Editing History of Kenya (section)

== Neolithic ==
{{See also|Pastoral Neolithic|Savanna Pastoral Neolithic|3=Elmenteitan}}

The first inhabitants of present-day Kenya were [[hunter-gatherer]] groups, akin to the modern [[Khoisan]] speakers.<ref name="EhretC18">{{Cite book|title=The Civilizations of Africa: a History to 1800|last=Ehret|first=Christopher|publisher=University Press of Virginia|year=2002|isbn=9780813920856|location=USA|name-list-style=vanc}}</ref> The [[Kansyore Pottery|Kansyore culture]], dating from the mid 5th millennium BCE to the 1st millennium BCE was one of East Africa's earliest ceramic producing group of hunter-gatherers. This culture was located at [[Gogo Falls|Gogo falls]] in [[Migori County|Migori county]] near [[Lake Victoria]].<ref>Dale, Darla; Ashley, Ceri (23 April 2010). "Holocene hunter-fisher-gatherer communities: new perspectives on Kansyore Using communities of Western Kenya". Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. 45: 24–48. doi:10.1080/00672700903291716. S2CID 161788802</ref> Kenya's rock art sites date between 2000BCE and 1000 CE. This tradition thrived at [[Mfangano Island]], Chelelemuk hills, [[Namoratunga]] and Lewa Downs. The rock paintings are attributed to the [[Twa people]], a hunter-gatherer group that was once widespread in East Africa.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-12-15 |title=Kenya - Trust For African Rock Art |url=https://africanrockart.org/kenya/ |access-date=2023-08-02 |language=en-GB |archive-date=11 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230911041957/https://africanrockart.org/kenya/ |url-status=live }}</ref> For the most part, these communities were assimilated into various food-producing societies that began moving into Kenya from the 3rd millennium BCE.

Linguistic evidence points to a relative sequence of population movements into Kenya that begins with the entry into northern Kenya of a possibly [[Southern Cushitic languages|Southern Cushitic]] speaking population around the 3rd millennium BCE. They were [[Pastoralism|pastoralists]] who kept domestic stock, including cattle, sheep, goat, and donkeys.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology|vauthors=Lane PJ|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|isbn=9780199569885|veditors=Mitchell P, Lane PJ|chapter=The Archaeology of Pastoralism and Stock-Keeping in East Africa|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199569885.013.0040}}</ref> Remarkable megalithic sites from this time period include the possibly archaeoastronomical site [[Namoratunga]] on the west side of Lake Turkana. One of these megalithic sites, [[Lothagam North Pillar Site]], is East Africa's earliest and largest monumental cemetery. At least 580 bodies are found in this well planned cemetery.<ref>Hildebrand, Elisabeth; et al. (2018). "A monumental cemetery built by eastern Africa's first herders near Lake Turkana, Kenya". PNAS. 115 (36): 8942–8947. doi:10.1073/pnas.1721975115. PMC 6130363. {{PMID|30127016}}.</ref> By 1000 BCE and even earlier, pastoralism had spread into central Kenya and northern [[Tanzania]]. [[Eburran industry|Eburran hunter gatherers]], who had lived in the [[Ol Doinyo Eburru]] volcano complex near [[Lake Nakuru]] for thousands of years, start adopting livestock around this period.<ref>Ambrose, Stanley H. (1998): Chronology of the Later Stone Age and food production in East Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science, 25 (4): 377–392, doi: 10.1006/jasc.1997.0277, PDF.</ref>

In present times the descendants of the Southern Cushitic speakers are located in north central Tanzania near Lake Eyasi. Their past distribution, as determined by the presence of loanwords in other languages, encompasses the known distribution of the [[Savanna Pastoral Neolithic|Highland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic culture]].<ref name="books.google.co.ke">{{Cite book|title=From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa|vauthors=Ambrose SH|publisher=University of California Press|year=1984|veditors=Clark JD, Brandt SA|pages=234|chapter=The Introduction of Pastoral Adaptations to the Highlands of East Africa|isbn=9780520045743|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dftPHu1o2s8C&pg=PA234}}</ref>

Beginning around 700 BCE, [[Southern Nilotic]] speaking communities whose homelands lay somewhere near the common border between Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia moved south into the western highlands and [[Rift Valley Province|Rift Valley]] region of Kenya.

The arrival of the Southern Nilotes in Kenya occurred shortly before the introduction of iron to East Africa. The past distribution of the Southern Nilotic speakers, as inferred from place names, loan words and oral traditions includes the known distribution of [[Elmenteitan]] sites.<ref name="books.google.co.ke"/>