The roots of our species appear to be in Africa. Some of the earliest and most exciting traces of our distant ancestry have been unearthed in Ethiopia. Here the PIs propose to pursue further paleoanthropological and archaeological investigations in a very promising area of the West Central Afar region of Ethiopia, or the Gona. The Gona Project has three major research goals for the fieldwork planned in 2001. These include detailed geological studies and archaeological excavations at 1) DAN1, a new 2.6 million year old (my) archaeological site with evidence of the earliest known in situ stone artifacts and fossilized animal bones, 2) BSN12, a site which yielded a partial skull of a Homo erectus and associated Oldowan and Early Acheulian stone artifacts estimated between 1.5-1.0 my, and 3) DAN5 where a nearly complete skull of an early Homo estimated between 2,0-1.5 my was discovered in association with surface Oldowan and Early Acheulian artifacts. DAN1and BSN12 were identified in 1999 and DAN5 was discovered in 2000. Previous research at Gona has resulted in the discovery of thousands of stone tools dated to 2.5 my, but fossilized animal bones were absent from the excavations. Bones with evidence of stone tool cut-marks dated to 2.5 my were recently discovered at Bouri, in the Middle Awash study area, but there were no excavated artifacts found in direct association with the bones. Despite the lack of artifacts in direct association with cut-marked bones, it was argued that ancestral humans began making artifacts for processing carcasses for meat. Thus far, the earliest evidence for associated artifacts and bones comes from Hadar in deposits dated to 2.3 my. The only known 2.6 my old in situ stone artifacts and associated animal bones are those discovered in the year 2000 from Gona (at DAN1). This new site promises to yield critical evidence for understanding early human diet, for studying the function of the earliest stone tools and for providing important clues regarding the factors that triggered early human flaked stone production. The BSN12 and DAN5 sites have yielded important hominids, stone artifacts and well-preserved fauna. However, further archaeological and paleontological test-excavations, and detailed geological studies are needed 1) to firmly determine the age of the sites and 2) to ascertain the stratigraphic relationships of the hominids, the artifacts and the fossil bones. A major component of the geological study will involve sampling of sediments for paleomagnetic analyses and tuffs for geochemical correlations for resolving the age of these important discoveries.
