The beginning of time? Evidence for catastrophic drought in Baringo in the early nineteenth century

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2182422
AutoresDavid M Anderson (0000-0002-0328-1640, University of Warwick, autor correspondente)
Ano2016
Volume10
Fascículo1
Páginas45-66
Data de publicação2016-01-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Eastern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1753-1055 • E-ISSN: 1753-1063
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17531055.2015.1134532
OpenAlexW2295338892
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas18
Referências citadas57

New developments in the collection of palaeo-data over the past two decades have transformed our understanding of climate and environmental history in eastern Africa. This article utilises instrumental and proxy evidence of historical lake-level fluctuations from Baringo and Bogoria, along with other Rift Valley lakes, to document the timing and magnitude of hydroclimate variability at decadal to century time scales since 1750. These data allow us to construct a record of past climate variation not only for the Baringo basin proper, but also across a sizable portion of central and northern Kenya. This record is then set alongside historical evidence, from oral histories gathered amongst the peoples of northern Kenya and the Rift Valley and from contemporary observations recorded by travellers through the region, to offer a reinterpretation of human activity and its relationship to environmental history in the nineteenth century. The results reveal strong evidence of a catastrophic drought in the early nineteenth century, the effects of which radically alters our historical understanding of the character of settlement, mobility and identity within the Baringo–Bogoria basin

Archaeology · Climate change · Environmental history · Geography · Historical record · Reinterpretation · Rift valley · Structural basin · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · History · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Soil erosion and sediment transport · Geology · Paleontology