Faunal Diversity, Iron Technology, and Socio-Economic Change: Analysis of Iron Age Remains From Chemai, Western Kenya

Significant social, economic, and technological changes have marked the last two millennia of prehistory in East Africa.  With quantitative analyses of a multi-proxy data set from Chemai Rockshelter, an Iron Age archaeological site in Western Province, Kenya, we examine the relationships between subsistence and exchange strategies, settlement, and iron technology in this region over the last c. 1300 years BP.  Changes in the representation of domestic and wild faunas, as well as iron remains, are presented with the goal of producing a clearer picture of these processes over this timeframe. The results of our various analyses, including measurement of faunal diversity and Correspondence Analysis, suggest that a relatively inverse relationship between wild faunal usage and later iron technology adoption characterized the later part of the Iron Age in this area, and moreover, that increased sedentism with greater emphasis on combined agropastoral economic strategies was likely associated with this transition.