one reason why prehistoric East Africa, of all African regions, deserves special recognition. East Africa is also the birthplace of a rich technological history that has produced: (1) evidence of a technological threshold with the oldest known stone tools at 2.6 million years ago from the Gona deposits at Hadar (Harris 1983; Semaw et al. 1997); (2) possibly the earliest evidence for controlled use of fire in Kenya at 1.4 million years ago (Harris 1982; Gowlett 1992); and (3) equally importantly, the region is besieged with vital archaeological sites that are of paramount importance in defining Early Stone Age (Early Paleolithic) and Middle Stone Age (Middle Paleolithic) industries throughout Africa (Clark 1969; Leakey 1971; Harris 1978; Leakey and Roe 1994; Isaac 1997). Most of what is known today about East African prehistory resulted from the research of a handful of widely acclaimed archaeologists over the last fifty years.

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Archeological Sites in Africa