Expanding our understanding of deeper human biological and technological history depends, in large part, on recovering more fossils and stone tools. Such materials test existing hypotheses and provide the basis for developing new models of early human evolution. Recovering additional fossils and stone tools depends on locating deposits containing such materials. A survey of the Gobaad Basin in the Djibouti Afar will be carried out to evaluate the potential of this area for yielding paleoanthropological sites (e.g., deposits with Plio-Pleistocene fossils and/or stone tools). The Afar Depression spans northeastern Ethiopia and southwestern Djibouti, and is arguably the richest known repository of human fossils and stone tools. Paleoanthropological surveys in the Ethiopian Afar have led to numerous discoveries documenting the last six million years of human prehistory. The Djibouti Afar, in contrast, is poorly known. Only some 150 fossils and one excavated assemblage of stone tools have been reported from the Djibouti Afar, whereas thousands of fossils and stone tools have been recovered from the Ethiopian Afar. Yet both areas are part of the same overall Afar basin system, and thus should have the same general potential for yielding stone tools and fossils. Previous work in the Gobaad Basin of the Djibouti Afar has documented the general presence of at least some fossils and stone tools, broadly attributable to both the Lower and Middle Pleistocene. An analysis of geological and remote sensing data has led to the identification of 26 target areas in the Gobaad. The focus of this project is to survey these target areas to check for the presence of lithics, fossils, and/or datable materials (tuffs). This will provide the first spatial data on the distribution of paleoanthropological resources in the Djibouti Afar. The survey will be done by a joint US, French, and Djiboutian team.
