Syllabus

Onsite orientation

• Arrival Kilimanjaro International
• Transfers to hotel in Arusha city
• Safety, health, and living in Tanzania
• Understanding fundamental cultural norms
• Expedition activities, methods of instructions, student responsibilities and code of conduct

Kibo Palace Hotel (field school base)

Course Orientation

• An overview of Tanzania’s geopolitical landscape, local customs and sociocultural structure
• Intro to basic Swahili language
• Guided museum tour

Natural History Museum, Arusha

• Overview of human evolution in Africa
• The role of African museums and conservation of cultural resources

• History of early human discoveries
• Fossils and stone tools: Evidence of human biological, cultural and behavioral development

• The role of African Museums in cultural heritage and geotourism

• Guided tour: Olduvai Museum and iconic sites i.e., Zinjanthropus, FLK NN, DK etc.
• The role of Maasai people in conservation of natural and cultural resources

• Hominin evolution & emergence of prehistoric cultures

• Survey of pre-australopiths, australopiths,Paranthropus (Zinjanthropus), early Homo, later Homo, modern hunter-gatherer societies & pastoral communities

• Olduvai
• Laetoli excursion

• Oldowan hominin: Hunters or the hunted?
• Faunal analysis
• Zooarchaeology, Taphonomy & Ichnology

• Biological, technological, cultural, behavioral, climatic & environmental changes through time
• Fossil & archaeological evidence from Beds I-IV, Masek, Ndutu &Naisiusiu Beds
• Climate change & faunal turnover pulse in Bed II
• Archaeological evidence: The antiquity of meat-eating behavior
• Osteology & fossil identification
• Bone surface modification: mammalian carnivores & crocodiles predation traces
• Stone tool induced butchery traces

• Lithic Technology
• Experimental Archaeology

• Stone Age Industries & Culture history
• Stone knapping experiments

• Simulation of Oldowan hominin archaeological sites

• Raw material selection: Did hominin prefer volcanic or metasedimentary rocks?
• Butchery experiments
• Actualistic observation of carnivore feeding behaviors

• Development of the East African Rift System

• Landforms and structures associated with continental rifting i.e., volcanoes, escarpments, faults, rift lake basins & archaeological deposits.
• Impact of rifting on climate, environments & hominin development
• Ngorongoro Crater environments as modern analogs of ancient Olduvai lake basin

• Olduvai (1 day)
• Ngorongoro Crater (1 day)

• Mineral identification
• Rock formation & identification
• Principles of stratigraphy
• Principles of sedimentary facies & facies correlation
• Geochronology

• Identifying major rock-forming minerals
• Igneous, Metamorphic & Sedimentary
• Formations in sedimentary rocks
• How sedimentary rock packages reflect depositional environments.
• Olduvai stratigraphy
• Depositional history
• Paleoenvironmental reconstructions of Beds I-IV, Masek, Ndutu & Naisiusiu beds
• Age of nearby volcanoes and Precambrian basement rocks

• Contemporaneous faulting & sedimentation
• Precambrian crystalline geology
• Tertiary volcanism

• Faulting
• Rock deformation associated with extensional tectonics.
• Formation of Tanzania Craton & Neoproterozoic basement
• Volcanism & pyroclastic flow
• Fluvial deposits & re-worked airfall tuffs
• Sand dunes
• Quaternary history of Olduvai
• Earthquake & hazards

6

• Manyara-Natron escarpment trip (1 day)
• Serengeti ecosystem excursion (2 days)
• Ol Doinyo Lengai (2 days)
• Shifting Sand and Granite Falls (1 day)

• Field survey
• Archaeological excavations

• Mapping stratigraphic sections
• Data recovery
• Mapping including UAV, total station
• Analysis of fossils and artifacts
• Documentation & curation of archaeological material

• Final revision session

• Recap what learnt in the course
• Complete group projects, which integrates anthropology, archaeology, geology and ecology of the study areas
• Organize field journal
• Optional visits to Nasera Rock Shelter, Maasai bomas, Olduvai Museum or archaeological sites