Field Research + Schools
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South African Coast P4
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Hadar, Ethiopia Field School
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Mossel Bay Archaeology Project
South African Coast P4
Modern humans likely evolved in Africa between 300,000 and 100,000 years ago. It is well documented that the bio-behavioral adaptations of fully modern hunter-gatherers are intimately tied to climate and environment. Importantly, as human bio-behavioral complexity increased, Pleistocene climates became harsher during glacial stages and more variable, a pattern that terminates (strangely) at 10,000 years ago. There is an outstanding record for paleoclimates and paleoenvironments for this time slice in western Eurasia, but little is known for the contemporary African record where modern humans evolved. We propose to jump-start the development in Africa of a detailed paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental record with a multidisciplinary and international project tightly integrated between researchers grounded by the same problem orientation focused on the south coast of South Africa.
The end result of this project will be an understanding of the relation between global climate change and its regional expression in South Africa. This will broaden our understanding of the origins of modern humans by furthering our ability to examine the ecological context for this evolution. It will be one of the few projects in the Southern Hemisphere to study over a long period of time the response of regional floral systems to global climate change as reflected in the ice and deep sea cores. This will help us understand how continental locations, and specifically the Southern Hemisphere, might respond to potential long term changes in climate.
A novel aspect of our research will be the tight integration of the continental, marine, and atmospheric records with the archaeological and geological record in a tightly restricted region. This will be achieved through studies of speleothems (=continental, marine, and atmospheric conditions) and archaeological materials and geological features that reflect both continental and marine conditions (isotopes of teeth and OES = continental record, isotopes of shellfish = marine record, zooarchaeological studies of terrestrial animals = continental record, etc.).
The typical model for studies such as this is more disciplinarily isolated: studies of dunes, speleothems, isotopes on archaeological shellfish, etc., conducted separately. Cross-disciplinary comparisons and correlations then occur, if at all, by serendipity. A more powerful model is to conduct these studies in concert so that comparisons and correlations occur in real-time, allowing a more synergistic process and holistic result that exploits the natural trans-disciplinary nature of the 2P and paleoanthropological empirical record. Paleoanthropology provides a natural organizing intellectual and logistical framework. We hope to illuminate a new model of integrated paleoanthropological, paleoclimatic, and paleoenvironmental research with this project.
>>Link to additional information
- Dr. Curtis W. Marean, Principal Investigator, ASU Institute of Human Origins/SHESC
- Dr. Miryam Bar-Matthews, Geological Survey of Israel
- Dr. Stephanie de Villiers, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
- Dr. Geoffrey Duller, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
- Dr. Brooks Ellwood, Louisiana State University
- Dr. Paul Goldberg, Boston University
- Dr. Andrew Herries, University of New South Wales
- Dr. Werner Illenberger, Illenberger & Associates, South Africa
- Dr. Zenobia Jacobs, Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating Facility, CSIR
- Dr. Antonieta Jerardino, Western Cape Heritage
- Dr. Panagiotis Karkanas, Ministry of Culture Ephoreia of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology
- Dr. Julia Lee-Thorp, University of Cape Town
- Dr. Thalassa Matthews, Iziko South African Museum
- Dr. Peter Nilssen, co-director of field operations, Iziko South African Museum, Dias Museum.
- Dr. Dave Roberts, Council for Geoscience, South Africa
- Dr. Judith Sealy, University of Cape Town
- Dr. Ann Wintle, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
- Dr. Stephan Woodborne, director of QUADRU, CSIR, South Africa
National Science Foundation $2.5 million
Iziko South African Museum, South Africa
Dias Museum, South Africa
Geological Survey of Israel
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Louisiana State University
Boston University
University of New South Wales
Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating Facility, CSIR, South Africa
Ministry of Culture Ephoreia of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology, Greece
University of Cape Town
Hadar, Ethiopia Field School
The Institute of Human Origins in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change, in conjunction with the Center for Global Education Services at Arizona State University, offers a field school in paleoanthropology at Hadar, Ethiopia. This region of the Afar Triangle is one of the richest in the world for middle Pliocene hominin fossils.
The Hadar site contains approximately a million years of human evolution within its deposits. Australopithecus afarensis material has been recovered from more than 3.4 to 3.0 million years ago. The A. afarensis sites include the Lucy Locality (AL-288), the First Family Locality (AL-333), and the two adult skull localities (AL-444 and AL-822). Early Homo material from ~ 2.33 million years ago includes the locality of AL-666. In addition, stone tools have been recovered from sediments older than 2.33 million years.
The program includes instruction in early hominin evolution, paleoecology, faunal analysis, geology, archaeology, site mapping, fossil survey, and various types of excavation.
We welcome advanced undergraduates and graduates from ASU and around the world to join us for a challenging research experience!
Activities scheduled for 2011 include (subject to change)
- View original fossils Australopithecus afarensis and Homo material at the National Museum of Ethiopia
- Collection and excavation instruction
- Archaeological excavation of Oldowan sites
- Hominid and other mammalian fossil identification
- Geological context and environmental reconstruction of fossil sites
- African ecology and paleoecology
- GPS mapping
- Visit to the open-air market in Bati
The last Hadar Paleoanthropology Field School was October/November 2009. The next field school is scheduled for 2011. (Link to faculty webpage for 2009 field school is here.)
Eligibility: Advanced undergraduate and graduate students or those with strong anthropological or biological backgrounds from ASU or other institutions.
The Field School in Hadar, Ethiopia (link to School of Human Evolution and Social Change site for application and contact information)
Mossel Bay Archaeology Project
The Mossel Bay Archaeology Project (MAP), led by Curtis W. Marean (ASU) and Peter Nilssen (Iziko South African Museums), is a long-term field study of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in the Mossel Bay region. The MSA in South Africa has gained increasing attention due to the discovery of bone tools at Blombos Cave, the abundance of ochre suggesting artistic expression, the presence of a variety of lithic assemblages with advanced technological characteristics, and debates over the interpretation of the fauna.
Linked to these findings are debates over the antiquity of modern human behavior, with some researchers arguing that the South African evidence suggests an early origin of modern behavior, while others suggest a late origin. Resolution of these debates relies on two advances: improvements in our theoretical approach, and an improvement of the empirical record in Africa. We initiated fieldwork at Mossel Bay on the southern coast of the Cape to address the latter deficiency.
Summer 2010: Notes from the Field blog features entries by PhD student Benjamin Schoville about life in the field. Go to the blog at <http://asuiho.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/welcome/>
- Curtis Marean, Principal Investigator, SHESC
- Peter Nilssen, Principal Investigator, Iziko South African Museum
- Erin Lassiter
- Jocelyn Bernatchez
- Lydia Pyne
- Jessica Thompson
National Science Foundation
Hyde Family Trust
Iziko South African Museum
University of Cape Town
Dias Museum of Mossel Bay