A preliminary re-assessment of Garba III at Melka Kunture, a Middle Stone Age site with archaic Homo sapiens remains

Garba III is one of the many sites of Melka Kunture, in the middle Awash Valley, where the archaeological record starts a c. 1.7 Ma. It was excavated in the Seventies of last century under the direction of Francis Hours, who was only able to publish a few preliminary reports before his untimely death. Hours recognized a large MSA assemblage with some small handaxes. An age close to 150ka was suggested. Three skull fragments related to Homo sapiens were also discovered. Notwithstanding the lack of detailed analysis and of published information, Garba III has ever since been quoted in the scientific literature. In 2011 the original site was re-located, geological trenches were dug, and the stratigraphic sequence was documented into detail. The result of the geomorphological investigation and of U-series dating will be presented at the congress. The study of the large lithic collection, now at the National Museum of Ethiopia, is under way. Except for a few flint and basalt artefacts, obsidian was invariably used in the analysed sample. Small obsidian pebbles were knapped by bipolar percussion, but larger blocks were also available, and there is some evidence of discoid and Levallois reduction sequences. Triangular or quadrangular flakes were produced, generally less than 30mm long, and never more than 60mm in length. Formal tools include scrapers, endscrapers, denticulates and points with a thick triangular section. Pièces esquillées are frequent, mostly on the ventral face, and occur in association with other retouched edges. In a preliminary palaeontological analysis, Denis Geraads identified a hippo of very large size, a large giraffe, at least five bovid species, including a bovine, two alcelaphines (?Damaliscus and Connochaetes), a reduncine (kob), and an antilopine (cf. Gazella), as well as a few Equus remains.