Engaruka

Engaruka is an abandoned system of ruins in the Great Rift Valley of northern Tanzania (2°58′58.80″S 35°57′0.00″E / 2.9830000°S 35.9500000°E / -2.9830000; 35.9500000Coordinates: 2°58′58.80″S 35°57′0.00″E / 2.9830000°S 35.9500000°E / -2.9830000; 35.9500000). Situated in the Arusha province, it is famed for its irrigation and cultivation structures. It is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in the Great Lakes region.

Site

Sometime in the 15th century, an iron age farming community with a large continuous village area on the footslopes of the Rift Valley escarpment, housing several thousand people developed an intricate irrigation and cultivation system, involving a stone-block canal channelling water from the "Crater Highlands" rift escarpment to stonelined cultivation terraces (Stump, Daryl 2006, Laulumaa, Vesa 2006). Measures were taken to prevent soil erosion and the fertility of the plots was increased by using the manure of stall fed cattle. For an unknown reason Engaruka was abandoned at latest in the mid-18th century. The site still poses many questions, including the identity of the founders, how they developed such an ingenious farming system, and why they left (Stump, Daryl 2003).

Construction of Engaruka has traditionally been credited to the ancestors of the Iraqw, a Cushitic-speaking group of cultivators residing in the Mbulu Highlands of northern Tanzania. The modern Iraqw practice an intensive form of self-contained agriculture that bears a remarkable similarity to the ruins of stone-walled canals, dams and furrows that are found at Engaruka. Iraqw historical traditions likewise relate that their last significant migration to their present area of inhabitation occurred about two or three centuries ago after conflicts with the Barbaig sub-group of the Datog Nilotes, herders who are known to have occupied the Crater Highlands above Engaruka prior to the arrival of the Maasai. This population movement is reportedly consistent with the date of the Engaruka site's desertion, which is estimated at somewhere between 1700 and 1750. It also roughly coincides with the start of the diminishment of the Engaruka River's flow as well as those of other streams descending from the Ngorongoro highlands; water sources around which Engaruka's irrigation practices were centered.[1] According to the Maasai Nilotes, who are the present-day occupants of Engaruka, the Iraqw also already inhabited the site when their own ancestors first entered the region during the 18th century.[2]

In addition, Engaruka has also been linked to the Sonjo, a numerically small Bantu-speaking living some 60 miles to the northwest.[1] Like the Iraqw, they are known for their use of irrigation systems in agriculture. The Sonjo also maintain terraced village sites, albeit of considerably more rudimentary form than what is found at Engaruka.[2] New studies have revealed lot of unknown perspectives of the past of Engaruka, for example the Middle Stone Age and Neolithic Stone Age occupation history of the area (Seitsonen, Oula 2005).

Explorers

The first explorer to record the existence of these ruins was Dr. Gustav Fischer, who passed them on July 5, 1883, and compared them to the tumbled-down walls of ancient castles. Drs Scoeller and Kaiser mentioned the ruins of "Ngaruku" including great stone circles and dams in 1896-97. The first detailed and archaeological investigation was by Hans Reck, in 1913. Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey investigated the site in 1935, but were disappointed by the lack of burial sites. They estimated a population of 30,000 (now considered exaggerated).

Through the years archaeological studies have been conducted for example through the later part of the 20th century by Dr. John Sutton of British Institute in Eastern Africa, and in 2002–2005 by Professor Ari Siiriainen's team from the Department of Archaeology University of Helsinki in Cultural Ecology of the East African Savanna Environment in a Long-term Historical Perspective -Project. More recently studies have been done by Dr. Darryl Stump of the University College of London as part of his PhD thesis work in 2001-2004. Started in 2006 the University of Helsinki project continued Siiriainen's work in a continuation project LESE (Long-term Ecology of the Savannah Environment) which concentrates on studying the connections between Engaruka and Sonjo area.

Modern Engaruka

Engaruka is also the name of a modern village not far from the archaeological site.

The Maasai herd cattle throughout the rift region, and conduct tourist tours of the site.

Notes

  1. 1 2 Finke, Jens (2003). The Rough Guide to Tanzania. Rough Guides. pp. 437–438. ISBN 1858287839.
  2. 1 2 Matthiessen, Peter (2010). The Tree Where Man Was Born. Penguin Classics. pp. 275–277. ISBN 0143106244.

References

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