Jordon Crowell

University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Major: Anthropology
Year: Junior

I am a junior majoring in Anthropology. I currently hold a TA position for an intro class for Biological Anthropology at my university. My interests within the field of Anthropology are
focused with early hominin evolution. My hobbies outside of my academics are reading, playing ultimate Frisbee, and occasionally relaxing with friends. This is will be my first time doing any
field work outside of the United States and I look forward to experiencing a completely new culture.

Karla de la Cruz

Southwest Texas Junior College
Major: Chemical Engineering
Year: Junior

I am currently one semester away from beginning my Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering. Besides my interest in chemistry, there are many things I enjoy to do. I love photography, art, plan propagation, and spending time with my family and two dogs. I’m excited for this REU, since it will be my first research experience outside of my field.

Matthew Fanuka

Rutgers University – New Brunswick
Major: Anthropology
Year: Junior

I am a junior currently majoring in evolutionary anthropology and minoring in geological sciences. My dream as a child was to be an archaeologist, and after many career and major changes, it seems that I’ve accidentally chosen to study archaeology, and I couldn’t be happier doing it. I’m more than excited to get hands on experience with real artifacts and data, and to meet everyone else who shares my passion for anthropology!

Brittany Highland

University of South Alabama
Major: Anthropology
Year: Junior

My name is Brittney Highland, and I am a junior at the University of South Alabama where I currently study. Anthropology is my first true love, and I have dedicated myself and my
life to research in this field. I am deeply passionate about Paleoanthropology, and Evolutionary Anthropology. My independent studies and research focuses on subsistence practices and
cultural transmission of hominin. My hobbies include painting, going to the beach, and exploring the outdoors. I am thrilled to be a part of MSA REU Program, and I am excited to learn more
about the depths of the human past.

Sierra Melton

Colorado College
Major: Geology
Year: Junior

I am a geology major and environmental issues minor, and I absolutely love science, rock climbing, biking, and hiking. At Colorado College, I enjoy participating in environmental student groups, working with the Office of Sustainability, and singing in choir. I have previously researched archaeological sites in New Mexico, sediment in tidally-influenced Texas rivers, and soil loss on construction sites in North Carolina. Currently, I am learning about ice and climate science while studying abroad in Denmark. In the MSA program, I hope to gain insight into past environmental changes and the ways in which environmental fluctuations have influenced past humans. I could not be more excited to build on my passions for geology and archaeology in this unique research program!

Lexi Roberts

University of Texas at Austin
Major: Anthropology
Grade: Junior

I am a junior with a current focus in biology, specifically on the evolutionary dynamics of various organisms under heavy selection pressures. I work in an eco-evo lab at UT Austin researching the co-evolution of stickleback fish and their parasites, as well as altruism and cooperation in vampire bats from Panama. I am also a passionate rock climber, animal bone/bug collector, and long-range backpacker. This research program is an exciting addition to my repertoire, and I hope to learn something new about how early humans co-evolved with their environment (and maybe I’ll even find some neat rocks to climb in the highlands!)

Sierra Yanny

Montana State University
Major: Liberal Studies – Quaternity
Year: Junior

I am Junior at MSU working on getting my BA degree with the pre-Medical intake program. I’d say my interests are well-rounded ranging from fine art to natural science. I’m a dedicated student with high hopes of making my way into Medical Illustration or even medical school. I would like to take my interests beyond the U.S. into the Anthropology realm of Ethiopia.

Chris Davis

Site Manager
University of Texas at Austin
Graduate student

I am a Ph.D. student at UT Austin. My interests include early human dispersal, behavioral evolution, and paleoecology. My dissertation research uses faunal remains from SM-1 to reconstruct the taphonomic history of the site and investigate the foraging adaptations of its MSA inhabitants. I am also interested in digital methods, and am currently working on a CT-based reconstruction of a Paleoindian skull from central Texas. I received my M.A. from Colorado State University, where my research was on the evolution of hominin body proportions and morphological integration in the hip and trunk of modern humans and fossil Homo. In the field, I have worked in Ethiopia, Austria, Colorado, California, Nevada, Wyoming, and across the southeastern US. Outside academics, I spend most of my time with my girlfriend and our dog – we enjoy live music, hiking, camping, and the dog in particular likes to terrorize neighborhood squirrels.

Fred Foster

Site Manager
Rutgers University
Graduate student

I am a graduate student in the Evolutionary Anthropology program at Rutgers University, and a graduate affiliate with the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies. My research interests center on the growth and development of fossil primates, and hominins in particular. I am especially interested in how sympatric relationships between closely related species in the fossil record may be affected by different ontogenetic patterns. I received my MSc from the University College of London, where I studied the lithic raw material acquisition strategies of hominins from beds III and IV at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. My field experience includes work at sites in Tanzania, Kenya, and the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America, in both archaeological and forensic contexts. I am currently working through a mild addiction to salt and vinegar potato chips, which I hope to beat before the upcoming field season in Ethiopia.

John Kappelman, Ph.D.

