Stone cairns across eastern Africa: a critical review

Abstract

This paper collates and synthesises a wide range of reports concerning stone cairns and related structures from across eastern Africa. These features often enclose human burials and are common in many areas, but they have only ever been sporadically investigated. I attempt to arrange them into a preliminary typology and make the first steps towards a broader comparative analysis. While these features have often been referred to as monuments and in some instances ‘megaliths’ I urge caution in such labelling. We should first evaluate the social context of their construction before we equate them with concepts derived from other parts of the world. Understanding the construction of eastern African landscapes through features such as these may provide a broader context for studying some of the region's larger and more commonly investigated monuments.