For the previous two summers, a world cohort of 5 college students have gathered on the coast of South Africa for seven weeks to research animal fossils.
The coaching program offers students who usually don’t have laboratory expertise the prospect to find out about zooarchaeology and faunal evaluation from skilled researchers — they usually an anthropology PhD student at Arizona State University to thank.
Patrick Fahey began the program in 2024 whereas conducting analysis in South Africa. He used a part of his Fulbright Award funding and the Institute of Human Origins Elizabeth H. Harmon Research Endowment to launch the Archaeological Research Training and Faunal Analysis and Cultural Technologies, or ARTIFACT, program.
Fahey realized archaeology students in the area had ample alternatives for fieldwork expertise, however there have been fewer alternatives for laboratory expertise.
“A classroom setting is great to learn theory and bigger concepts, but oftentimes you can feel really detached,” stated Fahey, an affiliated student on the Institute of Human Origins and PhD candidate on the School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
“Concepts of taphonomy, for example, why does it actually matter? But once you start handling real fossils you see why,” he said. “The only way to learn faunal analysis is by doing it over and over and over again. There’s no secret shortcut. ARTIFACT immerses students in the work, giving them hands-on experience with thousands of fossils and sets them on the right track to becoming expert faunal analysts.”
Participants obtained journey bills, lodging and stipends. Fahey stated most individuals can’t afford to take off work for seven weeks or work for weeks with out pay, and he wished to get rid of as many obstacles as attainable so anybody might take part.
Students from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and the United States have participated, studying about comparative osteology, zooarchaeology and taphonomy.
“I gained so much from this program, truly more than I ever expected,” stated SJ Casillas-Chavez, a participant and anthropology grasp’s student on the University of Colorado Denver.
“I obtained each day hands-on coaching in zooarchaeology, and I used to be absolutely immersed in the fabric by way of lectures, discussions, readings and even video games,” he said. “When I returned residence, I started making use of the information that I gained in the ARTIFACT program to my grasp’s thesis analysis, and for the primary time, I felt assured sufficient in my expertise to work in direction of publication of my findings.”
Once students have been educated they began to code and course of precise faunal specimens from Pinnacle Point, a delegated World Heritage Site positioned on the southern coast of South Africa. The website consists of a collection of caves and rock shelters the place trendy people lived 50,000 to 160,000 years in the past.
Fahey’s dissertation is about reconstructing the human ecology 100,000 years in the past from Pinnacle Point 5-6, a rock shelter on the website. To do that, he’s analyzing over 30,000 animal stays found throughout excavations — and the students on this undertaking have been capable of assist course of a few of these specimens.
This yr, funding for the ARTIFACT undertaking and laboratory house got here from a grant to ASU Foundation Professor Curtis Marean from the Hyde Foundation and The Human Origins and Migration Evolution Research Consortium, or HOMER, the place he’s director.
Marean is a analysis scientist on the Institute of Human Origins and Foundation Professor and Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment on the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. He has been working the Pinnacle Point website for 25 years and is completely happy to help this interactive expertise for students.
“The ARTIFACT program gave me practical lab skills that directly tie into my academic and career goals,” stated Hope Chakanetsa, who just lately obtained her grasp of philosophy in archaeology from the University of Cape Town.
“I learned how to identify and catalog animal bones, interpret taphonomic processes and think critically about human-animal relationships in archaeological contexts. Just as importantly, I built lasting connections with the ASU team and peers from around the world who are passionate about archaeology.”
Fahey is engaged on his dissertation, and though making ready to defend and graduate in 2026, he hopes the program continues and is happy with what he began.
“I think archaeology and paleoanthropology in general shows us where we came from,” Fahey stated. “Humans’ deep evolutionary past might not seem to have a lot of utility dealing with modern problems like climate change, but really, our ancestors and environments have been interwoven for millions of years, right up to today. This kind of research helps us understand who we are and where we fit in the world. It gives us a sense of our origins.”