THE ACHEULEAN SITE OF KILOMBE - STRATIGRA PHY, GEOCHRONOLOGY, HABITATAND LITHIC INDUSTRY

Kilombe is an Acheulean site complex situated in Kenya on the western flank of the Rift Valley north-west of Nakuru. Sediments of the local geological sequence overlie lavas dated to c. 1.8 Ma. Artefacts are fo und underneath a tuff with reversed magnetisation, indicating an age o f greater than 0.7 Ma for the site. Large numbers of hand-axes, cleave rs, other artefacts and manuports are concentrated mainly on a single extensive horizon. On this main site (Kilombe GqJh 1) artefacts occur densely scattered over an area of at least 14 000 sq metres. Study of bifaces from two excavations and from surface scatters shows that ther e is little variation from part to part of the site. It is possible, h owever, to isolate modes of small and large bifaces within the collect ions. Two low-density sites with bifaces have been found some distance from the main site and at a higher level.