Fieldwork: Anthropology students go the extra mile


By Lisa Robbins |
June 02, 2011

ASU students work closely with the Institute of Human Origins faculty, exploring the secrets of modern humans who inhabited these caves in Mossel Bay, as part of the "Paleoclimatic and Paleoenvironmental Context of the Origins of Modern Humans in South Africa" project.

Mary Ann Vicari, former student and current instructor of ASU's Kampsville Field School geoarchaeology course, uses a gradiometer to measure variation in the magnetic field at Mound House to detect subsurface archaeological features.

Discovering bone and fossil remains requires dusty climbs and keen eyesight, but students at the biennial ASU Paleoanthropology Field School in Hadar, Ethiopia are up to the task. Their findings allow students to make comparisons with examples of modern animal skeletons.

ASU students have helped faculty researchers excavate this cave through the "South African Coastal Paleoclimate, Paleoenvironment, Paleoecology, and Paleoanthropology Project," uncovering some of the earliest evidence for complex cognitive and social capacities of early Homo sapiens.

Students at ASU's Medical Anthropology and Community Health Field School in Guatamala enjoy a side trip to the pre-Columbian Mayan ruins of Iximche.

Darien Allen conducts field work as part of her global health degree program at ASU’s Medical Anthropology and Community Health Field School, in Acatenango, Guatemala.

ASU students collect ceramic sherds at the Cyprus archaeological field site, a practice they fondly refer to as “going sherding.”

A student from the ASU Cyprus archaeological field school excavates around a pithos, a very large ceramic vessel that was buried underground for storage.

Students explore New Zealand's rolling farmland while staying with local families as part of ASU's "New Zealand: Adventures in Culture, Health and Environment" study abroad program.

After exploring Westminster Abbey as part of ASU's "London: The Work in One City" study abroad program, students pause for a photo shoot with the "Big Ben" clock tower.

Students plant banana trees as part of a service learning project in Votua Village during ASU's "Fiji: Adventures in Culture, Health and Environment" study abroad program.

Students explore traditional Chinese costumes at the Yonghe Gong Lama Temple on ASU's "China: The Roaring Dragon" study abroad program.

Students cross a river during a hike in a Yungaburra rain forest while participating in the "ASU Australia: Human Dimensions of Sustainability" study abroad program.

To learn more about the field research and study abroad programs the School of Human Evolution and Social Change offers, visit http://shesc.asu.edu.

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