The field school students have had a very busy week at the Mpala Research Center. The center is a hub for scientific research on East African Ecology and stretches over 48,000 acres of land. In this one area we were able to see examples of savanna, woodland, bushland, riverine and rocky escarpment habitats, all full [...]
Welcome to the Origins Field School blog Spring 2018! My name is Deming Yang, Resident Academic Director for the field school. I will be accompanying the students, TA’s and instructors throughout all of the field school modules. As part of the Field School support team, I will do my best to make sure that our [...]
The students, staff, and Tom! During the final few days of the TBI Origins Summer Field School, Dr. Sonia Harmand joined our students for an intensive introduction to Earlier Stone Age archaeology in the Turkana Basin. Dr. Harmand and SBU post-doctoral researcher Dr. Nicholas Taylor led everyone in a practical lesson on stone [...]
Ryan and Morgan at the Napudet Hills (photo credit: Dorien de Vries). Dr. Craig Feibel talks about the geological setting of the Miocene deposits in the Napudet Hills (photo credit: Dorien de Vries). Last Sunday, the students joined another group of visitors (part of the Academic Safari program hosted by TBI) [...]
It is finally the end of the Archaeology module and our field school students have learned a lot about stone tools. Now it is time to put them in good use! Cracking nuts using a hammer stone and an anvil is just the beginning of technology. To convince ourselves that the stone flakes we made are capable [...]
A major aspect and problem of archaeological work is the preservation of sites. Archaeological sites are prone to natural forces such as weathering along with human acts such as robbery and vandalism. To understand the problems facing current archaeological sites, the Origins Field School students participated in a cultural management project, where they not only [...]
As the field school comes close to its end, students finally had the opportunity to experience how different pieces of information can be put together to tell a compelling story of human history. And we do it the TBI style: in the field! Equipped with all kinds of digging tools ranging from trowels to buckets, [...]
The TBI Turkwel campus has one of the best outlook points around the area: the roof of the research labs. From there, several landmarks in the region are clearly visible. Towards the south, there are two peaks barely noticeable above the horizon. They are in the area known as Lothagam, geologically one of the most [...]
Now that our field school students have gained a good understanding of how early stone tools are made, it is time to find some stone tools in the field! And that is what the students have been waiting for! The Origins Field School has a tradition of visiting one of the most well-known hominin sites [...]
The students have arrived at Turkwel for their final adventure of The Origins Field School, the Archaeology module. For this, we are joined by Dr. Elisabeth Hildebrand from Stonybrook University who studies the beginnings of agriculture and herding in Africa. She has also done research in East Africa area for over 10 years! Dr. [...]
As curious beings, we often question where we came from and how we came to be. We used to think of our evolutionary tree as a straight branch, with an animal that looked like a chimp furthest back, a half chimp half man transitional species, and then us. However, as the field of paleoanthropology progresses, [...]
It is now the second week of the human evolution module of the Origins Field School and our dedicated students are ready for a new set of adventures! In the classroom, we have been learning about how different evolutionary theories have been developed around a rather limited hominin fossil record. With all the gaps in [...]
Families are considered functional units of a typical human society. Depending on the geographic and cultural origin, families can come in different shapes and sizes. The most straightforward way to relate all the members of an extended family is to draw a family tree. Most people know their immediate relatives such as a parent or [...]
The moment we have all been waiting for has arrived, the human evolution module. For the module, Dr. Matthew Borths from the University of Ohio joins us to tell the story of our own evolutionary origins. Dr. Borths studies changes in African ecosystems, particularly as they relate to ape evolution, throughout the Miocene. He was [...]
As paleontology neared the end, students were able to demonstrate what they learned throughout the course by designing research experiments. These projects focused on a wide array of paleontological methods and topics including excavation, tooth wear, and how an animal's chewing rate correlates with its body size. The students worked quite hard on these projects [...]
Origins Field School students don’t have to worry about what's for dinner, as we are provided with healthy and delicious food every day. But what is on the menu for other animals? How can we use them to infer the diet of their fossil relatives?
Where does the world come from is one of the most fascinating questions people have asked for thousands of years. Needless to say, the Earth came a long way before it took the shape that we can recognize today. How do we know about major Earth history events such as splitting up of continents, appearance [...]
In the Geology module of the Origins field school, student learned about the earth’s history and how this history is recorded in the layers of sediment in the Turkana Basin. Now it is time to decipher the enigma of different plants and animals that lived in the history of the Turkana Basin millions of years [...]
To put their geology skills to the test, students set out to make a geological map of area 1, which is near our home in Ileret. This map not only included essential features such as a key, a compass showing where north is, and a scale, but also important geological features including tuffs, ancient river [...]
In our last episode of geologic endeavor, students learned about the two dominating sedimentary systems of the Turkana Basin: the river system and the lake system. They are the integral forces that laid down layers of rocks in the basin, together with important fossils of early mammals and hominins. To understand the differences between the [...]