The students were very busy in our last two weeks in Kenya. The Archaeology module took us to many sites around Turkana where there have been important paleontological and archaeological finds or where there is exciting current research. The students walked the Turkana outcrops in search of bones, stone tools and pottery. Through their studies [...]
Photo: Esther Kadaga Our journey through the Archaeology module is coming to an end. We had a few site visits this week and one of the activities the students got to do was archaeological surveys. Archaeological surveys are useful in helping archaeologists to identify where best to excavate. The field team scans the [...]
Stone tools which were a vital technological invention of early humans, enabling them to do things like butchering. Oldowan and Acheulean stone tool technologies were collectively prevalent for millions of years; now it was time for our modern day students to try their hand at reliving their ancient ancestors' ways of life. On Monday Dr. [...]
On Friday the field school said goodbye to our camp at Ileret where we've lived for the past 7 weeks and got on the TBI plane to fly over the "Jade Sea" (Lake Turkana) to our new home, the Turkwel campus.
We are into the last week of the Human Origins module. As the students have come to find out, the phylogenetic tree of human ancestry is more bushy than expected.
This Week, the students have been introduced to the story of being and becoming human. The scientific story of human evolution. Humans have always been curious to identify who they really are which poses questions like; how and why are we different from other mammals? What made us develop distinct traits like bipedality and bigger [...]
The students are now well into the Vertebrate Paleontology course with Dr. Bill Sanders from the University of Michigan. Professor Sanders has been teaching the students how to interpret the skeleton and teeth of animals in order to understand how they lived. You can understand a lot about an animal based on its bones. The [...]
A Dasenach village. Photo: Rosie Bryson The students visited a village in Ileret and got to know more about the culture of the local Dasenach people. The Dasenach are a pastoralist community living in Marsabit County within the Turkana region. One of the things the students learned was the division of labour within [...]
In the last week, we have been delving deeper into the geology of the Turkana Basin. This included seeking to understand how stratigraphic units (distinct layers of soil piled on top of each other which represent different time periods) are formed and how to interpret individual sedimentary strata’s in order to reconstruct past environments. [...]
Our Geology module with Dr. Craig Feibel and Dr. Robert Raynolds continues at the TBI campus! Dr. Feibel started off the week with an introduction to the different rock “species” found in the Rift Valley. The students have been working hard to memorize more than 20 different types of rock, as well as state it’s [...]
Photo: Deming Yang The ecology module has ended. The next module, Geology, has started. Dr Craig Feibel and Dr. Bob Raynolds are the instructors taking the students through the geological history of the Turkana Basin. The students are spending time in the lab learning about rocks. They are also going out into the [...]
Since their arrival at TBI-Ileret, students have continued to expand their understanding of ecological research methods. Here, they have also been introduced to new TAs, the Dassenatch people, and more heat than they were accustomed to at Mpala. They all are adjusting really well to this new environment which is great since this will be [...]
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 [...]