[2] Research at Mochena Borago is helping to reconstruct human behavior during the Late Pleistocene, and the paleoenvironment that Homo sapiens would have inhabited at this time in the Horn of Africa.

[1] This ravine serves as a year-round source of freshwater for the locals of Mount Damota, and comes from streams of precipitation that fall from the top of the mountain chain.

[4] The high biodiversity as well as prevalence of plant and animal resources, both wild and domesticated, in the area surrounding Mount Damota is consistent environmentally with other regions in the southwest Ethiopian Highlands.

[3] About 125-100 ka during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5, when conditions were warm and humid, the first dispersals of Homo sapiens out of Africa and into Asia took place.

As a potential refugium, archaeological excavations at Mochena Borago may be able to provide vital links between human innovations in technology, organization, mobility, etc.

[4] Excavations were first carried out by GEPCA from 1998 to 2001 in the Holocene layers and some of the Late Pleistocene deposits under new director, Xavier Gutherz from the University of Montpellier in France.

[3] Direction of the site was transferred in 2006 to Dr. Steven Brandt and Dr. Elisabeth Hildebrand, who started the Southwest Ethiopia Archaeological Project (SWEAP), beginning the focus on the Pleistocene deposits of Mochena Borago.

Gutherz identified pottery, hearths, bone, both burnt and unburnt, and lithics, which he classified as "MSA and LSA" within three excavation areas.

[5] Evidence of hunter-gatherers preceding ceramics traditions in the region has been found and dated from the Later Stone Age levels at Mochena Borago Rockshelter.

X-ray Fluorescence analyses performed on obsidian lithics from Mochena Borago show that >90% were made from raw materials sourced from this location.

[4] The typology of stone artifacts in the assemblages from Mochena Borago have largely remained the same over time, even during major climatic changes in the region, such as those of MIS 3.

Backed pieces found in deposits >50 ka suggest the practice of hafting by MIS 3 hunter-gatherers in the southwest Ethiopian Highlands during the beginning of their expansion.