interest in the archaeology of this area began in the 1920s with the discovery by a farmer of ancient burials with stone bowls hidden under rocks on the side of small hill to the north east. louis leakey investigated these ancient burials and reported that they belong to an early pastoralist community which he called 'neolithic '. at the same time he noticed other archaeological features on both sides of hyrax hill, and in 1937 encouraged his wife, mary, to investigate these.