Greetings everyone! Welcome to the Fall 2019 Origins Field School. I am Winfred Mbogo, the resident academic director for this program and together with Medina Lubisia, the TA, we will be leading the students through this exhilarating journey. All students met last week in Nairobi and spent a couple of nights at the Wildebeest Eco [...]
The students started off the Archaeology module with Dr. Elisabeth Hildebrand in Lodwar; the biggest town in the northwestern part of Kenya. Accompanied by Justus Erus Edung, who works with the National Museums of Kenya and has extensive knowledge about Lodwar, the students were escorted to three cultural and historical sites within Lodwar. Justus explained [...]
On our last week of the Human Evolution module Professor Tracy Kivell led the students out to Area 13 where they would be tracking down two hippo humeri to plaster and they would see the site where hominin fossils were found in 2015! The students also go to partake in a hill crawl; which consists [...]
During the past week the field school has been tracing back the origins of our own species with the Human Evolution module led by Dr. Tracy Kivell! Our days have been divided into morning lectures and afternoon lab sessions and so far we’ve covered skeletal anatomy, origins of bipedalism, and the very intricate story of [...]
The students started off the week being introduced to their newest professor, Dr. Mikael Fortelius, a professor at the University of Helsinki, who will be teaching the Vertebrate Paleontology module. Dr. Mikael Fortelius! (Photo: Petra Peretin) They were introduced to the research labs at Illeret and had the opportunity to look at the [...]
At the start of the week the students spent the morning in their three groups heading back out to the MFB (Main Fish Beds) with their geology professors to Areas 3, 6, and 6A. During the afternoon, Dr. Greg Henkes gave a lecture on carbon, oxygen and nitrogen isotopes, which can be used to both [...]
The Geology of the Turkana Basin course taught by Dr. Craig Feibel, Dr. Bob Reynolds and Dr. Greg Henkes started last Monday at TBI Ileret! The Origins Field School students explore Area 6A. Photo: Lucía Nadal We’ve been going out on many geological walks taking us back in time millions of years to [...]
This week the students traveled further North to Illeret on the East side of Lake Turkana! Saying goodbye to Mpala, the students embark on a new adventure as they continue their ecology course with Dr. Martins. With a new and vast environment to explore, the students have the opportunity to take in the beauty and [...]