By Lawrence Nzuve

Last week ended happily with the return of three of the team who had been working to the north of Ileret with Francis Kirera since the beginning of June. Also Dominic found a hominin molar close in a place that we had all walked past on the previous two days.

Dominic poses for the camera. Inset is the hominin molar

One of the graduate students, Ian, has also been putting together an ancient Hippo skull that he discovered. Its coming together very well.

The fieldcrew continue on their daily prospecting forays across these exposures that were once walked over by Richard Leakey’s team in the 1970’s.

The collection crew at the site where the famous KNM-ER 1470 was found

By Lawrence Nzuve

Last week one of the crew members discovered a complete primate skull completely encased in a sandstone matrix. Once cleaned this specimen should be a fabulous study specimen. It will take careful work to clean it.

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The collection team got to it the following day to record the stratigraphy and take the photographs; an on the spot photo and another one depicting the immediate surroundings before collecting it.

Dr. Fred Spoor taking a photograph of the specimen before collection.

Other good specimens were recovered this week including a fine antelope specimen which was encased in plaster of paris for transportation to the camp.

By Lawrence Nzuve

I have so far, this season, restricted myself to the topic of fossil discovery. However I want to touch on other less obvious  discoveries that we make while we are working.

The area we are currently working in, is home to some rather amazing plants. Recently a crew member pointed out to me a rather unusual shrub. On closer inspection I found that it had a rather tuberlike root. I was told that it is not edible! I have seen many tubers and a sizeable number of them are edible.

The unusual shrub with a tuber. 

This area too is rich with bushes covered in edible fruits. The one in the picture below is harvested by some of the fieldcrew on their way to the lunch tree. The tiny fruits are sweet but have very hard seeds in them which are thrown out after sucking the juice from the rest of the fruit. The local population even make juice from it!

On the subject of discoveries, the crew has also found a good spot for napping in the heat of the day after a hard mornings work.

By Lawrence Nzuve

Long walking distances brought great reward . Two “homs” were found in the first week.

A rather beautiful piece of a hominin found by Daniel Elgitei.

The specimen was found a few days before the collection team - Dr Meave Leakey, Ian Wallace from Stony Brook and Nzube -  finally got to it while doing the rounds. It was good news for everyone.
And Sale found a piece  of hominid humerus, first thing on Monday which sent the whole crew into a prospecting frenzy.

Sale had just joined us from Francis team who are working closer to Ileret and this was the first find of the season.

Sale quips, “It is just the beginning. Just watch me”.

Keep it here and stay synchronised as they say!

By Lawrence Nzuve

The field season has begun. Infact we got started at the beginning of June. The camp was been put up on the Karare escarpment close to where we will be working. This is about a two hour drive south from the Turkana Basin Institute field station at Ileret.  The camp is somewhat devoid of trees and shade however it does have a most spectacular view of the lake, the fossil exposures and the Kokoi ridge. We dont have an Internet link here so I will not be posting as frequently.

The field team is smaller this month as some of them are working to the North with Dr. Francis Kirera; a post Doctoral student with Stony Brook.

Each morning the crew have to walk quite a distance just to get to the fossil areas. It is particularly steepand rugged terrain and making a road in is not an option.

We have once again set up the bank of solar panels to keep the cameras and computers charged.

I will be writing occasional posts throughout the June-August 2008 season, hopefully with exciting news from the slopes. That is when I get back to the Ileret field station to the internet connection of course!

By Lawrence Nzuve

With the onset of the rains we have called the excavation to a close for the time being. We have got more to do on this however. We have now worked almost three full months on this site and have excavated a large area with dental picks and brushes. We did find some more little fragments of the specimen. The wet screening will now continue in the camp.

February and March are extremely hot months at Turkana and so we found some relief under the shade canopies at the sieves in the heat of the day.

We have once again secured the site with rocky barriers in the stream to try to prevent any fragments being washed away when the stream flows.

If we found any fragments of bone in the excavation then we would dutifully pack them away in secure bags and add them to our impressive collection of pieces back in camp.

We will be back in full swing again in June!

From us all Kwaheri;

Nzuve

and the team!

