CHRONOMO: SPACE AND TIME DIMENSION OF PREHISTORIC SITES FROM THE LOWER VALLEY OF THE OMO (SHUNGURA FORMATION, ETHIOPIA) IN THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT

Partners: IPHEP, UMR 6046 du CNRS, University of Poitiers –OGRE/MPO mission (J.-R. Boisserie)

Financing: €12,512

Duration: 1 year (1^st January 2012- 31^st December 2012)

The ChronOmo is above all experimental and aims to test the applicability of OSL dating at very ancient sedimentary layers, before 1 million of years. The study field chosen for this research is the lower valley of the Omo (Shungura formation) which provides a continuous chronological recording over the period going from 3 to 1 million of years (K-Ar and Ar-Ar dating on tuff levels). This exploration work will be associated with an analysis of the space distribution of Prehistoric sites in relation with the surrounding fauna and physical environments, in this context with a unique configuration (numerous low-density sites) to study the palaeolithic housing- of ancient hominidae at a micro-regional level. The two tasks will be integrated, at a later phase of the project (2^nd call for projects), to a more global study involving geomorphology, geoarchaeology and chronology of the inferior F and G member sediments (2.32 to 2 millions of years) where all archaeological sites are concentrated.