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DISPATCH 03: Recent Past
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As usual the team are finding more fossils that we can
possibly collect. Several files of digital images are now
recorded and their positions mapped in order of priority of
collection. We have a total count of 650 specimens found in
the first four weeks. We now have four hominids, including a
humerus shaft and an isolated tooth.
Meave Leakey and Fred
Spoor are heading up the fossil recovery team and each day
collect the most important remains from the prospected
areas. Last week one of the team found pieces of hominid
femur and pelvis. It was a surface find and very light bone
composition which in this case was a clear indication that
it was a Holocene age fossil. This is a fascinating
time in the basin and the 10,000 year deposits are well
represented here.The
excavation of this find
led to the recovery of much of the skeleton and because it
was fragmented was a very useful exercise in anatomy for the
crew
on
the weekend,
when the bone pieces were washed and
stuck together by the team
in the camp.
The people that
existed in the region at this time had a vibrant fishing
culture and used beautifully refined stone flakes and carved
bone harpoons (image
1,
image 2),
many of which can be found on the surface in the areas of
Holocene deposits. The fossils from this time are of
increasing interest and should form the basis of a major
research project in the future. The evidence from the
Turkana Basin might indeed be linked to later and better
known civilisations to the north.
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