This year has been extremely successful for the team of scientists from Spain and the USA who are involved, since 2012, in the survey, excavations and research at the Gona sites, located in Afar Region, Ethiopia, where a well-preserved fossil hominin in the Late Pleistocene deposits has been discovered by Dr. Michael Rogers (Co-PI of the Project) from Southern Connecticut State University.

The excavation at BSN-70 site, which is stratigraphically situated about 1 meter below a volcanic ash dated close to ~1.7 Ma, and the site may be ~ 1.8 Ma. has yielded additional stone artifacts and fauna in situ. “Combined with the materials found in 2013, we have now recovered more than 150 lithics, including large cutting tools, cores and débitage, as well as fossil fauna from the surface and the excavations”, explains Dr Sileshi Semaw, scientist at the CENIEH, who leads the 2014 Gona Palaeoanthropological Research Project fieldwork.

Additional excavations opened at BSN-72 and BSN-19, two near-contemporary localities documented in the deposits adjacent to BSN-70 site, have yielded stone artifacts of Oldowan character. “The archaeological materials from BSN-70 are most informative, and critical for our understanding of the archaeological transition from the Oldowan to the Acheulian, and the emergence of the Acheulian Industry ~ 1.75 Ma.” states Dr. Semaw. 

Fossil hominin 
Towards the end of the archaeological fieldwork, which has been carried out by Dr. Rogers, the Gona archaeology team carried out its annual survey in the younger deposits to check for new exposures at important localities documented over the past 15 years.

Just two days before the end of the 2014 field season, Dr. Rogers, who is also expert on landscape archaeology and lithic technology, discovered a well-preserved fossil hominin in the Late Pleistocene deposits. 

The soil sediments sampled by professor Alfredo Pérez-González, director of CENIEH, at the hominin site are currently being analyzed there.

2012-2014 Project

The 2012-2014 field research at Gona was funded by the Marie Curie Integration Grant and by the Leakey Foundation. In 2012, the Gona Project began survey in the deposits dated between 2.2 – 1.6 million years ago (Ma) with the major objective of searching for archaeological signatures for documenting the Oldowan-Acheulian transition

During the 2015 field season we will undertake additional test excavations in the adjacent contemporaneous localities in the Busidma North and Ounda Gona South areas to recover additional archaeological materials for a better understanding of the factors that triggered the emergence of the Acheulian. 

Gona team
Close to 30 individuals including scientists, students and local Afar crew were involved in the 2014 Gona fieldwork. Together with  Dr. Semaw and Dr Rogers, Professor Perez-González has also participated in the Gona fieldwork together with Dr. Isabel Caceres, project taphonomist from the University of Rovira, Virgili (Tarragona), and two beginning graduate students, including Veronica Mardones from CENIEH and University of Burgos, and Amanda Leiss (Yale University) participated in the fieldwork