In Olduvai, they dig up old tooth bones
Alas, there’s no service for our phones
Ancient humans carved tools
Turns out they weren’t fools
Now we tell their stories from sharp stones
Quote of the day: “A triscuit for the troops raises moral”
Hello everybody, my gentle readership, my devoted fans, the masses. You are all greatly appreciated. Today was the first day of paleontology/anthropology/archeology! Essentially we looked at bones instead of antelopes today, and it was pretty awesome. We started things off after breakfast with a personal tour of the Olduvai Museum from Dr. Manuel, who, as it would turn out, is like kind of a big deal in the archeology/human evolution world and knows lots of facts. As someone who likes a good fact, this worked well for me.
We received the full rundown of the basics of human evolution as it pertains to Olduvai, and I did my very best to capture it in my field notebook (update – I have completely filled my 64 page notebook and have moved on to my backup). As someone who kind of knows the big picture, but has never really taken an anthropology or archeology class, I learned quite a bit! Here are some fun facts:
- Bipedalism evolved in australopithecines between 6 and 3 million years ago, and many paleoanthropologists correlate the emergence of bipedalism with the start of modern human evolution (although there are other traceable traits to pay attention to)
- The Gorge is divided into 4 beds, with bed 1 being the oldest and bed 4 the most recent. Beds 1 and 2 are most notable for their early hominid fossils.
- Mary and Louis Leakey were the first archeologists to come to Olduvai, and they worked and surveyed the whole gorge for over 20 years, uncovering many of the most notable sites.
- There are many ways of reconstructing paleoclimates and environments, including faunal bones (for example, more grazers=more grass), plant remains, sediment type, and much more!
All in all, we learned so much and saw so many amazing fossils that I don’t know if I can relay all of it! All I can say is I will certainly be taking more archeology courses in the future cause this stuff is quite fun.
Hiking through Olduvai was an amazing experience – there are literally fossils scattered on the ground, which we recognized as ancient knuckles, horns, teeth, even parts of larger limb bones. The actual archeological beds are even more impressive – precise grids and pushpins categorize the fossil findings still encased in clay and stone. The site we saw was an ancient hominid “butchery site” where prehistoric hominids brought their prey to break down and consume it as a group. We learned that these hominids likely lived in large communal groups that shared resources, and would stay at a site for only 20-30 kills before moving on. Very interesting!
After getting back from our gorge tour, I took my second campsite shower. It was refreshing yet harrowing and felt like I underwent a rebirth (washed the dust away). After lunch, we had relaxation time! I caught up on blogs, drew a gerenuk, and wrote a limerick. Then, as a special treat, our group and the archeology team went to the Olduvai Camp Lodge (not affiliated with our campsite at Olduvai) for cold drinks (water that was not heated by my tent) and great views of the savanna. Great afternoon. We saw two dikdiks! Tiny cute gazelles in a pair foraging!
We rounded out the evening with soup, dinner, and two presentations: Mesowear by Anna, and a presentation on archeology by Dr. Prendergast.
Sincerely,
Caroline (who is now up to three cups of tea a day minimum)
Antelope foot bone fossils and a mystery bone fossil
The view over Olduvai
