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(The East African Standard, 18.1.47.
Important discoveries in Somaliland which may shed new light on the sequence of Stone Age cultures within the Horn of Africa have been made during some two-and-a-half years of research by Mr. J. desmond Clarke, brilliant young scientist and present Curator of the Rhodes-Linvingstone Museum in Northern Rhodesia. 
This was revealed at yesterday's session of the Pan-Africa, Congress on Prehistory which is being held in Nairobi. 
No detailed examination of the findings has yet been possible except for that undertaken in the field at the time of their discovery, but the collections are now on their way to England for final study and illustration. 
The Stone Age sequence in the part of the world in which Mr. Clarke has carried out his exploratory work shows several close parallels with Kenya on the one hand, and on the other with the sequence that has been established for Kharga Oasis and the Nile Valley in Egypt. 
But although these latest discoveries were warmly appraised by Congress it was intimated that this vast area, which has "lagged very much behind in research," has "many more valuable secrets to unfold," and delegates are to consider making representation to the authorities concerned for the appointment of at least one full-time archeologist in order that a comprehensive survey may be undertaken.
Into History
Accroding to Mr. Clarke, the Stone Age succession in Somaliland appeared to have persisted in places into comparatively recent, and it was believes, historical times. "Existing evidence does not conflict with the suggestion that the original stock of the slender-boned small-statured, negroid hunting groups of southern Somalia may be the descendants of the Late Stone Age population who were displaced by the Hamitic immigrants - the Galla and later the Somaris - from the north-west" he said.
"These small nomadic groups, of which the Bon the the Ribi and some of the Eile are the purest examples, still live predominantly by hunting with the aid of dogs and nets. Certainly it is tempting to see a connexion between the stone triangular and hollow-based arrowhead and the leaf-shaped specimens from the Doian (a term applied to the Late Stone Age industries) on the one hand, and the triangular and leaf-shaped iron heads of the present day hunters. The similarity is striking."
Regarding the Doian culture, Mr. Clarke said a type section at the Rifle Range site a Bur Hakaba had yielded some fragmentary human remains in addition to cultural material. Ostrich egg and other shell beads occurred, as also did pestle and rubbing stones. In a rock shelter at Beide, at the mouth of the Nogal, there had been found a number a large bifacial chopping tools, or picks, made from pebbles. 
Mr. Clarke explained that his research was carried out while serving with the East Africa Command during the war. The time that it was possible to spend in any one area was determined very much by military necessity, so that it was not always possible to obtain from a site evidence of as conclusive a nature as he would have liked, and sometimes it was unfortunately necessary to leave some problem quite unsolved. 
In 1941 parts of Western British Somaliland, the Danakil Desert and the Reserved Areas were studied, and the first area was again visited in 1943 under more congenial conditions, when it was possible to check several of the results obtained from previous fieldwork, as well as to undertake work on new sites. In 1944, during his service with the Military Administration in Somalia, the country between Webi Shebeli and the Juba Rivers was studied and time was granted in which to conduct excavations at one open station and one cave site in that area.
Preliminary Survey
At the end of 1945 and the beginning of the 1946 the Administration agreed to a preliminary archaeological survey being undertaken in certain areas not previously worked - notably the lower Nogal Valley, the Obbia hinterland, and the Ogaden - in order that the northern sites might be linked with those found in the south. The cost of this survey was borne partially by a grant from the Rhodes Livingstone Institute, but in the main by the Somalia Administration, and thanks were due to those two bodies and, in particular, to Brigadier D. H. Wickham, without whose assistance the survey could not have been undertaken. 
Last evening Mr. Clarke gave his impressions of the first week of the Congress in an interview with the East African Standard. 
"The Congress has enabled prehistorians from all over the African Continent to meet and consult together, and the value of this can hardly be over-emphasised," he said. "We have exchanged our own ideas and much comparative material. We have visited the Rift Valley sites in Kenya and delegates have been able to assess the truth, or otherwise, of Dr. Leakey's and Dr. Nillson's interpretation of the physiographical and climatic development there. 
La photo du congrès est également parue dans le journal du 18.1.

Revision: Congrès de Nairobi 62 (#62)

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