Team

Emily Lange

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Major: Anthropology – Archaeology Concentration
Year: Junior

My name is Emily Lange, and I am currently studying archaeology with a minor in classical and religious studies. I absolutely love archaeology, and am excited to be serving as an archaeology research assistant at my university. I have additional research and fieldwork experience through my participation in the REU: Exploring Evidence of the Anthropocene. Within my discipline, I am particularly interested in Near Eastern archaeology, prehistoric settlement patterns, and the origins of agriculture. I am so excited for the opportunity to participate in this unique project, and can’t wait to learn more about Middle Stone Age environment and its inhabitants.

Keenan Riordan

University of Texas at Dallas
Major: Physics
Year: Freshman

I’m a freshman attending the University of Texas at Dallas, I was born and raised in Austin, Texas and currently I’m majoring in physics. I love the challenge of physics and I find tremendous joy in solving problems that I devote time to think about. Outside of school I like to power lift, write poetry (on occasion), and draw. This will be my first professional research experience and I am immensely excited to go overseas and conduct actual field work!

Braenn Smith

Sheridan College
Major: Machine Tool Technology
Year: Freshman

I am a first year student studying Machining at Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming. I’ve always been fascinated by archaeology and I am so excited to participate in the Program. The only experience I’ve had in archaeology was assisting Professor Kappelman and Dr. Larry Todd into the backcountry of Meeteetse, Wyoming to dig. My hobbies include playing guitar, horn-hunting, fishing, and welding. My love of history and my interest in archaeology come from growing up in Wyoming; an area full of rich history. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in such a wonderful program!

Lindsey Trombetta

Austin Community College
Major: Anthropology

My name is Lindsey Trombetta, and I’m an anthropology major with an archaeology concentration currently attending ACC in Austin Texas. I am incredibly excited for the opportunity to take part in the MSA REU program, and am particularly interested in the ritual customs and activities of the distant past and how these may have influenced early human behavior and the origins of culture. Outside of school I am a borosilicate glassblower and love traveling as much as I possibly can. Locally I enjoy hiking, rock climbing and stand up paddle boarding- usually with at least one of my two dogs in tow!

Daniel Dalmas

Site Manager
Iowa State University
Major: Anthropology
Year: Senior

I am a senior majoring in Anthropology and minoring in History, Geographic Information Systems, and Statistics at Iowa State University. I am particularly interested in applying statistical methods to analyze variations in faunal remains and the geospatial relations between fauna and humans. I plan to continue my research at the graduate level and hope to help produce and interpret pertinent methods and information regarding the history of humans.

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.

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.

Gifford Miller, Ph.D.

Geologist
INSTAAR and Geological Sciences
University of Colorado, Boulder
gmiller@colorado.edu

I am a Professor of Geological Sciences and a Fellow of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where I also serve as Associate Director. My research focuses on utilizing the record of the recent geological past, primarily in hot and cold deserts, to gain a better understanding of Earth’s climate system, and the role of humans in the Earth System. I have long-standing research programs in the Eastern Canadian Arctic, Australia, Iceland, and Svalbard.

Recognizing the need for improved tools to date events of the recent past, I established a laboratory for amino acid racemization dating, and it was through this tool that I became caught up in the climate and human histories of the world’s hot deserts, beginning with the Sahara Desert, and eventually leading me to Australia in the late 1980s, with active research campaigns since the early 1990s focusing on the pacing of the Australian Summer Monsoon, causes of megafaunal extinction, and the footprints of human colonization. Recently, my research group, building on the Australia experience, expanded our fieldwork to Madagascar, where we are evaluating causes for the extinction of Aepyornis, the giant, 1000 pound Elephant Bird.

Under my direction, students studying the Middle Stone Age will work in my lab and use amino acid racemization on ancient ostrich eggshell to date the human occupation sites. This work is especially important because many of these sites are older than the limit of carbon-14 dating.

