Beads made of perforated ostrich egg shells found at the site have been dated to 40,000 years ago.

[1][2][3] Enkapune Ya Muto is located on the Mau Escarpment above the Naivasha basin in the Central Rift Valley.

Underneath the shelter is a steep 2400-meter drop into a gully located on the west side of the Rift Valley.

The depth of the excavation was 5.54 m.[3] Stanley H. Ambrose's Chronology of the Later Stone Age and Food Production in East Africa splits Enkapune Ya Muto into 18 main strata.

Radiocarbon dating has been used to estimate the ages of these layers based on artifacts and fauna in Enkapune Ya Muto.

Some dates are less reliable than others due to small sample sizes or contamination from long periods of storage.

***: Multiple earlier start dates have been found, but due to small sample size, they are viewed as unreliable.

The transition period to the Elmenteitan occurs approximately 45-55 cm below the top of the Iron Age level and is dated to 1295 BP.

Ceramics, dated to 2700 and 3000 BP, are not identifiable as a known tradition, but the lithic tools are attributed to Eburran Phase 5.

Unlike the Elmenteitan period, animals over 20 months old show a large frequency drop, suggesting culling almost always happened at that age.

The wild fauna found consisted of oribi, steinbok, reedbuck, bush duiker, bushbuck, and serval.

The first domesticated caprines at Enkapune Ya Muto were found in the middle of the layer dated to 4000 BP.

The presence of warthog and cheetah remains suggests a receding of the montane forest previously near the shelter, as both rely on open grasslands to survive.

Curtis Marean notes that Lake Naivasha had begun to retreat during the time period of RBL2.3, likely creating a "short-grass" habitat.

Marean uses these faunal remains to claim that the Holocene drying trend began during the formation of DBS.

Ambrose further says that decreased rainfall and an approaching forest ecotone may have led to increased occupation intensity.

It contains high artifact density, in particular of obsidian, and well-preserved bones, though the sample size is small.

The present wild fauna are giant forest hog, roan, bushpig, bohor reedbuck, bush duiker, buffalo, eland, bushbuck, lesser kudu, bovids, black-backed jackal, spotted hyaena, and serval cats.

Some typically Middle Stone Age tools are present as well such as parti-bifacially flaked small knives and discoidal cores.

Such a large amount of ostrich eggshell beads and evidence of manufacturing suggests a period of high occupation.