ELIYE SPRINGS
(West Turkana)
LOCATION
Surface find near the freshwater Eliye Springs, on the
southwestern shore of Lake Turkana, Kenya, some
50 km ENE of Lodwar, Kenya.
DISCOVERY
T. Darnhofer, 1985.
MATERIAL
Cranium (KNM ES-11693), lacking the supraorbital
region and much of the face.
DATING AND STRATIGRAPHIC CONTEXT
Found in reworked muddy beach gravels, plausibly re-
deposited from nearby Late Pleistocene sediments
underlying the Holocene Galana Boi beds (Brauer
and Leakey, 1986a,b).
ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
None.
PREVIOUS DESCRIPTIONS AND ANALYSES
A preliminary description (Brauer and Leakey, 1986a)
was rapidly followed by a more detailed account
(Brauer and Leakey, 1986b). These authors favored
placement of this specimen in “the late archaic Homo
sapiens grade,” while pointing out “a mosaic of archaic
and modern features” (1986b: 289). Later authors
have broadly concurred. Cranial volume was “more
than 1300 cc” (Brauer and Leakey, 1986).MORPHOLOGY
Damaged cranium missing most of face and supra-
orbital regions as well as much detail of base.
Neurocranium is large; face appears to have been
relatively small. In side profile, frontal rises fairly
steeply to curve continuously but shallowly across
lambda, below which it bulges slightly before continu-
ing down and forward to the very low superior nuchal
line. In the midline, it continues smoothly into an al-
most horizontal and moderately long nuchal plane.
From above, braincase is very broad across the mas-
toids; anterior to this point it narrows sharply to what
was probably a deep postorbital constriction, while
posteriorly the profile curves broadly around the back.
From behind, braincase is much wider than tall and is
generally tent shaped, with slightly inwardly tilted
side walls that angle in quite high up to peak in a
broad, shallow curve across the midline.
Posterior part of a distinct, almost horizontal
posttoral plane is preserved on L. Preserved interor-
bital region is extremely broad, with wide frontal
processes and moderately wide nasal bones that curved
gently from side to side. On both sides, lacrimal
fossae are huge and well excavated, with low posterior
and anterior lacrimal crests that are not confluent
superiorly. On L, orbital roof was only shallowly59