Africa - Kenya - Koobi Fora Field School

The Koobi Fora Field School takes place in the world famous fossiliferous deposits in northern Kenya. The program start in Nairobi and we travel 3/4 of the length of Kenya during the course. The program also includes a week long ecology tour.

Rutgers University / National Museums of Kenya with faculty from University of Cape Town, George Washington University, Bournemouth University, Smithsonian Institution, University of Nairobi, University of Georgia

8 undergraduate units, although some schools may only accept 6 transfer units.
This consists of two 4 credit upperdivision Anthropology courses. One in Paleoanthropology and the other in Field Methods in Paleoanthropology.

The cost for the six-week session is:

New Jersey residents
Out-of-state residents

$5,500*
$6,000*


*Inflation and fluctuating exchange rates make it impossible to state a fixed cost this far in advance. The rates stated here could increase 10 to 15 percent.
Included in this fee: the cost of travel from Nairobi to field sites, instruction, meals, and lodging. Rutgers' Office of Risk Management requires special basic health and accident insurance for all participants. This coverage is provided at no extra cost to the student. The cost of the Kenya program also includes Flying Doctors Medical Insurance for the time students will be in the field. Students are responsible for optional major-medical coverage.

Not included in the fee: travel to and from Kenya (flight information and specific recommendations will be sent from the directors); personal expenses including recreation, tips, laundry, books, or snacks; transportation of baggage in excess of airline limit; vacation travel; or dental expenses. The program assumes no liability for personal property. Students desiring liability insurance should secure their own.

Included in this fee: the cost of travel from Nairobi to field sites, instruction, meals, and lodging. Rutgers' Office of Risk Management requires special basic health and accident insurance for all participants. This coverage is provided at no extra cost to the student. The cost of the Kenya program also includes Flying Doctors Medical Insurance for the time students will be in the field. Students are responsible for optional major-medical coverage.

Every year in June, 30 or so
undergraduates assemble at the
National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi to
participate in the Koobi Fora Field School
in northern Kenya. Right from the outset,
the students are briefed that their journey
to the desert wastes on the eastern shores
of Lake Turkana at Koobi Fora will be an
adventure in science—one where the
frontiers of humankind have been literally
pushed back millions of years.
So begins an odyssey across time and
space. The students will travel back in
time and walk over ancient landscapes
that are millions of years old, where animal
communities—including some of our
earliest ancestors—once lived.
The modern day journey by lorry and Land
Rover takes three days and 850 km across
three-quarters of the length of Kenya.
Beginning in Nairobi, the drive takes them
over lush and fertile landscapes onto the
high plateau flanks of the Great Rift Valley
that are the heartland of agriculture in
Kenya. Then they plunge kilometres on
winding and dusty roads to the floor of the
Rift Valley, past fields filled with volcanic
cobbles and boulders, to the arid and
barren lands that are the home of nomadic
pastoralists. The final leg of this journey
brings the students to the windswept spit
that juts out into the jade-coloured waters
of Lake Turkana at Koobi Fora.

Prehistoric

Early Stone Age through Later Stone Age/Neolithic

The field school traverse almost the full length of Kenya. you will be exposed to the flanks of the Great Rift Valley as well as the lakes at the base of the Rift. Conditions are rustic.

Access to project area is only by 4wd vehicle. It takes us three days to get to Koobi Fora.

Field supervision and instruction occurs on every day of the week for the six weeks. There are days off and study days as well.

N/A

Directors
John W. K. Harris
Rutgers University
Purity Kiura
National Museums of Kenya
David R. Braun
University of Cape Town

Excavation
Survey
Ecology
Geology
Site Stratigraphy
Fauna identifiaction
Taphonomy
GPS/GIS
Ethnobotany
Ethnoarchaeology
Experimental archaeology

The field school takes place in the dray season, there are very few rain days.

There will be trips organized to see famous localities throughout Kenya. Students usually take a trip to the beautiful Kenyan coast at the end of formal instruction.

There will be lectures by famous Paleoanthropologists that will visit our camp throughout the field season.

No

http://studyabroad.rutgers.edu/

Professor Jack Harris
Anthropology Department
Rutgers University
131 George Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901