By Lawrence Nzuve

The Ileret Field Station is now almost a year old. We broke ground last April just before the rains. And the rains are here again. This week Richard Leakey paid us another visit to check on the progress of the buildings. He arrived in the middle of a large thunderstorm. The rains have arrived.

An almost completed building with a large shady veranda

Green roofing has now been put up over the store units and offers a large are from which rain water will be collected. Similar roofs are going up over the car port and also the dormitory block.

The large green roof over the stores

Prof. Leakey also took the time to speak with everyone in the camp. He spoke of the good work and the future prospects for employees working at the centre. He reminded everyone to respect their positions and to work hard to make this a success.

Some of the staff members listening keenly to Prof. Leakey

Construction is expected to begin after the rains on the second field station on the western side of Lake Turkana. I will update you on this on another occasion.

By Lawrence Nzuve

The Turkana Basin is known for the inexhaustible fossil deposits and other natural features which a visitor to this place cannot help but marvel about.  Of particular interest to me is a feature which many visitors to this place might well ignore. After all, this place is filled with small hillocks of varying sizes and composition. Howevr some of hills are more interesting than others. For instance, this “hill” is one which we walk by each day as we go to the excavation.

My natural curiosity led me to further explore it further. I can only describe it as the work of art and purpose. The rocks have been carefully chosen and placed in such a way to form characteristic mounds. These cairns are basically piles of stones of different sizes, some quite large, suggesting that the the builders were quite strong. The builders appear to have made very good use of locally available stones. Around the Ileret and the Koobi Fora area many of the cairns have been erected on high grounds.

Many theories have been put forward as to the origins of these mounds. Monty Brown describes them in his book; ‘where giants trod’ and suggests that they are the graves of important people.  Indeed in the top of each of these hills is a human skeleton. They predate the living memory of people in the region today. All said and done these features will continue raising plenary issues. What is not contentious here though is their very existence and the materials used, their architectural construction nor the geographical area of their existence.

Lawrence Nzuve reports on an extra-ordinary occurrence and the quest for wildlife conservation

Kenya is a nation known for its wildlife and its numerous lodges and restaurants which make it a popular destination for tourists. However trumpeting for the nation’s top earning sector can as well be the story for another day. How many times have you wondered about the wildlife you go to view in the parks and if the wild animals themselves have a mind of their own or if they have a pastime themselves. We found out about that a few days ago while I was driving the field crew home after a tiring day in the wild.

The sandsnake as Abdub had seen it: viewed here from inside the car

Abdub one of the crew members, a passenger in the cabin, pointed out that a sand snake was snugly resting on the bonnet, by the windscreen. My first action naturally was to stop the car but already my passengers had panicked and were threatening to alight from a speeding land-cruiser through my very own door!

Anxious moments for the cabin passengers as I clicked away

I managed to persuade them to be calm and then the camera clicked; I could not understand how a tourist like ‘him’ had come unannounced and without a camera! I had one though!

Getting agitated; the serpent wags its head

There were the usual war cries as usual. but being fossil hunters, I reminded them that we were first conservationists and last or never at all; worriors!

Here the snake appears to be viewing his version of the wildlife through the windscreen

As we got back to the car to continue with the journey, I could not help but wonder if he had enjoyed viewing his version of wildlife and if he had been mesmerised by the fear exhibited by the destructive creatures and self proclaimed conquerors of the world- human beings. We let him enjoy the scenery from our field car and at one point he became really excited (or so we thought) and had to momentarily shut our windows. Eventually he must have left and if not, we are looking forward to another encounter with one of the most sly and misunderstood of the animals of the wild.

Can you rise above your own fear and conserve wildlife? Think about it!

TBI has carried out maintenance of the local airstrip which is increasingly busy. This has now added another taste to life in this rather desolate place.

The runway has been extensively “levelled” using a metal sheet that is dragged behind the tractor and also extended.

In addition a windvane has been erected at the field.

Now medical teams can access casualties and other patients readily and of course the scientists can fly in and out easily and keep you reader in touch with our famous discoveries.
As the sun rises in the East with the Surgei mountains casting a magnificent shadow on the land, Ileret has been put on the global map. May the discoveries continue!