Publications

2013. Gifford H. Miller, Kaufman, D. S., Clarke, S. J. Amino acid dating. In Elias, S. A. (editor), Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, second edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 37-48. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-444-53643-3.00054-6

2010. Oskam, C. L., Haile, J., Mclay, E., Rigby, P., Allentoft, M. E., Olsen, M. E., Bengtsson, C., Gifford H. Miller, Schwenninger, J.-L., Jacomb, C., Walter, R., Baynes, A., Dortch, J., Parker-Pearson, M., Gilbert, M. T. P., Holdaway, R. N., Willerslev, E., Bunce, M. Fossil avian eggshell preserves ancient DNA. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 277(1690): 1991 2000, DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.2019

2005. Gifford H. Miller, Fogel, M. L., Magee, J. W., Gagan, M. K., Clarke, S., Johnson, B. J. Ecosystem collapse in Pleistocene Australia and a human role in megafaunal extinction. Science, 309: 287 290.

1999. Gifford H. Miller, Beaumont, P.B., Deacon, H.J., Brooks, A.S., Hare, P.E., Jull, A.J.T. Earliest modern humans in southern Africa dated by isoleucine epimerization in ostrich eggshell. Quaternary Science Reviews 18(1999):1537-1548

1998. Johnson, B. J., Fogel, M. L., Gifford H. Miller. Stable isotopes in modern ostrich eggshell: A calibration for paleoenvironmental applications in semi-arid regions of southern Africa. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 62(14): 2451-2462. DOI: 10.1016/S0016-7037(98)00175-6

1997. Johnson, B.J., Fogel, M.L., Gifford H. Miller, Beaumont, P.B. The determination of late Quaternary paleoenvironments at Equus Cave, South Africa, using stable isotopes and amino acid racemization in ostrich eggshell. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 136: 121-137

1993. Johnson, B.J., Fogel, M.L., Gifford H. Miller. Paleoecological reconstructions in southern Egypt based on the stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in the organic fraction and stable carbon isotopes in individual amino acids of fossil ostrich eggshell. Chemical Geology 107:493-497

1992. Kaufman, D.S., Gifford H. Miller. Overview of amino acid geochronology . Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 102B:199-204

1990. Brooks, A.S., Hare, P.E., Kokis, J.E., Gifford H. Miller, Ernst, R.D., Wendorf, F. Dating archeological sites by protein diagenesis in ostrich eggshell . Science 248:60-64

Agazi Negash, Ph.D.

Geoarchaeologist
College of Natural Sciences
Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
agazi.negash@gmail.com

I am associate professor of Geoarchaeology in the Paleoanthropology and Paleoenvironment Program, College of Natural Sciences at Addis Ababa University. I am also Associate Dean for Graduate Programs of the College of Natural Sciences. My research interests include prehistoric archaeology and the geochemical sourcing of raw materials. I have decades of experience in undertaking field survey and excavations in Ethiopia and elsewhere. I have also participated in several environmental/cultural impact assessments.

For the Middle Stone Age program I am especially interested in supervising students who want to study raw material sourcing and tool use.

Selected Publications

Sahle, Y., Hutchings, W.K., Braun, D.R., Sealy, J.C., Morgan, L.E., Negash, A., Anafu, B. 2013. Earliest stone-tipped projectiles from the Ethiopian Rift date to >279,000 years ago. PLOS ONE. 8(11):e78092.

Agazi Negash, A., Brown, F., and Nash, B. 2011. Varieties and sources of artefactual obsidian in the Middle Stone Age of the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. Archaeometry. 53(4):661-673.

Negash, A., Brown, F., and Alene, M., and Nash, B. 2010. Provenance of the Middle Stone Age Artifacts from the central sector of the Main Ethiopian Rift Valley. SINET: Ethiopian Journal of Science. 33(1):21-30.

Brown, F., Reid, C., and Negash, A., 2009. Possible isotopic fractionation of argon in source obsidians and archaeological artifacts from Kulkuletti, Ethiopia. Journal of Archaeological Science, 36(10):2119-2124.

