hilaryduke

About Hilary Duke

I am a Ph.D. candidate at Stony Brook University, NY and have the pleasure of being the Resident Academic Director of the TBI Origins field school for Spring 2017. I study Early Pleistocene stone tool technology, and have been conducting research in Turkana since 2012. My dissertation research uses an experimental approach investigating when and how human ancestors started creating patterned shapes in their stone tools (< 2 million years ago).

TBI Origins Field School Spring 2017 Begins!

Welcome to the Turkana Basin Institute field school blog Spring 2017! As the Resident Academic Director for the field school, I will be accompanying the students, TA's and instructors throughout all of the field school modules. It is my goal to ensure that the students have an incredible learning experience that they will carry with [...]

By |2017-06-04T16:57:28+03:00January 23rd, 2017|Field Schools, Spring 2017|Comments Off on TBI Origins Field School Spring 2017 Begins!

Congratulations to the Spring 2016 TBI Field School Graduates

Finally we bring the Spring 2016 TBI Field School to a close. The students have learned and accomplished so much during these 10 weeks. More importantly, they've made friends and memories that will surely last a lifetime. The students have gained a huge breadth of knowledge through many hours of studying, researching, hiking and exploring. [...]

By |2017-01-04T18:04:34+03:00April 3rd, 2016|Field Schools, Spring 2016|Comments Off on Congratulations to the Spring 2016 TBI Field School Graduates

A site tour around Nariokotome, the archaeology of the Holocene, and a bit of digging in the dirt

The Early Pleistocene archaeological sites on the west side of Late Turkana are some of the richest areas for early hominin behavioral research in the world. Dozens of sites provide large quantities of stone tools made on a range of different raw materials. Intensive archaeologists studies in this area attempt to reconstruct hominin movements and [...]

By |2017-01-04T18:04:35+03:00April 1st, 2016|Field Schools, Spring 2016|Comments Off on A site tour around Nariokotome, the archaeology of the Holocene, and a bit of digging in the dirt

Making, using, and understanding stone tools

We switched our focus in the Archaeology module back to the Stone Age, starting with some hands-on learning about ancient stone tool technology. Understanding stone tools by simply observing archaeological artifacts is a tricky thing - even seeing that these objects are artifacts can be challenging if you don't have years of experience. Many archaeologists have [...]

By |2017-01-04T18:04:35+03:00March 27th, 2016|Field Schools, Spring 2016|Comments Off on Making, using, and understanding stone tools

A visit from Richard and Meave Leakey and Kenyan cultural heritage

Profs. Richard and Meave Leakey stopped by TBI Turkwel for a visit with the field school students in between the end of the Paleoanthropology module and the start of Archaeology. The students have come a long way in this field school and were excited to hear from Prof. Leakey about his work and life in [...]

By |2017-01-04T18:04:35+03:00March 18th, 2016|Field Schools, Spring 2016|Comments Off on A visit from Richard and Meave Leakey and Kenyan cultural heritage

Human evolution: from elusive origins to human diversity in the present

We made it across to the west side of Lake Turkana on March 6th. Having learned about the ecology, paleontology and geology of the basin from an east side perspective, we were excited to learn about what the west side has to offer. Many important paleoanthropological and archaeological discoveries were made in areas on the [...]

By |2017-01-04T18:04:35+03:00March 18th, 2016|Field Schools, Spring 2016|Comments Off on Human evolution: from elusive origins to human diversity in the present

Overnight trip to Koobi Fora

Nearing the end of the Geology module, we all set out for an overnight trip to the famous Koobi Fora camp area. The Koobi Fora area is historically significant for human origins research, most notably a hot spot for this discipline since the beginning of Drs. Richard and Meave Leakey's research in the 1960's and 70's. [...]

By |2017-01-04T18:04:35+03:00March 5th, 2016|Field Schools, Spring 2016|Comments Off on Overnight trip to Koobi Fora

The Karari ridge, mapping, and stratigraphic sections

Part of learning about the geology of the Turkana basin is to visit and examine rock exposures related to archaeological and fossil sites and how to interpret the former landscape of past life.  For this next part of the field school, Dr. Feibel told of the geologic history and gave us a tour of the [...]

By |2017-01-04T18:04:36+03:00March 1st, 2016|Field Schools, Spring 2016|Comments Off on The Karari ridge, mapping, and stratigraphic sections
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