THE STANDARD By
Gloria Aradi |
January 29th 2021 at 00:00:00 GMT +0300
New-look Nairobi City market after renovation by Nairobi Metropolitan Service. [Samson wire, Standard]
The discovery of large concrete crosses by workers who are renovating Nairobi s City Market has puzzled traders.
In their years of trading at the market, they never imagined that the cross existed in the premises.
There was speculation that the market could have been a cemetery or a church.
The construction workers contracted by Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), were replacing the chipped flooring in the washing bays where traders clean meat, when they stumbled upon two large concrete crosses in each courtyard.
New research shows milk consumption in eastern Africa began before the evolution of lactase persistence
Got milk? The 1990s ad campaign highlighted the importance of milk for health and wellbeing, but when did we start drinking the milk of other animals? And how did the practice spread? A new study led by scientists from Germany and Kenya highlights the critical role of Africa in the story of dairying, showing that communities there were drinking milk by at least 6,000 years ago.
Cattle grazing in Entesekara in Kenya near the Tanzanian border A. Janzen
Tracking milk drinking in the ancient past is not straightforward. For decades, archaeologists have tried to reconstruct the practice by various indirect methods. They have looked at ancient rock art to identify scenes of animals being milked and at animal bones to reconstruct kill-off patterns that might reflect the use of animals for dairying. More recently, they even used scientific methods to detect traces of dairy f
NMS workers who were digging out the old damaged floor to replace it last week discovered the structure that has aroused the curiosity of archeologists and National Museums of Kenya.
Through Museums Director General Dr Mzalendo Kibunjia, a team of archeologists had been dispatched to conduct a survey to try to uncover the mystery surrounding the concrete cross.
But by the time of going to press, the archeologists were yet to arrive at City Market.
Traders at the market said the cross was covered last week by the same people who made the discovery while digging the courtyard where fishmongers normally ply their trade.