Editing History of Kenya (section)

==Paleolithic==
{{See also|Early Stone Age|Middle Stone Age|3=Later Stone Age}}Fossils found in Kenya have shown that [[primates]] inhabited the area for more than 20 million years. In 1929, the first evidence of the presence of ancient early human ancestors in Kenya was discovered when [[Louis Leakey]] unearthed one million year old [[Acheulian]] handaxes at the [[Kariandusi prehistoric site|Kariandusi Prehistoric Site]] in southwest Kenya.<ref>{{cite journal|vauthors=Shipton C|date=2011|title=Taphonomy and Behaviour at the Acheulean Site of Kariandusi, Kenya|url=https://uq.academia.edu/CeriShipton/Papers/657047/Taphonomy_and_Behaviour_at_the_Acheulean_site_of_Kariandusi|journal=[[African Archaeological Review|Afr. Archaeol. Rev.]]|volume=28|issue=2|pages=141–155|jstor=41486769|doi=10.1007/s10437-011-9089-1|s2cid=162280131}}</ref> Subsequently, many species of early [[hominid]] have been discovered in Kenya. The oldest, found by [[Martin Pickford]] in the year 2000, is the six million year old ''[[Orrorin tugenensis]]'', named after the [[Tugen Hills]] where it was unearthed.<ref>{{cite journal |display-authors=3 |vauthors=[[Brigitte Senut|Senut B]], Pickford M, Gommery D, Mein P, Cheboi K, Coppens Y |date=2001 |title=First hominid from the Miocene (Lukeino Formation, Kenya) |url=http://www2.ku.edu/~lba/Anth703/Articles/ORRORIN.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=[[Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences|C. R. Acad. Sci.]] |volume=332 |issue=2 |pages=140 |bibcode=2001CRASE.332..137S |doi=10.1016/S1251-8050(01)01529-4 |s2cid=14235881 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100525012101/http://www2.ku.edu/~lba/Anth703/Articles/ORRORIN.pdf |archive-date=25 May 2010 |access-date=1 December 2010}}</ref> It is the second oldest fossil hominid in the world after ''[[Sahelanthropus tchadensis]]''.

In 1995 [[Meave Leakey]] named a new species of hominid ''[[Australopithecus anamensis]]'' following a series of fossil discoveries near [[Lake Turkana]] in 1965, 1987 and 1994. It is around 4.1&nbsp;million years old.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/africato1875mode00hall/page/n15|title=Africa to 1875: A Modern History|last=Hallett|first=Robin|publisher=University of Michigan|year=1970|isbn=9780472071609|location=Ann Arbor|oclc=601840204|name-list-style=vanc}}</ref>{{Rp|35}}

In 2011, 3.2 million year old stone tools were discovered at [[Lomekwi]] near Lake Turkana - these are the oldest stone tools found anywhere in the world and pre-date the emergence of ''Homo''.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32804177 |title=Oldest stone tools pre-date earliest human s |last=Morelle |first=Rebecca |author-link=Rebecca Morelle |date=2015 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=7 March 2019 |archive-date=19 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119052202/https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32804177 |url-status=live }}</ref>

One of the most famous and complete hominid skeletons ever discovered was the 1.6-million-year-old ''[[Homo erectus]]'' known as [[Nariokotome boy|Nariokotome Boy]], which was found by [[Kamoya Kimeu]] in 1984 on an excavation led by [[Richard Leakey]].<ref>{{Cite book|author1=Walker, Alan |author2=Leakey, Richard E.|title=The Nariokotome Homo erectus skeleton|date=1993|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=0-674-60075-4|oclc=26633945}}</ref>

The oldest [[Acheulean]] tools ever discovered anywhere in the world are from [[Turkana District|West Turkana]], and were dated in 2011 through the method of [[magnetostratigraphy]] to about 1.76 million years old.<ref>{{Cite journal|display-authors=3|vauthors=Lepre CJ, Roche H, Kent DV, Harmand S, Quinn RL, Brugal JP, Texier PJ, Lenoble A, Feibel CS|date=2011|title=An earlier origin for the Acheulian|journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]|volume=477|issue=7362|pages=82–85|doi=10.1038/nature10372|pmid=21886161|bibcode=2011Natur.477...82L|s2cid=4419567}}</ref>

East Africa, including Kenya, is one of the earliest regions where modern humans (''[[Homo sapiens]]'') are believed to have lived. Evidence was found in 2018, dating to about 320,000 years ago, at the Kenyan site of [[Olorgesailie]], of the early emergence of [[Behavioral modernity|modern behaviors]] including: long-distance trade networks (involving goods such as obsidian), the use of pigments, and the possible making of projectile points. It is observed by the authors of three 2018 studies on the site, that the evidence of these behaviors is approximately contemporary to the earliest known ''Homo sapiens'' fossil remains from Africa (such as at [[Jebel Irhoud]] and [[Florisbad Skull|Florisbad]]), and they suggest that complex and modern behaviors had already begun in Africa around the time of the emergence of ''Homo sapiens''.<ref name="NPR-593591796">{{cite news |last=Chatterjee |first=Rhitu |author-link=Rhitu Chatterjee |title=Scientists Are Amazed By Stone Age Tools They Dug Up in Kenya |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/03/15/593591796/scientists-are-amazed-by-stone-age-tools-they-dug-up-in-kenya |date=15 March 2018 |work=[[NPR]] |access-date=15 March 2018 |archive-date=15 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315193655/https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/03/15/593591796/scientists-are-amazed-by-stone-age-tools-they-dug-up-in-kenya |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="The Atlantic-555674">{{cite news |last=Yong |first=Ed |author-link=Ed Yong |title=A Cultural Leap at the Dawn of Humanity – New finds from Kenya suggest that humans used long-distance trade networks, sophisticated tools, and symbolic pigments right from the dawn of our species. |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/a-deeper-origin-of-complex-human-cultures/555674/ |date=15 March 2018 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |access-date=15 March 2018 |archive-date=17 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117002023/https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/a-deeper-origin-of-complex-human-cultures/555674/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Brooks">{{Cite journal|title=Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age|journal=Science|volume=360|issue=6384|pages=90–94|year=2018|doi = 10.1126/science.aao2646|pmid=29545508|vauthors=Brooks AS, Yellen JE, Potts R, Behrensmeyer AK, Deino AL, Leslie DE, Ambrose SH, Ferguson JR, d'Errico F, Zipkin AM, Whittaker S, Post J, Veatch EG, Foecke K, Clark JB|bibcode=2018Sci...360...90B|doi-access=free}}</ref> Further evidence of modern behavior was found in 2021 when evidence of Africa's earliest funeral was found. A 78,000-year-old [[Middle Stone Age]] grave of a three-year-old child was discovered in [[Panga ya Saidi]] cave. Researchers said the child's head appeared to have been laid on a pillow. The body had been laid in a fetal position. Michael Petraglia, a professor of human evolution and prehistory at the [[Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History|Max Planck Institute]] said, “It is the oldest human burial in Africa. It tells us something about our cognition, our sociality, and our behaviors and they are all very familiar to us today.”<ref>{{Cite news|last=Gill|first=Victoria|date=5 May 2021|title=Ancient child grave was Africa's earliest funeral|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56986457|access-date=5 May 2021|archive-date=5 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505153729/https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56986457|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Sample|first=Ian|date=5 May 2021|title=Archaeologists uncover oldest human burial in Africa|url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/05/archaeologists-uncover-oldest-human-burial-in-africa |access-date=5 May 2021|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>