Steven Brandt

• Doctor of Philosophy
• University of Florida

We characterized 42 obsidian samples from the Baantu obsidian source in southwestern Ethiopia, including 25 outcrop samples and 17 surface artifacts, using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) spectroscopy. We then compared these source data to 116 obsidian artifacts from Mochena Borago Rockshelter. Results indicate that at least three geo-chemical s...

Mochena Borago Rockshelter (MB, 6.897° N, 37.755° E) has played a pivotal role in recognizing ecologically rich—but hitherto poorly known—highland tropical SW Ethiopia as an important region for understanding Late Pleistocene and Holocene hunter-gatherer lifeways and population movements in and out of the Horn of Africa. Since 1995, international a...

Archaeologists relate increasing forager reliance on small animals and broad-spectrum resource use to environmental and demographic changes in temperate regions during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2, 29-14.7 thousand years ago (ka), and MIS 1, after 14.7 ka. However, little research has examined the factors that influenced small game hunting in the a...

Over the last two decades, advances in the design, miniaturization, and analytical capabilities of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) instrumentation have led to its rapid and widespread adoption in a remarkably diverse range of applications in research and industrial fields. The impetus for this volume was that, as pXRF continues to grow into main...

Sixteen new and seven recently published AMS radiocarbon dates from Guli Waabayo rock shelter in southern Somalia show repeated use of the site over a ~ 20,000-year period that spans most of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2 ~ 29–14.5 thousand years ago (ka) and the MIS 1 African Humid Period ~ 14.5–6 ka. Improved methods of ostrich eggshell and tooth e...

Beta Samati: discovery and excavation of an Aksumite town—Corrigendum - Volume 94 Issue 373 - Michael J. Harrower, Ioana A. Dumitru, Cinzia Perlingieri, Smiti Nathan, Kifle Zerue, Jessica L. Lamont, Alessandro Bausi, Jennifer L. Swerida, Jacob L. Bongers, Helina S. Woldekiros, Laurel A. Poolman, Christie M. Pohl, Steven A. Brandt, Elizabeth A. Pete...

Beta Samati: discovery and excavation of an Aksumite town - Volume 93 Issue 372 - Michael J. Harrower, Ioana A. Dumitru, Cinzia Perlingieri, Smiti Nathan, Kifle Zerue, Jessica L. Lamont, Alessandro Bausi, Jennifer L. Swerida, Jacob L. Bongers, Helina S. Woldekiros, Laurel A. Poolman, Christie M. Pohl, Steven A. Brandt, Elizabeth A. Peterson

The Horn of Africa is a biodiversity hot spot, and likely comprised refugia in the distant and recent past. For millennia, rainfall capture in the Horn has fueled the development of complex economies and civilizations, from homegrown highland polities to others as distant as the Indian Ocean coast and the Nile delta. Climates and environments of th...

Mochena Borago Rockshelter, located in the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia, offers a Late Pleistocene lithostratigraphic record of human occupation securely dated by more than 50 radiocarbon dates from 50 through 35 ka. With over 3 meters of deposit beyond radiocarbon dating, this report places the ochre and associated processing tools at Mochen...

During the African Humid Period (AHP), between ~14 and 5 ka, north and eastern Africa were much wetter and greener than they are today. Although the AHP has long been attributed to an increase in rainfall driven by orbital forcing, many details regarding the timing, pacing, and contributing moisture sources remain to be determined, especially for e...

With excavated layers spanning a period from > 49 ka to ~ 36 ka, Mochena Borago Rockshelter reveals a complex sequence of Late Pleistocene human occupation punctuated by volcanic events. Fifty-nine radiocarbon ages make Mochena Borago one of the best-dated Late Pleistocene archaeological sites in eastern and northeastern Africa. However, complex si...

Ethiopia constitutes diverse environments that were created by interacting tectonic and climate regimes that formed montane forests, grasslands, savannahs, and deserts. Here, we present the results of varied geoarchaeological research on caves, rockshelters, and landscapes aimed at understanding human-environmental interactions in the Late Quaterna...

Between 70 and 50 ka BP, anatomically modern humans dispersed across and out of Africa to eventually populate all inhabitable continents. Knowledge of paleoenvironments and human behavioral patterns in Africa prior to and during these dispersals is crucial for understanding how and why hunter-gatherers were able to adapt rapidly to the new environm...

Introduction: [title slide 1] One of the main issues facing archaeological research in the northern Horn of Africa today and in the recent decades is the lack of systematic and standardized analysis of excavated contextual cultural deposits dating to the pre-Aksumite period, a time suspected to be one in where exogenous influences were increasingly...

Southwest Ethiopia’s cool, moist, and steep highlands differ from other African environments, and may have fostered distinct patterns of Holocene resource use and intensification. Prior to 2004, only a few archaeological projects probed eastern and northern margins of this region. The Kafa Archaeological Project (2004–2006) excavated ten caves and...

The cool, moist, tropical highlands of southwest Ethiopia contrast dramatically with arid environments in the rest of the Horn of Africa. They have seen little archaeological research due to their remote location, wet conditions, and acidic soils and volcanic rocks thought to harbor few shelters or open-air sites capable of organic preservation. In...

Recognising that the construction of large dams has also led to incalculable loss, destruction, and damage of cultural resources ranging from shrines of local communities to world heritage monuments, the objective of this report is to provide an overview of past and present cultural heritage management (CHM) in areas impacted by large dams, and to...

Analysis of DNA residues on stone tools provides a direct method of determining what the tools were used on. However, little is known about the taphonomy of DNA on tools. The discovery of present-day, stone-tool using hide workers in Ethiopia therefore provides a unique opportunity to study the survival and authenticity of DNA residues on stone too...

Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is the main crop of a sustainable indigenous African system that ensures food security in a country that is food deficient. Enset is related to and resembles the banana plant and is produced primarily for the large quantity of carbohydrate-rich food found in a false stem (pseudostem) and an underground bulb (corm). More t...

Recent archaeological excavations of a large rocksheiter at Buur Heybe, southern Somalia, resulted in the discovery of fourteen human burials of early Holocene age. The Gogoshiis Qabe burials represent: 1) the first primary context prehistoric skeletal remains from Somalia; 2) the earliest chronometrically dated burials from the Horn of Africa (Som...

Pastoral rock art, composed of the prehistoric paintings and engravings of domestic animals, is one of the most impressive yet least understood aspects of the archaeology of the Horn of Africa. Previous studies of more than one hundred pastoral rock art sites in the Horn have focused almost exclusively upon description, chronology and stylistic dis...

The last major synthesis of the Upper Pleistocene and early Holocene prehistory of the Horn was published over thirty years ago. This paper therefore attempts critically to review the current state of knowledge and research pertaining to Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age hunter/gatherer culture history and adaptation in the region that now encom...

The archaeological research was concentrated at three rock-shelter sites: Karin Heegan, Midhishi 2, and Gud-Gud. It uncovered Later and Middle Stone Age artifacts. -from Authors

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 1982. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 316-328). Photocopy of typescript. s