Negash, A., Alene, M., Brown, F., Nash, B., and Shackely, M. S. 2007. Geochemical Provenance of the Terminal Pleistocene/Early Holocene Obsidian Artifacts from the Site of Beseka, Central Ethiopia. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34(8):1205-1210.

Negash A. and Shackley, M. S. 2006. Geochemical Provenance of Obsidian Artifacts from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) site of Porc Epic, Ethiopia. Archaeometry. 48(1):1-12

Negash A. and Shackley, M. S., and Mulugeta Alene. 2006. Source Provenance of Obsidian Artifacts from the Early Stone Age (ESA) site of Melka Konture, Ethiopia. Journal of Archaeological Science, 33(11):1647-1650.

Vogel, N., Nomade, S., Negash, A., and Renne, P. 2006. Forensic 40Ar/39Ar dating: a provenance study of Middle Stone Age obsidian artifacts from Ethiopia. Journal of Archaeological Science. 33(11):1749-1765.

Rob Scott, Ph.D.

Biological Anthropologist
Paleoecology and Hominin Diet Lab
Center for Human Evolutionary Studies
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
rscott.anthro@gmail.com

The research focus in my lab is on understanding the diets of our various hominin and hominid ancestors and close relatives. How did foods and ecology create selection pressures and constraints in human evolution? In practice, this means a wide range of work from experimental to comparative. We have done everything from experiments using an in vitro model of human digestion to HRXCT of the internal architecture of jaw bones. In the Middle Stone Age of Ethiopia, research might include scanning cut-marked or tooth-marked bone and distinguishing cut-marks from tooth-marks or analyzing the species and skeletal parts present at a locality to answer questions about subsistence. We could even investigate use-wear on stone tools.
Thus, work could include identification and cataloging collections, scanning and imaging or even some mathematical modeling. Anthropology and archaeology have long borrowed from other disciplines and curious undergraduate researchers from majors as diverse as but not limited to Math, Computer Science, Biology, Archaeology, and Anthropology all may have something to contribute.

Publications

2012. Scott, R.S., P.S. Ungar, & M.F. Teaford. Dental microwear textures and anthropoid diets. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 147 (4): 551-579. doi:10.1002/ajpa.22007

2012. Kaya, T., S. Mayda, D.S. Kostopoulos, M.C. Alcicek, G. Merceron, A. Tan, S. Karakutuk, A.K. Giesler, & R.S. Scott. Şerefköy-2, a new late Miocene mammalian locality from the Yatağan Formation, Muğla, SW Turkey. Comptes Rendus Palevol 11 (1): 5-12. doi:10.1016/j.crpv.2011.09.001

2012. Pante, M.C., R.J. Blumenschine, S.D. Capaldo, & R.S. Scott. Validation of bone surface modification models for inferring fossil hominin and carnivore feeding interactions, with reapplication to FLK 22, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. Journal of Human Evolution 63 (2): 395-407.

2010. Ungar, P.S., R.S. Scott, F.E. Grine, & M.F. Teaford. Molar microwear textures and the diets of Australopithecus anamensis and Australopithecus afarensis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2010 365 (1556): 3345-3354. doi:10.1073/pnas.1104627108

2009. Ungar, P.S. & R.S. Scott. Dental evidence for diets of early Homo. In: The First Humans (Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology) (F.E. Grine, J.G. Fleagle, & R.E. Leakey, editors). Springer: pp. 121-134. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9980-9_11

2006. Scott, R.S., P.S. Ungar, T.S. Bergstrom, C.A. Brown, B.E. Childs, M.F. Teaford & A. Walker. Dental microwear texture analysis: technical considerations. Journal of Human Evolution 51: 339-349.

2005. Scott, R.S., P.S. Ungar, T.S. Bergstrom, C.A. Brown, F.E. Grine, M.F. Teaford, & A. Walker. Dental microwear texture analysis shows within-species diet variability in fossil hominins. Nature 436 (7051): 693-695. doi:10.1038/nature03822