Katherine M Grillo
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 125589 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Katherine M Grillo |
| NOMBRES | Katherine M |
| APELLIDO | Grillo |
| FIRMA | GRILLO K M |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Florida |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0131-6061 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 29 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 264 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 29 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2011 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 11 |
Plant processing and foodways in the Pastoral Neolithic
Pastoralism has long been conceptualized as an animal-centered lifeway, with plants treated as marginal or ancillary resources. This is particularly true in Africa where rich ethnographic records of present-day pastoralism and scant archaeobotanical evidence have combined to create a focus on livestock in the archaeological record. This study challenges that perspective by demonstrating that plant use formed an integral component of Pastoral Neol…
Detecting architectural features and stratigraphic deposits at a Pastoral Neolithic site using ground-penetrating radar
Developing Geo-Ethnoarchaeological Methods for Studying Archaeological Pastoral Sites
This paper presents the aims, methods, and some initial results of the project ‘(Re)Constructing the Archaeology of Mobile Pastoralism (CAMP)’, a multi-disciplinary investigation into anthropogenic deposits from pastoral contexts in dryland regions. Ethnoarchaeology has played a pivotal role in transforming the study of pastoralism, particularly in environments where material traces are often ephemeral and underrepresented in the archaeological r…
Automated SEM-EDS mineralogical characterisation of archaeological pottery from Luxmanda and Mumba Rockshelter, Tanzania
Mineralogy and Sourcing of a Stone Bead Industry Found in Communal Cemeteries Associated with Eastern Africa's First Pastoralists, ca. 5000 b.p
This article describes the mineralogy and sources for a spectacular stone bead industry associated with the first pastoralists in eastern Africa ca. 5000–4000 cal b.p. Around Lake Turkana, northwest Kenya, early pastoralists constructed at least seven mortuary monuments with platforms, pillars, cairns, and stone circles. Three sites—Lothagam North, Manemanya, and Jarigole—have yielded assemblages of stone and ostrich eggshell beads that adorned i…
How African Pasts Can Inspire Alternative Responses to Climate Change
How can we use the past to help us solve today’s urgent climate change concerns? Archaeology provides one way forward by providing a long-term view of what worked and what did not work in the past. Indigenous knowledge systems have long curated a range of survival strategies that provide powerful inspiration for thinking differently about sustainability. Inspired by Africanfuturism—or how writers of African descent have creatively reimagined Blac…
Buffering new risks? Environmental, social and economic changes in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period
This paper evaluates risk-oriented frameworks for explaining environmental, social, and economic changes faced by fishing and herding communities in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period (AHP, 15–5 ka). The orbitally-forced AHP created moist conditions, high lake levels, and unusual hydrological connections across much of northern and eastern Africa. As arid conditions set in and rainfall decreased between 5.3 and 3.9 ka in …
The Jarigole mortuary tradition reconsidered
The megalithic pillar sites found around Lake Turkana, Kenya, are monumental cemeteries built approximately 5000 years ago. Their construction coincides with the spread of pastoralism into the region during a period of profound climate change. Early work at the Jarigole pillar site suggested that these places were secondary burial grounds. Subsequent excavations at other pillar sites, however, have revealed planned mortuary cavities for predomina…
Detecting and mapping the 'ephemeral
Common assumptions about the ephemeral archaeological signature of pastoralist settlements have limited the application of geophysical techniques in the investigation of past herding societies. Here, the authors present a geophysical survey of Luxmanda, Tanzania, the largest-known settlement documented for the Pastoral Neolithic era in eastern Africa (c. 5000-1200 BP). The results demonstrate the value and potential of fluxgate gradiometry for th…
Grinding-stone features from the Pastoral Neolithic at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The initial spread of food production in eastern Africa is associated with livestock herding during the Pastoral Neolithic. Recent excavation at Luxmanda, Tanzania, a site dating to c. 3000 BP, revealed circular installations of lower grinding stones and numerous handstones. This discovery, unprecedented for this era, challenges previous ideas about pastoralist mobility and subsistence
Nderit Ware” and the origins of pastoralist pottery in eastern Africa
Not just “nomadic jars”
Public Archaeology's Mammoth in the Room
Although archaeology has become increasingly concerned with engaging diverse publics, and has embraced the internet as a means of facilitating such engagement, attitudes towards Wikipedia have—understandably—been more ambivalent. Nevertheless, we argue here, Wikipedia's popularity and reach mean that archaeologists should actively engage with the website by adding and improving archaeological content. One way to do this is in the classroom: this …
