Spring 2020

Congratulations to the Spring 2020 TBI Field School Graduates

In the final week of the TBI Spring Field School semester, Dr. Lisa Hildebrand took the students through the cultural developments of early herders in the Turkana Basin during the Mid-Holocene period. As of today, pastoralism remains the key economic activity in the region as a response to the harsh ecological conditions, and in addition, [...]

By |2020-05-24T21:25:35+03:00May 24th, 2020|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2020|Comments Off on Congratulations to the Spring 2020 TBI Field School Graduates

Touring the Lothagam-Lokam Sites

Archaeology often involves extensive surveys before embarking on actual surface collections and/or excavations. Origins Field School students recently took a virtual tour of the Lothagam-Lokam locality on the west side of Lake Turkana, where they explored the research history of the site from 1960s to present. The Lothagam locality is known for its impressive geological [...]

By |2020-05-12T11:01:02+03:00May 11th, 2020|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2020|Comments Off on Touring the Lothagam-Lokam Sites

Studying early human culture in Africa

This week, Dr. Lisa Hildebrand introduced students to Holocene cultural practices across Africa and in the Turkana Basin. This is Dr. Hildebrand's primary area of research, and she shared her perspectives on ancient human activities in the region and the climatic changes that influenced them. The Holocene time period spans from about 11,700 years ago [...]

By |2020-05-11T04:37:53+03:00May 3rd, 2020|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2020|Comments Off on Studying early human culture in Africa

Learning the origins of stone tool technology

As we delve deeper into major innovations of earliest technologies in the archaeological record, TBI Origin Field School students have learnt to appreciate the importance of meticulously recording and analyzing data. The archaeological record involving stone tool technology is characterized by changes in production and form of artefacts, and through detailed studies we can understand [...]

By |2020-04-28T08:22:28+03:00April 28th, 2020|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2020|Comments Off on Learning the origins of stone tool technology

Studying human cultural beginnings

The last course of the field school is underway, Archaeology of the Turkana Basin. Prof. Elisabeth Hildebrand from Stony Brook University joins us as the lead instructor of this course. She has been doing research on the west side of Lake Turkana for years, with a focus on Late Pleistocene and Holocene Archaeology. Prof. [...]

By |2020-04-21T00:45:25+03:00April 18th, 2020|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2020|Comments Off on Studying human cultural beginnings

Understanding the evolution of our genus Homo

As we approach the end of the Human Evolution course, students have been learning about the evolution of our own genus Homo. They have come to find out that climatic changes that happened about 3-2.5 mya seem to coincide with the evolutionary changes of our ancestors. We learn that the environmental shift from wooded areas [...]

By |2020-04-14T08:50:49+03:00April 12th, 2020|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2020|Comments Off on Understanding the evolution of our genus Homo

Tracing our Evolutionary History

The quest to understand our origins has been a topic that has kept many paleoanthropologists engaged in reconstructing the evolutionary tree in the past few years. Fossil specimens from different sites in the world have been the primary source of data, most of which are from the Late Miocene period (11.6-5.3mya), and the Plio-pleistocene period [...]

By |2020-04-07T10:26:47+03:00April 5th, 2020|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2020|Comments Off on Tracing our Evolutionary History

Understanding Anatomy and Osteology in Human Evolution

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students and instructors returned back to their home countries around mid-March. Since then, the Origins Field School has been utilizing virtual classes for its remaining two courses. Underway is the Human Evolution course, taught by Dr. Carrie Mongle. She is a postdoctoral research fellow at the American Museum of Natural [...]

By |2020-03-30T12:42:26+03:00March 29th, 2020|Field Schools, Origins Field School, Spring 2020|Comments Off on Understanding Anatomy and Osteology in Human Evolution
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