Hi, we’re Katie and Letty and we’re students from UCL. On Thursday, we went on a trip to South Turkwel and some deposits nearer the TBI compound to learn about surveying and excavation techniques used in Paleoanthropology. Currently we are taking a course on Human Evolution led by Dr. Jason Lewis.
In the morning, we took a short truck journey to the South Turkwel deposits where we learnt about surveying techniques and began to flag some fossils we spotted on the surface.
Ned used his eagle eyes to spot a fragment of fossilized bone.
After we scoured the area for fossils, Dr. Lewis explained each piece of fossilized bone we found. The importance of identifying bone in the field is vital for gaining greater understanding about the site.
Dr. Lewis discusses fossils with his students.
Then we moved on to the dirty work. First, we laid out a section and began to sweep sediment off the surface of the area.
Francis, John, and Dr. Lewis show us how it’s done.
Katie sweeps and searches for fossils (and has no luck).
After collecting buckets of sediment, we then began to sieve for smaller finds.
Eloise and Alex work together to sieve for finds, being careful not to get dust in their eyes.
Students search through the sieved sediment for fossil fragments.
Katie has sieved through her first bucket of sediment and is ready to do it all again.
Students and staff throw a pose over our sieved section.
In the afternoon, we moved on to survey some deposits nearer the TBI compound. We were asked to flag any identifiable fossils. By the end of the day, we found some animal remains but no new species of hominin, unfortunately.
Students looking ready with their flags (Stacey is particularly ecstatic).
Katie and Trisha surveyed the area.
Stacey plants a flag next to a bovid tooth.
This was a good learning experience in knowing how to identify fossilized bone from similar-looking rocks, and provided insight into the process of paleontological surveying.
Thank you for reading!