Sorting the sheep from the goats in the Pastoral Neolithic
Organic technology in the Pastoral Neolithic
The bioarchaeology of mid-Holocene pastoralist cemeteries west of Lake Turkana, Kenya
Early herders in eastern Africa built elaborate megalithic cemeteries ~ 5000 BP overlooking what is now Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya. At least six 'pillar sites' were constructed during a time of rapid change: cattle, sheep, and goats were introduced to the basin as the lake was shrinking at the end of the African Humid Period. Cultural changes at this time include new lithic and ceramic technologies and the earliest monumentality in easter…
Cemeteries on a moving frontier
Pastoralist Foodways Recorded in Organic Residues from Pottery Vessels of Modern Communities in Samburu, Kenya
Organic residue analyses of archaeological ceramics can provide important insights into ancient foodways. To date, however, there has been little critical reflection on how lipid residues might (or might not) reflect dietary practices or subsistence strategies more generally. A combination of ethnoarchaeological research and chemical and isotopic analyses of lipid residues from pottery made and used by modern Samburu pastoralists in northern Keny…
Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socio-economic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania—areas previously occupied only by hunter-gatherers—eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted t…
Stone Cairns and Material Culture of the Middle to Late Holocene, Lake Turkana
A recent archival research project in the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) identified artifacts and human remains associated with the 1980 excavation of stone cairns and habitation areas on the west side of Lake Turkana. The presence of stone grave cairns across eastern Africa is common, but their cultural origins and construction times are enigmatic. This article presents the results of the archival project and contextualizes both the artifacts f…
Archaeological ceramics from eastern Africa
Ceramics are an essential part of the Holocene archaeology of eastern Africa and the development of increasingly complex typologies has rightly played a key role in our understanding of chronology and social identity. However, this focus on taxonomies can also be restrictive, as we lose sight of the communities who made and used the ceramics in our endless search to classify and re-classify ceramics. Focusing on ceramics from the Great Lakes and …
New Dates for Kansyore and Pastoral Neolithic Ceramics in the Eyasi Basin, Tanzania
This paper presents and contextualizes two radiocarbon dates directly obtained from Kansyore and Savanna Pastoral Neolithic (Narosura) ceramic sherds from sites near Lake Eyasi in Tanzania. The dates improve upon those obtained during prior research, which were compromised by problematic samples and stratigraphic disturbance. This underscores the importance of direct dating on diagnostic ceramics in areas with poor site integrity. The Eyasi Basin…
Pastoralism in Africa
Scholars working on the Arid Climate Adaptation and Cultural Innovation in Africa (ACACIA) project have, since the project's inception in 1995, provided some of the continent's best research on the
Pastoralism and Pottery Use
The context of early megalithic architecture in eastern Africa
Megalithic ‘pillar sites’ built by middle Holocene peoples of the Turkana Basin in northwestern Kenya provide eastern Africa's earliest known example of monumental architecture. Radiometric dates place pillar site construction and use ~5000-4000 cal. BP. This social innovation occurred during a period of marked environmental and economic change: the level of Lake Turkana dropped dramatically, vast plains opened between the lake and neighbouring v…
Pastoralism and Pottery Use
The context of early megalithic architecture in eastern Africa
Megalithic ‘pillar sites’ built by middle Holocene peoples of the Turkana Basin in northwestern Kenya provide eastern Africa's earliest known example of monumental architecture. Radiometric dates place pillar site construction and use ~5000-4000 cal. BP. This social innovation occurred during a period of marked environmental and economic change: the level of Lake Turkana dropped dramatically, vast plains opened between the lake and neighbouring v…
Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socio-economic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania—areas previously occupied only by hunter-gatherers—eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted t…
Sorting the sheep from the goats in the Pastoral Neolithic
Four middle Holocene pillar sites in West Turkana, Kenya
Megalithic architecture is associated with spread of food production in many parts of the world, but archaeological investigations have focused mainly on megalithic sites among early agrarian societies. Africa offers the opportunity to examine megalithic construction—and related social phenomena—among mobile herders and hunter-gatherers with no access to domestic plants. In northwest Kenya, several megalithic "pillar sites" are known near Lake Tu…
Archaeological ceramics from eastern Africa
Ceramics are an essential part of the Holocene archaeology of eastern Africa and the development of increasingly complex typologies has rightly played a key role in our understanding of chronology and social identity. However, this focus on taxonomies can also be restrictive, as we lose sight of the communities who made and used the ceramics in our endless search to classify and re-classify ceramics. Focusing on ceramics from the Great Lakes and …
