Such studies provide information on sources of raw material, authenticity of artifacts, technology of manufacture, and ancient diet. These methods can provide independent and possibly mutually reinforcing interpretations of local ecological conditions, depositional environments, prehistoric human site and land-use patterns, and global climates. These techniques have been applied to the study of Ntuka River 3, an Upper Pleistocene site located on the west shoulder of the Kenya Rift Valley. The reddish clayey silt sediments of the MSA horizons suggest low runoff, dense vegetation and high rainfall. The overlying gray sandy silts are archaeologically sterile.
Carbon isotopes demonstrate open grassland giving way to woodland.
The sandy sediments of the LSA horizon suggest a high energy stream, high runoff, and thus sparse vegetation cover and low rainfall. The carbon isotopic composition of carbonate nodules and soil organic matter confirm this, showing that the site was surrounded by open grassland 30-40,000 years ago. This is consistent with the cold, dry global climate of late oxygen isotope stage 3. Sedimentological, pedological and isotopic evidence seem to provide mutually reinforcing interpretations of local floral microhabitats through time at this site. These sites allow the characterization of Native American lifeways during the 400 years prior to contact with Europeans and the first few decades of European interaction in the region.