Seronera: excavations at a stone bowl site in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

During the excavation of foundations for a new game lodge at Seronera in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, three complete stone bowls were collected by the construction contractor in 1970. These were brought to the attention of Messrs. Dalgliesh Marshall & Associates, architects and construction consultants for the lodge, who in turn notified the National Museum in Nairobi of the finds. As a result, the site was visited briefly by R. C. Soper, then Assistant Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, on November 24, 1970, to examine the context of the finds and determine whether the site merited excavation. Although Mr. Soper was unable to establish the precise provenance of the three stone bowls or their association (if any) with other artefacts, his careful inspection of soil heaps resulting from the contractor’s excavations revealed an additional stone bowl fragment (described below), together with other artefacts (especially potsherds) broadly resembling those that have been found in association with stone bowls at “neolithic” sites in the Central Rift Valley. Since there appeared to be several promising localities for excavation in the area to be occupied by the new game lodge, and since construction plans for the lodge called for paving and/or excavating most such localities, Mr. Soper concluded that rescue excavations should be carried out at Seronera at the earliest opportunity. Accordingly, an excavation permit was obtained from the Tanzanian government, and on January 26, 1971 an expedition composed of the author and two staff members of the British Institute left Nairobi for Seronera. During an excavation period of just over two weeks, six localities within the area to be occupied by the game lodge were tested; the total surface area represented by the six localities amounted to about 43.5 sq. m, and the depth of excavation varied from about 10 to 80 cm. All excavated soil was passed through a screen having five holes to the inch.