Biological Anthropologist and Geologist
Department of Anthropology
University of Texas at Austin
jkappelman@austin.utexas.edu

I am a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas and serve as co-director of the MSA Project (along with Dr. Lawrence Todd). I am broadly trained in biological anthropology and geology and have conducted research in primate and human evolution, paleoecology, geology, paleomagnetism, and computer imaging, with field projects all across Africa and Asia for the past 35 years. I have worked in Ethiopia since 1992.

My research interests for this project include the overall behavior of Middle Stone Age humans and reconstructions of the ancient habitats and climates. I am interested in directing undergraduate research projects in the taxonomy of the fossil animals (including the fish) that the MSA people collected, estimates of the body size and diversity of this fauna, the stratigraphy and sedimentology of the archaeological sites and the landscape, how we can use paleomagnetism to understand the controlled use of fire, and controlled experiments with the stone tool artefacts. Some student projects will be field-based while others will combine field-generated data with follow-up study in the National Museum in Addis Ababa or work in the computer lab or paleomagnetism lab at UT Austin.

Publications

2014. Kappelman, J., D. Tewabe, L. Todd, M. Feseha, M. Kay, G. Kocurek, B. Nachman, N. Tabor, and M. Yadeta. Another Unique River: a consideration of some of the characteristics of the trunk tributaries of the Nile River in northwestern Ethiopia in relationship to their aquatic food resources. Journal of Human Evolution 77:117-131

2008. Kappelman, John, Mehmet Cihat Alçiçek, Nizamettin Kazancı, Michael Schultz, Mehmet Özkul, and Şevket Şen. First Homo erectus from Turkey and implications for migrations into temperate Eurasia. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 135:110-116. Published online 7 December 2007. DOI 10.1002/ajpa.20739

2006. Huffman, O. F., Y. Zaim, J. Kappelman, D. R. Ruez, Jr., Y. Rizal, F. Aziz, C. Hertler, J. de Vos. Relocation of the 1936 Mojokerto skull discovery site near Perning, East Java. Journal of Human Evolution 50 431-451.

2002. Todd, L.C., M. Glantz, and J. Kappleman. Chilga Kernet: An Acheulean Landscape on Ethiopia’s Western Plateau. Antiquity 76: 611-612.

Other websites

Lawrence Todd, Ph.D.

Archaeologist
Department of Anthropology
Colorado State University
lctodd@colostate.edu

I am Professor Emeritus at Colorado State University and a Research Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin and serve with Dr. Kappelman as co-director of this Project. I have over forty years’ experience in field archaeology of foraging peoples. I specialize in large mammal zooarchaeology/taphonomy and site formational analysis. During the last decade, my focus has expanded to include multi-scale regional survey and excavation projects – an approach referred to as landscape taphonomy that emphasizes the interplay between biological, cultural, and physical processes in forming and interpreting the archaeological record. I participate in the Project as an instructor in archaeological excavation, documentation, survey, and analysis methods. I have been part of the team working in the project area since 2002 and currently split my research time between summers in high elevation portions of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and winter field and lab work in Ethiopia.

Publications

2004. Burger, O, L.C. Todd, T. Stohlgren, P. Burnett, and D. Stephens. Multi-Scale and Nested-Sampling Techniques for Archaeological Survey. Journal of Field Archaeology 29(3):409-423

2003. John Kappelman, D. Tab Rasmussen, William J. Sanders, Mulugeta Feseha, Thomas Bown, Peter Copeland, Jeff Crabaugh, John Fleagle, Michelle Glantz, Adam Gordon, Bonnie Jacobs, Murat Maga, Kathleen Muldoon, Aaron Pan, Lydia Pyne, Brian Richmond, Timothy Ryan, Erik R. Seiffert, Sevket Sen, Lawrence Todd, Michael C. Wiemann & Alisa Winkle. Oligocene mammals from Ethiopia and faunal exchange between Afro-Arabia and Eurasia. Nature 426:549-552.

2002. Todd, L.C., M. Glantz, and J. Kappleman. Chilga Kernet: An Acheulean Landscape on Ethiopia’s Western Plateau. Antiquity 76: 611-612.

2002. Meltzer, D.J., L.C. Todd, and V.T. Holliday. The Folsom (Paleoindian) Type Site: Past Investigations, Current Studies. American Antiquity67(1):5-36.

2000. Gadbury, C., L. Todd, A.H. Jahren, and R. Amundson. Spatial and Temporal Variations in the Isotopic Composition of Bison Tooth Enamel from the Early Holocene Hudson-Meng Bone Bed, Nebraska. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 157(1-2):79-93.

1998. Jahren, A.H., L.C. Todd, and R.G. Amundson. Stable Isotope Analysis of Bison Bone Samples from the Hudson-Meng Bonebed: Effects of Paleotopography. Journal of Archaeological Science 25:465-475.

Mulegeta Feseha, Ph.D.

