WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Oct. 15,2009 - In January, Williams College Professor of Chemistry Anne Skinner, along with six Williams students, will visit the headwaters of the Blue Nile to conduct archeological research. The project is part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.
The three-year $330,000 NSF grant, under the direction of Professor John Kappelman of the University of Texas-Austin, is supporting research on "Blue Highways: Evaluating Middle Stone Age Riverine-Based Foraging, Mobility, and Technology Along the Trunk Tributaries of the Blue Nile."
As part of this research, Skinner and her students will test the idea that the lifestyle of humans living near the Nile tributaries during the Middle Stone Age was centered on food and water resources concentrated near the riverbanks during the seasonal dry period.
Water holes holding fresh water would have attracted mammals and contained other food sources in one place. Previous research in the area has revealed the presence of human occupation in the form of tools.
Williams College students participating in the Winter Study course Archaeology in Ethiopia will spend two weeks at John Kappelman's excavation site in northwest Ethiopia, which evidence has suggested may have been a refuge during times of climate stress.
Kappelman, a paleontologist, recently completed the first high-resolution CT scan of "Lucy," the 3.2 MYR-old and best preserved Australopithecine.
"Dating the occupation would indicate whether the site might have been one of the essential ones in human development," said Skinner. The oldest hominid, Ardipithecus, recently reconstructed, was found in Ethiopia, and the oldest fossils of modern human aspect have all come from there as well.
Skinner's interdisciplinary research focuses on overlaps between chemistry, geology, and archaeology. She has conducted work on electron spin resonance, a technique that dates materials by looking at damage to fossils from environmental radiation.
Her research has been conducted at sites across the globe, including Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, Mesmaiskaya Cave in Russia, the Narmada River in India, and Sao Raimundo in Brazil.
Her work has appeared in numerous scientific journals, including Nature, The Journal of Human Evolution, The Journal of Coastal Research, and Applied Radiation and Isotopes. In 2005, her work on burnt bones from South Africa was featured in Discover Magazine as one of the top 100 scientific stories.
Skinner received her bachelor's degree from Radcliffe College, and her doctorate from Yale University. She joined the Williams faculty in 1967.
Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college's 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students' educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student's financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.
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News: Laura Corona