page_title: Hyrax Hill
section_title: History of excavation
hierarchical_section_title: Hyrax Hill / History of excavation
caption_attribution_description: Creator: National Geographic Society (U.S.) Subject: Leakey, Mary D (Mary Douglas) 1913-1996 &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Leakey, L. S. B (Louis Seymour Bazett) 1903-1972 Type: Black-and-White Prints Topic: Women anthropologists &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Women archaeologists &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Archaeology &#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Anthropology Local number: SIA Acc. 90-105 [SIA-SIA2008-5182] Summary: Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (1903-1972) and his wife, archeologist and anthropologist Mary Douglas Nicol Leakey (1913-1996), digging at Oduvai Gorge, Tanzania, Africa. Cite as: Acc. 90-105 - Science Service, Records, 1920s-1970s, Smithsonian Institution Archives Persistent URL:Link to data base record Repository:Smithsonian Institution Archives View more collections from the Smithsonian Institution.
context_page_description: Hyrax Hill is a prehistoric site near Nakuru in the Rift Valley province of Kenya. It is a rocky spur roughly half a kilometer in length, with an elevation of 1,900 meters above sea level at its summit. The site was first discovered in 1926 by Louis Leakey during excavations at the nearby Nakuru Burial Site, and Mary Leakey conducted the first major excavations between 1937 and 1938. There are two distinct areas of occupation at Hyrax Hill: one which was occupied during the Pastoral Neolithic and late Iron Age, and one which was occupied by the Sirikwa earlier in the Iron Age.
  Hyrax Hill is named after the hyrax, a small mammal that lives in rocky areas. Hyraxes were once common in the rocky crevasses of Hyrax Hill, but their numbers have dropped in recent years due to the rapid urbanization of the surrounding area.
  Hyrax Hill is the location of Hyrax Hill Prehistoric Site and Museum.
context_section_description: Louis Leakey discovered the remains of prehistoric settlements at Hyrax Hill while excavating the nearby Nakuru Burial in 1926. He did not excavate it at the time because he believed it to be a recent occupation, and was busy working at several other sites. Louis Leakey returned to the area in 1937 with his wife, Mary Leakey. It was Mary Leakey who began major excavations at Hyrax Hill. She excavated and named both Site I and Site II between 1937 and 1938. With no carbon dating technology available, dating the sites was difficult at the time. Leakey mistakenly described the Iron Age "Sirikwa Holes" as a pre-Iron Age village with "pit-dwellings." Excavations at the site were not undertaken again until after Hyrax Hill was obtained by the National Museums of Kenya in 1965, at which time one of the Sirikwa holes was fully excavated by Ron Clark and museum staff for display at the museum.
caption: Mary and Louis Leakey excavating at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
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