Principle researchers

Professor Henrietta Moore is a social anthropologist and Director of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London. As well as numerous contributions to anthropological theory, gender studies and African studies, she has worked with the Marakwet of Kenya for over thirty years. View Henrietta’s personal webpage.

Dr Matthew Davies is an archaeologist and anthropologist formerly based at the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) and University of Cambridge, and is now at the African Studies Research Centre at University College London. He completed his DPhil on Pokot farming at the University of Oxford in 2009 before taking up the post of Assistant Director of the BIEA. He has been involved in a range of Eastern African research and currently co-directs the Marakwet Heritage project with Henrietta Moore. View Matt’s personal webpage.

Mr Timothy Kipkeu Kipruto is Director of the Marakwet Research Station. Timothy is a trained forester with over a decade of experience working on anthropological research in Marakwet. For the last three years Timothy has been the focal point for the day-to-day operations of the landscape mapping team as well as a major contributor to project design. Timothy is also a keen farmer and enjoys international travel.

Dr Freda Nkirote M’Mbogori works at the National Museums of Kenya as a Research Scientist and Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage. Her areas of interest include Iron Age Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeological research. Currently, Freda is conducting investigations into environmental narratives and how they have contributed to modern population distribution patterns, interactions and subsistence economies around the Mt. Kenya and Coastal Regions of Kenya over the last 3000 years.

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Research team

Ms Helena Chepto is Assistant Director of the Marakwet Research Station and has worked on a variety of research projects in Marakwet over the last decade. She has particular experience in ethnographic and interview techniques and on translation and holds a wealth of local information on everything from history to crop varieties. Helena is also a successful local business woman and busy mother.

Nelson Bailengo

Florence Cheptum

Willy Chukor

Sammy Kimwole

Felix Krellkut Kiptoo

Noah Kiplagat Rutto

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PhD Students

David Kay is undertaking a PhD in archaeology at the University of Cambridge (King’s College), funded by the AHRC. He is supervised there by Prof Charles French, and externally by Prof Henrietta Moore and Dr Matthew Davies at UCL. His research forms part of the wider programme of the Marakwet Heritage Project, focusing on the investigation of temporal changes in Marakwet settlement patterns and the arrangement/use of domestic space. Specifically, he is studying the history of household movement up and down the Elgeyo Escarpment above the Marakwet village of Tot-Sibou village in the Kerio Valley, coupled with a geo-archaeological analysis of abandoned compounds utilising soil micro-morphology, geo-chemistry and (possibly) pollen/phytolith sampling. The aim is to expand on Prof Moore’s original analysis of Marakwet domestic space in the 1980s by adding archaeological time depth to her study, alongside an increased emphasis on the verticality of Tot-Sibou’s social landscape and the shifting nature of settlement there.

Contact: dave.k.kay@gmail.com

Wanjohi Bernard Kariuki is a PhD student of Environmental Biology at the University of Eldoret, where he is also a Chief Technician and part-time Lecturer in the Department of Wildlife Management. Wanjohi’s main area of specialization is Plant Taxonomy, an area he has worked in for almost 30 years. His thesis proposes to consider the anthropogenic and environmental influence on the composition, distribution and utilization of plant species in the Embobut river basin in Elgeyo-Marakwet.

Contact: wanjohibk@yahoo.com

Samuel Lunn-Rockliffe is a currently undertaking a PhD in archaeology at the University of Oxford. Drawing upon his background in anthropology and archaeology, Sam is interested in using archaeological and ethnographic data to engage with the social, economic and environmental conditions of present-day societies. His current work is focued upon exploring the long-term relationship between the Sengwer foraging communities in the Embobut Forest of the Cherangani Hills, and their cultural landscapes. His aim is to create a more rigorous understanding of both the temporality and materiality of Sengwer landscapes and the importance of this in the construction of their identity. This is particularly relevant in Cherangani given recent attempts by the national government to move the Sengwer from the forest which have resulted in a legal case hinged upon the issues of conservation and ‘indigeneity’.

Contact: sam.lunnrockliffe@gmail.com

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Affiliated researchers

Professor Caleb Adebayo Folorunso is an archaeologist based at University of Ibadan, Nigeria. His Ph.D dissertation was on the subject of continuity in settlement and material culture in Tivland. He has also worked on historical sites in Yorubaland, namely Ijaiye and Old Oyo. He has published widely on the subjects of ethnoarchaeology, historical archaeology and heritage management in Africa. He has been Head of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Ibadan on multiple occasions.

Professor Charles French is a geoarchaeologist at the University of Cambridge with >30 years of senior experience. He has published widely and has worked across the globe. He is currently also involved in projects in the East Anglian fenlands, the chalk downlands of Wessex, the Channel Islands, central Bosnia, northwestern India, southern Patagonia and southern Peru. Specialising in the reconstruction of past environments, his work focuses on analysis and interpretation of buried landscapes using geomorphological and micromorphological techniques to establish their status in terms of key project variables such as deforestation, agriculture, soil erosion and desertification. Charly expects to add considerable value to the network through his insights on the interplay and integration of scientific practice and theory. View Charly’s personal webpage.

Martin Jones is Professor of Archaeological Science, and Vice-Master of Darwin College, both at the University of Cambridge. He leads a group researching the deep history of foodways and agriculture through a range of bio-archaeological and genetic methods. His two principal current research interests include the origins of modern food-sharing behavior, and the spread of agricultural resources in both directions across prehistoric Eurasia. View Martin’s personal webpage.

Dr Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie is a palynologist and environmental archaeologist at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. His Ph.D. (University of Ibadan 2013), was on human-environment interactions in the tropical rainforest of south-western Nigeria during the late Holocene. His research interests include reconstruction of palaeoenvironments particularly of the tropics, and human-landscape interactions in the Holocene period using pollen and spores. He has published on these subjects as well as aspects of the Palaeogene environment of Nigeria.

Dr Alex Schoeman is an archaeologist based at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Her PhD explored the role of rain-control in the ideology making of the K2- Mapungubwe state in South Africa. She then shifted her gaze to the more recent South African past and co-initiated the interdisciplinary Five Hundred Year Initiative, which uses different source materials, including archaeological, oral, and documentary materials, to develop a more subtle and complex understanding of the history of the last 500 years across southern Africa. Her current research focuses on the Bokoni terraced and stonewalled settlements in Mpumalanga, South Africa.