The River: Peoples and Histories of the Omo-Turkana Area

This sumptuously illustrated book brings together a remarkable collection of the world’s leading archaeologists, ecologists, historians and ethnographers who specialise in the Omo-Turkana area (spanning spans parts of Ethiopia, South Sudan and Kenya), and recognising it as a crucial, and currently vulnerable, resource of global heritage.

The Omo-Turkana area is unlike any place on earth. Spanning parts of Ethiopia, South Sudan and Kenya, the area is today home to a unique diversity of peoples and cultures. Extraordinary fossil finds from the locale have illuminated the evolutionary origins of our species and archaeological and historical evidence has demonstrated it has been a dynamic crossroads of peoples, languages and identities for millennia. Over the past two decades, development interventions have transformed the environment and presented a threat to local forms of material and intangible heritage. Many local groups now face challenges to the long-term sustainability of their traditional ways of life. This sumptuously illustrated book brings together a remarkable collection of the world’s leading archaeologists, ecologists, historians and ethnographers who specialise in the locale. Recognising the Omo-Turkana area as a crucial resource of global heritage, the authors also acknowledge its current vulnerability.