Archaeological survey around Lake Beseka (Northern Main Ethiopian Rift)

Behailu Habte Endalew (1) , Clément Ménard (1) , François Bon (1)

1 TRACES - Travaux et recherches archéologiques sur les cultures, les espaces et les sociétés

Here we report the recent archaeological survey we have conducted around Lake Beseka (Northern Main Ethiopian Rift) between 18th -24th December 2018. The survey is initiated, in the framework of the doctoral research of the first author (BH), to retrace the previous Later Stone Age sites, notably FeJx4, and to help document new archaeological context in the surroundings. FeJx4 is one of the earliest Later Stone Age sites in Ethiopia and the Horn which was excavated under the direction of Desmond Clark and Steven Brandt in 1970s (University of California, Berkeley). This survey work has thus brought renewed data on the archaeological and geological contexts of Lake Beseka area, more significantly by relocating the geological fault where the proverbial FeJx4 was excavated. Particularly, we are lucky enough to find this area remained unflooded considering the magnitude of the lake expansion since 1970s. Furthermore, the exploration around eastern Lake Beseka and Fentale areas has provided first-hand contextual information about the possible traces of prehistoric human occupations in the areas.

Mots clés: Lake Beseka; Later Stone Age

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Behailu Habte Endalew, Clément Ménard, François Bon. Archaeological survey around Lake Beseka (Northern Main Ethiopian Rift). [Research Report] University of Toulouse Jean Jaures and Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (Ethiopia). 2019, 18 p. ⟨hal-02047463v2⟩