The water flow of this river and its tributaries provided the sedimentary context of reworked volcanic materials that buried and preserved the archaeological sites within the Melka Kunture Formation.

[4] The site, discovered by Gerard Dekker in 1963, was surveyed by Gérard Bailloud in 1964, and then systematically explored by a French mission directed by Jean Chavaillon (1965–1982 / 1993–1995).

[7] The sequence begins with the Oldowan site of Karre, about 1.7 million years old, which can be correlated to level B of Gombore I, on the right bank of the Awash.

The East African Later Stone Age is poorly documented at Melka Kunture, being represented so far by some finds at Wofi and Kella.

As recent analyses from samples from several sites in Melka Kunture bear out, these outcrops were used, ever since the earliest Oldowan phases, as an important source of raw material.

The exploitation of obsidian in the Melka region went on until historical times, leaving numerous and extensive accumulations of tens of thousands of blades, cores, and scars of this volcanic rock.

A museum was built at the site by the Oromia Culture and Tourism Commission with financial assistance from the European Community, consisting of four buildings with exhibits—one on prehistoric Africa, another on geology and volcanology, a third on paleoanthropology, the fourth on the prehistory of Melka Kunture.