Pastoralist Foodways Recorded in Organic Residues from Pottery Vessels of Modern Communities in Samburu, Kenya
Organic residue analyses of archaeological ceramics can provide important insights into ancient foodways. To date, however, there has been little critical reflection on how lipid residues might (or might not) reflect dietary practices or subsistence strategies more generally. A combination of ethnoarchaeological research and chemical and isotopic analyses of lipid residues from pottery made and used by modern Samburu pastoralists in northern Keny…
Early herders and monumental sites in eastern Africa
Using excavation and radiocarbon dating, the authors show that construction of megalithic pillar sites begins in eastern Africa by the fifth millennium BP, and is contemporary with the earliest herding in the region. Mobile herders and/or hunter-gatherers built and used these sites in a dynamic context of economic and social change. We are more familiar with monumentality as an adjunct of cereal cultivators-but this study demonstrates a relations…
Pastoral Neolithic sites on the southern Mbulu Plateau, Tanzania
As part of a larger project examining the introduction of herding into northern Tanzania, surveys and excavations were conducted at the southern edge of the Mbulu Plateau, documenting the presence of Narosura ceramics dating to the early third millennium BP, as well as a Later Stone Age occupation dated via ostrich eggshell to the tenth millennium BP. This marks the southernmost extent of the Pastoral Neolithic in eastern Africa. The paucity of s…
The bioarchaeology of mid-Holocene pastoralist cemeteries west of Lake Turkana, Kenya
Early herders in eastern Africa built elaborate megalithic cemeteries ~ 5000 BP overlooking what is now Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya. At least six 'pillar sites' were constructed during a time of rapid change: cattle, sheep, and goats were introduced to the basin as the lake was shrinking at the end of the African Humid Period. Cultural changes at this time include new lithic and ceramic technologies and the earliest monumentality in easter…
New Dates for Kansyore and Pastoral Neolithic Ceramics in the Eyasi Basin, Tanzania
This paper presents and contextualizes two radiocarbon dates directly obtained from Kansyore and Savanna Pastoral Neolithic (Narosura) ceramic sherds from sites near Lake Eyasi in Tanzania. The dates improve upon those obtained during prior research, which were compromised by problematic samples and stratigraphic disturbance. This underscores the importance of direct dating on diagnostic ceramics in areas with poor site integrity. The Eyasi Basin…
The materiality of mobile pastoralism
This thesis represents the first comprehensive ethnoarchaeological study to date on the material culture of African mobile pastoralism, a way of life economically, culturally, and ideologically centered on the herding of livestock. In Africa, tens of millions of people today still rely on cattle-based pastoralism for survival in arid lands that are unsuitable for agricultural production. Our understanding of ancient pastoralism is still hampered,…
Not just “nomadic jars”
Organic technology in the Pastoral Neolithic
Detecting and mapping the 'ephemeral
Common assumptions about the ephemeral archaeological signature of pastoralist settlements have limited the application of geophysical techniques in the investigation of past herding societies. Here, the authors present a geophysical survey of Luxmanda, Tanzania, the largest-known settlement documented for the Pastoral Neolithic era in eastern Africa (c. 5000-1200 BP). The results demonstrate the value and potential of fluxgate gradiometry for th…
Buffering new risks? Environmental, social and economic changes in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period
This paper evaluates risk-oriented frameworks for explaining environmental, social, and economic changes faced by fishing and herding communities in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period (AHP, 15–5 ka). The orbitally-forced AHP created moist conditions, high lake levels, and unusual hydrological connections across much of northern and eastern Africa. As arid conditions set in and rainfall decreased between 5.3 and 3.9 ka in …
Nderit Ware” and the origins of pastoralist pottery in eastern Africa
Stone Cairns and Material Culture of the Middle to Late Holocene, Lake Turkana
A recent archival research project in the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) identified artifacts and human remains associated with the 1980 excavation of stone cairns and habitation areas on the west side of Lake Turkana. The presence of stone grave cairns across eastern Africa is common, but their cultural origins and construction times are enigmatic. This article presents the results of the archival project and contextualizes both the artifacts f…
The Jarigole mortuary tradition reconsidered
The megalithic pillar sites found around Lake Turkana, Kenya, are monumental cemeteries built approximately 5000 years ago. Their construction coincides with the spread of pastoralism into the region during a period of profound climate change. Early work at the Jarigole pillar site suggested that these places were secondary burial grounds. Subsequent excavations at other pillar sites, however, have revealed planned mortuary cavities for predomina…
Public Archaeology's Mammoth in the Room
