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Savanna Pastoral Neolithic (East African Stone Bowl Culture)

3250 BC – 650 BC
CultureAfrica

A collection of South Cushitic-speaking pastoralist societies (formerly called the 'Stone Bowl Culture') that spread cattle- and caprine-herding from the Horn of Africa/Sudan into the Kenyan Rift Valley and northern Tanzania during the Pastoral Neolithic. An initial Lowland phase (from roughly 5,200 years before present) in northern Kenya was followed by a Highland phase (from roughly 3,300 years before present) in the Kenya/Tanzania highlands; material culture includes distinctive carved stone bowls, pestles, cairn burials, and Nderit/Narosura pottery traditions.

Stone-bowl burial practice fades out by roughly 1,300 years before present; the population's Cushitic-speaking descendants were progressively displaced/absorbed as Nilotic and Bantu-speaking groups expanded into the region.

Borders in 3250 BC · drawn from 1 sourced border frame
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Further reading

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