Urgeschichte und Naturwissenschaftliche Archäologie

Mumba Cave

Mumba Cave was discovered in 1934 by the German research couple Margit and Ludwig Kohl-Larsen and subsequently excavated, first by themselves and followed by different other researchers over the past 80 years. The site revealed one of the deepest and most important archaeological sequences spanning the last 100.000 years of hunter gatherers in East Africa and reaching into Neolithic times. However, the site was suffering substantially from inappropriate excavation methods and thus the chronological succession is not entirely understood. Since 2017, new research at the site is conducted using high resolution methods of excavation and documentation in order to fill the research gaps left by past generations. The project is directed by Dr. Pastory Bushozi (University od Daressalam) and in close collaboration with Prof. Nicholas Conard and Dr. Gregor Bader. It is founded by the Volkswagen project “Evolving human minds” dedicated to Pastory Bushozi.