Although archaeology has become increasingly concerned with engaging diverse publics, and has embraced the internet as a means of facilitating such engagement, attitudes towards Wikipedia have—understandably—been more ambivalent. Nevertheless, we argue here, Wikipedia's popularity and reach mean that archaeologists should actively engage with the website by adding and improving archaeological content. One way to do this is in the classroom: this …
How African Pasts Can Inspire Alternative Responses to Climate Change
How can we use the past to help us solve today’s urgent climate change concerns? Archaeology provides one way forward by providing a long-term view of what worked and what did not work in the past. Indigenous knowledge systems have long curated a range of survival strategies that provide powerful inspiration for thinking differently about sustainability. Inspired by Africanfuturism—or how writers of African descent have creatively reimagined Blac…
Pastoralism in Africa
Scholars working on the Arid Climate Adaptation and Cultural Innovation in Africa (ACACIA) project have, since the project's inception in 1995, provided some of the continent's best research on the
Four middle Holocene pillar sites in West Turkana, Kenya
Megalithic architecture is associated with spread of food production in many parts of the world, but archaeological investigations have focused mainly on megalithic sites among early agrarian societies. Africa offers the opportunity to examine megalithic construction—and related social phenomena—among mobile herders and hunter-gatherers with no access to domestic plants. In northwest Kenya, several megalithic "pillar sites" are known near Lake Tu…
The materiality of mobile pastoralism
This thesis represents the first comprehensive ethnoarchaeological study to date on the material culture of African mobile pastoralism, a way of life economically, culturally, and ideologically centered on the herding of livestock. In Africa, tens of millions of people today still rely on cattle-based pastoralism for survival in arid lands that are unsuitable for agricultural production. Our understanding of ancient pastoralism is still hampered,…
Early herders and monumental sites in eastern Africa
Using excavation and radiocarbon dating, the authors show that construction of megalithic pillar sites begins in eastern Africa by the fifth millennium BP, and is contemporary with the earliest herding in the region. Mobile herders and/or hunter-gatherers built and used these sites in a dynamic context of economic and social change. We are more familiar with monumentality as an adjunct of cereal cultivators-but this study demonstrates a relations…
The context of early megalithic architecture in eastern Africa
Megalithic ‘pillar sites’ built by middle Holocene peoples of the Turkana Basin in northwestern Kenya provide eastern Africa's earliest known example of monumental architecture. Radiometric dates place pillar site construction and use ~5000-4000 cal. BP. This social innovation occurred during a period of marked environmental and economic change: the level of Lake Turkana dropped dramatically, vast plains opened between the lake and neighbouring v…
Pastoral Neolithic sites on the southern Mbulu Plateau, Tanzania
As part of a larger project examining the introduction of herding into northern Tanzania, surveys and excavations were conducted at the southern edge of the Mbulu Plateau, documenting the presence of Narosura ceramics dating to the early third millennium BP, as well as a Later Stone Age occupation dated via ostrich eggshell to the tenth millennium BP. This marks the southernmost extent of the Pastoral Neolithic in eastern Africa. The paucity of s…
New Dates for Kansyore and Pastoral Neolithic Ceramics in the Eyasi Basin, Tanzania
This paper presents and contextualizes two radiocarbon dates directly obtained from Kansyore and Savanna Pastoral Neolithic (Narosura) ceramic sherds from sites near Lake Eyasi in Tanzania. The dates improve upon those obtained during prior research, which were compromised by problematic samples and stratigraphic disturbance. This underscores the importance of direct dating on diagnostic ceramics in areas with poor site integrity. The Eyasi Basin…
Pastoralism in Africa
Scholars working on the Arid Climate Adaptation and Cultural Innovation in Africa (ACACIA) project have, since the project's inception in 1995, provided some of the continent's best research on the
Pastoralism and Pottery Use
Archaeological ceramics from eastern Africa
Ceramics are an essential part of the Holocene archaeology of eastern Africa and the development of increasingly complex typologies has rightly played a key role in our understanding of chronology and social identity. However, this focus on taxonomies can also be restrictive, as we lose sight of the communities who made and used the ceramics in our endless search to classify and re-classify ceramics. Focusing on ceramics from the Great Lakes and …
Stone Cairns and Material Culture of the Middle to Late Holocene, Lake Turkana
A recent archival research project in the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) identified artifacts and human remains associated with the 1980 excavation of stone cairns and habitation areas on the west side of Lake Turkana. The presence of stone grave cairns across eastern Africa is common, but their cultural origins and construction times are enigmatic. This article presents the results of the archival project and contextualizes both the artifacts f…
Cemeteries on a moving frontier
Pastoralist Foodways Recorded in Organic Residues from Pottery Vessels of Modern Communities in Samburu, Kenya
