure but the whole complex was denuded almost down to pavement level. Between the walls was an annexe apparently serving as a residential area for priests. A set of three elaborate copper supports in the form of nude male figures were found buried beneath pavement level.
P. Delougaz: The Temple Oval at Khafajah (Chicago, 1940); H. Frankfort: Sculpture of the 3rd millennium BC from Tell Asmar and Khafajeh (Chicago, 1942); H.D. Hill et al.: Old Babylonian public buildings in the Diyala region
(Chicago, 1990).
IS
Khami see GREAT ZIMBABWE
Figure 26 Khafajeh Reconstruction of the Temple Oval at Khafajeh (c.2750–2350), consisting of two concentric oval enclosure walls surrounding a platform approached by a flight of steps and surmounted by an inner sanctuary of an unknown deity (tentatively indicated here by the inner rectangular structure). Source: H. Crawford: Sumer and the Sumerians (Cambridge University Press, 1991), fig. 4.16.
334 KHAO CHANG NGAM
Khao Chang Ngam Rock-art site in northeast Thailand which includes a well-known scene of a row of men, women and children with a dog, with one man firing an arrow. These painted scenes are related to a series of rock-art sites in the region. No dating evidence has yet been obtained, but a prehistoric context is highly likely.
P. Charoenwongsa et al.: An inventory of rock art sites in northeast Thailand (Bangkok, 1985).
CH
Khao Wong Prachan Valley Region of central Thailand that was the focus of intensive mining, smelting and casting of copper ore from 1500 to 300 BC. The ore was extracted from mines, crushed and sorted, and smelted in bowl crucibles. Ingots, projectile points and socketed axe heads were among the objects cast, the metal being a naturally high-arsenic copper. No evidence for alloying with tin has been found. There is also early evidence for iron forging, dating to c.600 BC.
A. Bennet: ‘The contribution of metallurgical studies to Southeast Asian archaeology’, WA 20/3 (1989), 329–51.
CH
Kharga Oasis The southernmost and largest of the major Egyptian oases, located in the Libyan Desert about 175 km west of Luxor. Traces of Middle Palaeolithic (MOUSTERIAN) occupation were discovered by Gertrude Caton-Thompson (1952). In the pharaonic period, strong links appear to have been established with the Egyptian culture in the Nile valley, but most of the surviving architectural remains of settlements, temples and cemeteries date from the Ptolemaic period onwards.
G. Caton-Thompson: Kharga Oasis in prehistory (London, 1952); L. Giddy: Egyptian oases: Bahariya, Dakhla, Farafra and Kharga during pharaonic times (Warminster, 1987), passim.
IS
Khartoum Mesolithic The Khartoum Mesolithic (initially known as the Early Khartoum culture, after its typesite) was widespread in the Khartoum and Shendi areas of the Nile Valley from c.6000 to 3500 BC. First recognized by A.J. Arkell, it is characterized by evidence for a hunting and fishing subsistence pattern highly adapted to the riverine environment. The material culture includes microlithic tools and hand-made ‘wavyline’ globular ceramics (decorated with fish-bones or rocker-stamps), but there is no indication of plant or animal domestication. The semipermanent encampments of the Khartoum
Mesolithic are often described as ‘midden settlements’, due to the accumulation of human debris but lack of permanent dwellings. The ready availability of game and fish appears to have facilitated a sedentary lifestyle without agriculture. Apart from the burials within the Early Khartoum settlementsite no Khartoum Mesolithic cemeteries have yet been found. Adams (1984: 112) has pointed out that the precocious appearance of pottery-production seems to be a typical instance of North African cultures’ tendency to absorb technological innovations without accepting their ecological concomitants. The development of the Khartoum Mesolithic is effectively the reverse process to that of the
Levantine PRE-POTTERY NEOLITHIC, in which
domestication preceded ceramics.
A.J. Arkell: Early Khartoum (London, 1949); W.Y. Adams: Nubia: corridor to Africa, 2nd edn (Princeton, 1984), 110–12.
IS
Khartoum Neolithic By the early 4th millen-
nium BC the KHARTOUM MESOLITHIC of Central
Sudan was gradually being superseded by the Khartoum Neolithic (c.4000–3000 BC), initially described by A.J. Arkell as the Shaheinab culture, after its original type-site el-Shaheinab. There are similarities between the Khartoum Neolithic material remains and those of the ‘Khartoum Variant’ sites in southern Lower Nubia (Shiner 1968). The pottery of the Khartoum Neolithic was closely related to that of the Mesolithic (being decorated with ‘dotted wavy-line’ motifs rather than the simple wavy lines of the Mesolithic). The Khartoum Neolithic communities also continued to employ a similar repertoire of microlithic tools for fishing and hunting, but their subsistence pattern was characterized by one major development: faunal evidence of the domestication of animals (usually goat). See also KADERO.
A.J. Arkell: Shaheinab (London, 1953); C.M. McBurney:
The Stone Age of northern Africa (Harmondsworth, 1960), 244; J. Shiner: ‘The Khartoum Variant industry’, The prehistory of Nubia II, ed. F. Wendorf (Dallas, 1968), 768–90; H. Nordström: Neolithic and A-Group sites (Stockholm, 1972), 136–9, 212–20; F. Hassan, ‘Chronology of the Khartoum “Mesolithic” and “Neolithic” and related sites in the Sudan: statistical analysis and comparisons with Egypt’, AAR 4 (1986), 83–102.
IS
Khartoum Variant (c.4000–3000 BC) see
KHARTOUM NEOLITHIC