Archaeologists have uncovered over 30 occupation sites at Melka Kunture. The finds are dated by volcanic depositions left by eruptions of
Mount Zuqualla, northeast of Melka Kunture. Palaeoenvironmental analysis indicates the site was a mixed upland habitat. It has been suggested that
Oldowan and early
Acheulean archaeological remains from Melka Kunture date back to as early as 2.0 Ma, although this has since been shown to be untenable by detailed chronostratigraphic analysis. The sequence begins with the Oldowan site of Karre, about 1.7 million years old, which can be correlated to level B of Gombore I, on the right bank of the Awash. A probably contemporaneous Oldowan site is documented at Garba IV. The magneto-stratigraphic sequence of Jaramillo lies between Tuff A, which overlies the Oldowan sites, and Tuff B, which is dated between 1.0 and 0.84 million years ago. Some important sites, such as Garba XII and Simbiro III, datable to a transitional phase from the late Oldowan to the Early Acheulean (Garba XII) or to an archaic phase of the Acheulean (Simbiro), also lie within this chronological span. A later phase of the African Acheulean is well represented by several sites in the area of Gombore II (dated to about 0.8 mya). The latest Acheulean site is Garba I, dated to ca. 0.5 mya, while the end of this long sequence is represented, at Melka Kunture, by the site of Garba III, approximately dated to 0.2 mya, which can be regarded as a transitional site towards the
Middle Stone Age. Some of the above-listed levels yielded hominid remains: a humerus fragment of
H. cf.
erectus at Gombore I; a hemimandible of a
H. cf.
erectus child at Garba IV; two
H. erectus skull fragments at Gombore II; and three
archaic H. sapiens skull fragments at Garba III. The East African
Later Stone Age is poorly documented at Melka Kunture, being represented so far by some finds at Wofi and Kella. A little less than 7 km from Melka Kunture, at a site known as , are imposing outcrops of
obsidian. As recent analyses from samples from several sites in Melka Kunture bear out, these outcrops were used, ever since the earliest Oldowan phases, as an important source of raw material. The exploitation of obsidian in the Melka region went on until historical times, leaving numerous and extensive accumulations of tens of thousands of blades, cores, and scars of this volcanic rock. == Exhibits ==