Engaruka

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Engaruka is an abandoned system of ruins in the Great Rift Valley of northern Tanzania, famed for its irrigation and cultivation system. It is considered one of the most important Tanzanian archaeological sites.

1 The Site
2 Explorers
3 Modern Engaruka
4 References

[edit] The Site

Sometime in the 15th century, an iron age farmer community of seven villages, 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 stone terraces. 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 around 1700. The site still poses many questions, including the identity of the founders, how they developed such an ingenious farming system, and why they left. The site has been linked to the Sonjo, a people living some 60 miles to the northwest known for their use of irrigation systems in agriculture (Nurse & Rottland 1991).

[edit] Explorers

The first explorer to record the existence of these ruins was Dr. Gustav Fisher, 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 cricles 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). More recent excavations have been conducted by John Sutton and Ari Siiriäinen of the University of Helsinki as part of the Cultural Ecology of the East African Savannah Project.

[edit] 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.

[edit] References

Nurse, Derek & Franz Rottland. 1991. ‘Sonjo: Description, Classification, History’, in Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika, 12/13, 171-289.
Engaruka Collection of excerpts from different sources, by the nTZ, Northern Tanzania Information Resource
Helsingin yliopisto - Arkeologia University of Helsinki page on investigations of Lanet and Engaruka, in English.
Engaruka: the success and abandonment of an integrated irrigation system, c15th - 17th centuries Abstract of paper by John Sutton
Engaruka (Tanzania) Dictionary of Archaeology entry on About.com
Maps, Weather, and Airports for Engaruka, Tanzania, United Rep. of Satellite maps and weather graphs, including photo of the crater highlands lake related to the site.