Organic residue analyses of archaeological ceramics can provide important insights into ancient foodways. To date, however, there has been little critical reflection on how lipid residues might (or might not) reflect dietary practices or subsistence strategies more generally. A combination of ethnoarchaeological research and chemical and isotopic analyses of lipid residues from pottery made and used by modern Samburu pastoralists in northern Keny…
Pastoral Neolithic Settlement at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The later Holocene spread of pastoralism throughout eastern Africa profoundly changed socio-economic and natural landscapes. During the Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 5000–1200 B.P.), herders spread through southern Kenya and northern Tanzania—areas previously occupied only by hunter-gatherers—eventually developing the specialized forms of pastoralism that remain vital in this region today. Research on ancient pastoralism has been primarily restricted t…
Not just “nomadic jars”
Public Archaeology's Mammoth in the Room
Although archaeology has become increasingly concerned with engaging diverse publics, and has embraced the internet as a means of facilitating such engagement, attitudes towards Wikipedia have—understandably—been more ambivalent. Nevertheless, we argue here, Wikipedia's popularity and reach mean that archaeologists should actively engage with the website by adding and improving archaeological content. One way to do this is in the classroom: this …
Sorting the sheep from the goats in the Pastoral Neolithic
Organic technology in the Pastoral Neolithic
The bioarchaeology of mid-Holocene pastoralist cemeteries west of Lake Turkana, Kenya
Early herders in eastern Africa built elaborate megalithic cemeteries ~ 5000 BP overlooking what is now Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya. At least six 'pillar sites' were constructed during a time of rapid change: cattle, sheep, and goats were introduced to the basin as the lake was shrinking at the end of the African Humid Period. Cultural changes at this time include new lithic and ceramic technologies and the earliest monumentality in easter…
Nderit Ware” and the origins of pastoralist pottery in eastern Africa
Grinding-stone features from the Pastoral Neolithic at Luxmanda, Tanzania
The initial spread of food production in eastern Africa is associated with livestock herding during the Pastoral Neolithic. Recent excavation at Luxmanda, Tanzania, a site dating to c. 3000 BP, revealed circular installations of lower grinding stones and numerous handstones. This discovery, unprecedented for this era, challenges previous ideas about pastoralist mobility and subsistence
Buffering new risks? Environmental, social and economic changes in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period
This paper evaluates risk-oriented frameworks for explaining environmental, social, and economic changes faced by fishing and herding communities in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period (AHP, 15–5 ka). The orbitally-forced AHP created moist conditions, high lake levels, and unusual hydrological connections across much of northern and eastern Africa. As arid conditions set in and rainfall decreased between 5.3 and 3.9 ka in …
The Jarigole mortuary tradition reconsidered
The megalithic pillar sites found around Lake Turkana, Kenya, are monumental cemeteries built approximately 5000 years ago. Their construction coincides with the spread of pastoralism into the region during a period of profound climate change. Early work at the Jarigole pillar site suggested that these places were secondary burial grounds. Subsequent excavations at other pillar sites, however, have revealed planned mortuary cavities for predomina…
Detecting and mapping the 'ephemeral
Common assumptions about the ephemeral archaeological signature of pastoralist settlements have limited the application of geophysical techniques in the investigation of past herding societies. Here, the authors present a geophysical survey of Luxmanda, Tanzania, the largest-known settlement documented for the Pastoral Neolithic era in eastern Africa (c. 5000-1200 BP). The results demonstrate the value and potential of fluxgate gradiometry for th…
Mineralogy and Sourcing of a Stone Bead Industry Found in Communal Cemeteries Associated with Eastern Africa's First Pastoralists, ca. 5000 b.p
This article describes the mineralogy and sources for a spectacular stone bead industry associated with the first pastoralists in eastern Africa ca. 5000–4000 cal b.p. Around Lake Turkana, northwest Kenya, early pastoralists constructed at least seven mortuary monuments with platforms, pillars, cairns, and stone circles. Three sites—Lothagam North, Manemanya, and Jarigole—have yielded assemblages of stone and ostrich eggshell beads that adorned i…
How African Pasts Can Inspire Alternative Responses to Climate Change
How can we use the past to help us solve today’s urgent climate change concerns? Archaeology provides one way forward by providing a long-term view of what worked and what did not work in the past. Indigenous knowledge systems have long curated a range of survival strategies that provide powerful inspiration for thinking differently about sustainability. Inspired by Africanfuturism—or how writers of African descent have creatively reimagined Blac…
Archaeology (24 obras) · Geography (23 obras) · Pastoralism (18 obras) · Livestock (16 obras) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (16 obras) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (14 obras) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (14 obras) · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology (14 obras) · History (12 obras) · Geology (10 obras)