Omo Kibish is the name of one of several sites within an ancient rock formation called Kibish, along the Omo River at the base of the Nkalabong Range in Ethiopia. Kibish is where excavations by Richard Leakey and others recovered Homo sapiens remains as old as 125,000 years before the present. One site in particular, called Kamoya’s Hominid Site (KHS) or Omo Kibish I, contained a nearly complete skeleton of an adult male Homo sapiens sapiens.
Recent Potassium-Argon dating of the volcanic tuffs at Omo Kibish I have suggested to some researchers that the skull dates between 104,000 and 196,000 years ago, and that the likeliest date is closer to 195,000.
The latest findings from Omo Kibish reported in Nature in February 2005 indicate that the human remains appear to date to 195,000 years before the present, which, if true, makes Omo Kibish one of the earliest Homo sapiens sites on the planet.
Sources
de la Torre, Ignacio 2004 Omo Revisited: Evaluating the Technological Skills of Pliocene Hominids. Current Anthropology 45(4):439-466.
McDougall, Ian, Francis H. Brown & John G. Fleagle. 2005. Stratigraphic placement and age of modern humans from Kibish, Ethiopia. Nature 433:733-736.
Thanks to Dar Habel for assistance with this entry. This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
