Hyrax Hill: Settler’s home that sat on ancient dwelling, burial site

Hyrax Hill museum house. [PHOTO: PAUL KARIUKI / STANDARD]

A chance discovery in the early 1900s changed history for a lone settler, putting her farm front and centre in the discourse of human evolution.The owner of a pyrethrum and wheat farm stumbled upon what appeared like signs of early settlements and invited Louis Leakey, a paleontologist, to study the place.

In 1937, excavation on one side of the hill revealed evidence of Iron Age walled enclosures and neolithic burial mounds. In one such mound, there were found 19 adult bodies interred in what was a mass grave, but buried in a unique way. Ten male bodies faced the North while the remaining bodies — nine females — faced the South.