The Pleistocene Beds of Kanam and Kanjera, Kavirondo, Kenya

Abstract

Pleistocene deposits near Homa were first visited by Dr. F. Oswald (1914), who described the exposures at Kanjera. Dr. L. S. B. Leakey and his colleagues of the 1931–2 East African Archaeological Expedition located human remains while collecting the fauna of the beds, and the importance of this discovery led to resumption of work on the area by the 1934–5 expedition to which the writer acted as geologist, and to a special study of the geology of the area and provenance of the human remains, for which Professor P. G. H. Boswell joined the expedition at Dr. Leakey's invitation, his visit being facilitated by the Royal Society. Mr. E. J. Wayland, of the Uganda Geological Survey, also spent a short period with the expedition before Professor BoswelPs return. It was a sad disappointment to ali concerned that the early date of the human remains could not be established with certainty (Boswell, 1935), but in tne present note it is proposed to describe the geology of the deposits, which is itself of considerable interest.