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Mochena Borago Rockshelter, Ethiopia

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Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa

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Abstract

Mochena Borago Rockshelter (MB, 6.897° N, 37.755° E) has played a pivotal role in recognizing ecologically rich—but hitherto poorly known—highland tropical SW Ethiopia as an important region for understanding Late Pleistocene and Holocene hunter-gatherer lifeways and population movements in and out of the Horn of Africa. Since 1995, international archaeological projects have made MB one of only a handful of sites in the Horn that preserves a chronometrically dated archaeological sequence spanning much of the last 50,000 years. Recent archaeological research at MB, reported here for the first time, indicates that human occupation of the shelter extends considerably beyond the effective limits of radiocarbon dating. Of primary importance, these preserved traces of human occupation offer a new opportunity to explore the behavioral evolution and “Out of Africa” dispersals of Homo sapiens across an extended sequence that may span late MIS 5, MIS 4, and/or early MIS 3. This includes testing the hypothesis that the diverse, relatively moist environments of tropical highland SW Ethiopia sustained hunter-gatherer populations during extended periods of aridity (e.g., MIS 4) when many other parts of eastern Africa, the Sahel, and Sahara experienced profound human depopulation. SW Ethiopia may have served as a source area for humans who subsequently dispersed during early MIS 3.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the communities surrounding Mochena Borago for being valuable stakeholders and stewards of Mochena Borago as an important element in their cultural landscape. In nearby Sodo, we are grateful to the Wolaita Zone Cultural Office and Wolaita-Sodo University; administrators, faculty, and staff from both institutions have been important partners in field research and education/outreach with student and public communities in the area. The Ethiopian Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region have kindly provided permission and infrastructure for many years of fieldwork and analysis. Special thanks go to Oliver Bödeker, Olaf Bubenzer, and Svenja Meyer (geomorphological research 2010–2014), Stanley Ambrose and the University of Illinois (hosting ochre analysis by BK), Christopher Stevenson (obsidian hydration research), Girma Genene (local outreach efforts 2019–2020), Aberham Bachore (insights on Wolaita cultural geography), and Olivia Kracht, Michaela Tizazu, Evan Wilson, and Katja Zimmer (senior excavators and spatial data personnel 2018–2020). Other students from Ethiopia, the US, and Germany have made vital contributions to excavations and analysis. Fieldwork has been funded by the US National Science Foundation (Grant BCS 0553371), a Fulbright fellowship to EF, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation – Project ID: 5744011 – SFB 806), the University of Florida Center for African Studies, the UF International Center, and the UF in Ethiopia program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anthropology Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Steven A. Brandt & Abebe Mengistu Taffere

  2. Anthropology Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    Elisabeth A. Hildebrand

  3. Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Ralf Vogelsang

  4. Centro Interdisciplinar de Arqueologia e Evolução do Comportamento Humano (ICArEHB), Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal

    Erich C. Fisher

  5. Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Brady Kelsey

  6. Department of Geology, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Peter Lanzarone

  7. Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Wien, Austria

    Hannah Parow-Souchon

  8. Department of Bible Studies, Archeology, & the Ancient Near East, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel

    Hannah Parow-Souchon

  9. Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Hannah Parow-Souchon

  10. Department of Anthropology and Geography, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC, USA

    Benjamin D. Smith

  11. UMR 7209, CNRS et Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

    Joséphine Lesur

  12. The Basque Museum & Cultural Center, Boise, ID, USA

    Kylie Bermensolo

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  1. Steven A. Brandt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven A. Brandt .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology and Center for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

    Amanuel Beyin

  2. Institute of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    David K. Wright

  3. Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    Jayne Wilkins

  4. Department of Anthropology and Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Deborah I. Olszewski

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Brandt, S.A. et al. (2023). Mochena Borago Rockshelter, Ethiopia. In: Beyin, A., Wright, D.K., Wilkins, J., Olszewski, D.I. (eds) Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2_28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2_28

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