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Science 19 May 1978:
Vol. 200. no. 4343, pp. 766 - 768
DOI: 10.1126/science.200.4343.766
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Articles

Namoratunga: The First Archeoastronomical Evidence in Sub-Saharan Africa

B. M. LYNCH 1 and L. H. ROBBINS 1

1 Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824

Namoratunga, a megalithic site in northwestern Kenya, has an alignment of 19 basalt pillars that are nonrandomly oriented toward certain stars and constellations. The same stars and constellations are used by modern eastern Cushitic peoples to calculate an accurate calendar. The fact that Namoratunga dates to about 300 B.C. suggests that a prehistoric calendar based on detailed astronomical knowledge was in use in eastern Africa.

Submitted on November 21, 1977
Revised on February 8, 1978


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Lake Turkana Archaeology: The Holocene.
L. H. Robbins (2006)
Ethnohistory 53, 71-93
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)