Kakapel Rockshelter is a Kenyan national monument and archeological site named after the village where it is located on the western slopes of Mt.
[5] Community archeology as well as collaborations between the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and the Trust for African Rock Art (TARA), the Rock Art Research Institute (RARI), and the Max Planck Institute continue to bring the lifeways of ancient people in this region to life.
[2] Kakapel (formerly Kakapeli) is a granitic inselberg in the Chelelmuk hills in Busia County in western Kenya.
[2] The second phase of research was carried out first by RARI and the National Museums of Kenya where the art of Kakapel was retraced.
[2] Through community engagement, TARA and the NMK carried out training and built a cultural center to ensure the conservation of the site.
[2] Excavations resumed in the region in 2018, as part of collaborative research between the National Museums of Kenya and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.
[4] Notably, is the investigation of the importance of shape and size of grain to distinguish Eleusine corocana (finger millet) populations across time and space.
[3] Charcoal and botanical remains from features that were dated by radiocarbon show that the site also had a later Iron Age occupation (670–914 cal BP).
[1][2] The excavations yielded a sizable collection that includes ceramics (roulette pottery), wood, human remains, charcoal, seeds, and nutshells as well as archaeological features (pits and hearths).
[4] Soil samples collected during the excavation were floated to separate heavy and light fractions in order to extract the archaeobotanical remains.
[3] The southward orientation of the panels protects the art from the east–west winds that blow in the area naturally conserving the site.