Hominin's earliest technologies and development are represented in the archaeological record through assemblages of artifacts and other material remains. The oldest of the East African stone tool industries lies in the Early Stone Age which includes the Lomekwian, Oldowan and Acheulean. These industries are classified in relation to style in production and use. Our first [...]
We are in our last module of the field school, Archaeology of Turkana Basin, which is taught by Dr. Sonia Harmand, an expert in Early Stone Age archaeology and evolution of stone tool making. The Turkana Basin is rich in archaeological deposits with many of the discoveries of stone tools made on the East and [...]
What makes us distinct as humans? Perhaps even the idea of questioning is unique to humans. Paleoanthropologists have been trying to reconstruct our evolutionary tree from the fossil record for many years. Evolution involves all those changes over time that bring about diversity and are influenced by factors such as natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, [...]
A midweek road trip to Napudet for camping got students excited as they were ready to explore the rich deposits. Napudet hills lie on the Southwestern part of Turkana Basin, these Southwestern exposures present extensive fossiliferous Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene deposits. Our camping site.Photo credit: Wambui Mbogo. Keely, Hillary, and Margaret.Photo [...]
On Saturday, we flew from Ileret to TBI-Turkwel campus on the west side of the lake. After settling down, we were treated to a lovely orientation of the campus by Acacia Leakey. For many years, researchers have been staying at the campus as it provides facilities for field expeditions, accommodation and modern laboratories for scientific [...]
The calm weather at the start of the week was perfect for our well-planned trip to Buluk. We set off early enough to get to the camping site in time, set tents and prepare for a mini-field trip in the afternoon. At the valley of bones. Up the hill, we go! [...]
Our ongoing module is Vertebrate Paleontology which is instructed by Prof. Ellen Miller. Students have been learning about the evolution of various forms of life on earth. We learn from Prof. Miller that, fossils are the gold mines for paleontologists as they enable them to collect data on the extinct fauna, flora and their past [...]
On our way to Koobi Fora, we made a pit stop at the fossil elephant site which houses the skeleton of an extinct Elephas recki. The fossil lies in situ in silty-like sediments that have been dated to about 2 mya. Later on, we headed to our campsite at the Koobi Fora Museum where we [...]