Skulls and skeletons at the Nairobi National Musuem

The Nairobi National Museum at Museum Hill is one of the National Museums of Kenya – there are regional museums and other museums that come under the NMK umbrella. The Nairobi National Museum (which also has the Nairobi Snake Park on site) has interesting earth sciences collections including the archaeology section (the study of human prehistory), paleontology section (biology and geology prehistory, especially mammals such as elephants, but excluding humans) and palynology/palaeobotany section (fossil pollens). It is internationally recognized for its contribution to prehistoric studies and has one of the largest collections in the world.

The Archaeology Section at the museum includes stone artifacts, pottery, bones, harpoons, iron artifacts, shells, beads, ochre, and wooden vessels from 2.5 million to 1.8 million years ago from the West Lake Turkana Basin to the Acheulean period (1.8 million years to 300,000 years ago) to Middle Stone Age (300,000 to 50,000 years ago) to the Later Stone Age (50,000 to 5,000 years ago) to the Neolithic period (5,000 to 1,000 years ago) to the Iron Age and modern day.

Researchers of the Nairobi National Museum have a number of current key research projects including the West Turkana Archaeological Research Project, the Origins of Modern Humans Project (in the Naivasha-Nakuru and Narok areas of Kenya), the Thimlich Ohinga Archaeological Research Project, the Lake Magadi Archaeological Research Project, the Baringo Project, the Swahili Studies and Coastal Peoples of Kenya summer field program, the Laikipia Archaeological Project, and the Obsidian Source Survey in Kenya.

Some recent discoveries in the last five years include fossil hand bones, foot prints, stone tools, rock art, and Iron Age sites in the Mt. Kenya region.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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