Geologist
College of Natural Sciences
Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
mulugetafyg@gmail.com

I am an associate professor in the Paleoanthropology and Paleoenvironment Program at Addis Ababa University. I am trained in geology, GIS, and paleomagnetism. My research focus is on ancient environmental reconstructions, rift geology, sedimentary basin analysis and resource exploration, and the application of GIS and remote sensing in natural resources development and management. More recently I have become interested in natural and cultural tourism resource mapping, tourism product development, and community based ecotourism development and have published several books on these topics.

For the Middle Stone Age program I am interested in supervising students who are interested in a broad range of topics in geology as well as projects in tourism development.

Publications

Feseha, M., T. Gebreselassie and T. Hagos, in press. Tourism Resources and Development in Ethiopia (in Amharic), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Feseha, M., T. Selwny and G. Ambelu, in press. The Forms and Routes of Tourism in Ethiopia.

2014. Feseha, M., T. Gebreselassie and T. Hagos. Community Tourism Development in Tigray (in Tigrigna), 76p, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

2012. Feseha, M. The Fundamentals of Community Based Ecotourism Development in Ethiopia, 58p, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

2012. Pan, A. D., E. D. Currano, B. F. Jacobs, M. Feseha, N. Tabor and P. S. Herendeen. Fossil Newtonia (Fabaceae: Mimoseae) Seeds from the Early Miocene (22-21 MA) Mush Valley in Ethiopia, Int. J. Plant Sci. 173(3): 290-296.

2004. Feseha, M. Gradient profile Analysis of the Blue Nile (Abbay) River: a natural resource development perspective. The Ethiopian Journal of Development Research, 26, p. 101-116.

Abebe Gatahun, Ph.D.

Fish Systematist and Ecologist
Department of Zoological Sciences
Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
abebeg@bio.aau.edu.et

I am an Associate Professor in Aquatic Biology and currently the Chairman of the Department of Zoological Sciences. My specialization and research interest is in the diversity, conservation and utilization of freshwater fishes. For the last 20 years we (together with my graduate students) have conducted research on Ethiopian freshwater fish, especially on the conservation of the unique migratory Labeobarbus spp. of Lake Tana. We have also done some work on the fish of Alatish National Park where the diversity is considerably high and where there is some use of piscicides (natural poisons) by the local people.

I am interested in supervising students in the study of the effects of poisons on fish and the possibility that their use by MSA peoples might be detectable in fossil fish and mollusks. I am also interested in supervising students who are interested in the taxonomy and abundance of modern and fossil fish, with this work being carried out both in the field and in the National Museum in Addis Ababa.

Marvin Kay, Ph.D.

Quaternary Archaeologist
Department of Anthropology
University of Arkansas-Fayetteville
mkay@uark.edu

My research addresses human adaptation to Quaternary environments. Working with undergraduate and graduate students and Ethiopian colleagues, I deal with realistic experimental studies of primitive technology and telltale macroscopic and microscopic wear traces, mostly on stone tools. These studies are fundamental to understanding Middle Stone Age archaeology in Ethiopia, because they provide a comparative analytical basis for understanding the function of ancient stone artifacts.

Publications

2014. Kay, Marvin and Robert C. Mainfort, Jr. Functional Analysis of Prismatic Blades and Bladelets from Pinson Mounds, Tennessee. Journal of Archaeological Science Volume 50, October 2014, Pages 63–83. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2014.06.019

1996. Microwear analysis of some Clovis and experimental chipped stone tools. In Stone Tools: Theoretical Insights into Human Prehistory, edited by George H. Odell, pp. 315-344. Plenum Press, New York. (1996)

Imprints of ancient tool use at Monte Verde. In Monte Verde: A Late Pleistocene Settlement in Chile, Volume II: The Archaeological Findings, edited by Tom D. Dillehay. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. (in press).

Staci Loewy, Ph.D.

Radiogenic Isotope Geochemist
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Texas at Austin
sloewy@jsg.utexas.edu

As a radiogenic isotope geochemist, I use the decay of radioactive elements in natural materials as clocks to determine the ages of those materials. I work with many different types of materials and radioactive parent-daughter element pairs. With the Middle Stone Age NSF REU project, I will be using U-series dating to determine the ages of ostrich egg shell fragments from the research site. Ostrich eggs were a common food source of early humans and the shells may have been used for tools and jewelry. The age of the egg shells found at the archeological site will provide the age of the human activity at that site.

U-series dating uses the radioactive decay of 238U to 230Th. Because the rate of decay is constant through time, we can measure the amount of 238U and the amount of 230Th created by the decay of 238U in the egg shell fragment and can calculate the age of the egg shell, if the system has not been disturbed. In our lab, this dating method is used regularly to date stalagmites, the calcite domes that form from dripping water in caves. However adapting this method to ostrich egg shells has interesting complications. Work of the MSA REU will help to test some of our hypotheses with respect to these complications and attempt to determine the ages of several shell fragments. Students who work on this portion of the project will work with me and Dr. Jay Banner in his clean chemistry laboratory and analyze U and Th isotopes using a TIMS (thermal ionization mass spectrometer) in the Department of Geological Sciences at UT Austin.