Paul Lane and Nik Petek attended the workshop ‘African Heritage Challenges: Development and Sustainability.’ It was hosted at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH) in Cambridge from the 15th to the 16th of May. Paul Lane, who was invited as a plenary speaker, talked on the topic of ‘African […]
REAL MID-TERM MEETING
The REAL mid-term meeting was hosted at the University of Ghent by Prof. Dirk Veschuren and his team. A special thanks to Yoeri Torsy for arranging the details that made it such an enjoyable meeting. From the 15th-19th June 2015, the REAL team members spent time together updating each other on their research progress,discussed the […]
Scientific video documentary production training
British Institute in Eastern Africa, Kileleshwa, Nairobi June 1-6, 2015 Documenting socio-ecological changes on film within a research framework – from writing to editing REAL : Resilience in East African Landscapes A Marie Curie Actions Initial Training Network (ITN), funded by the European Commission Instructors: • Arghyro Paouri, CNRS-IIAC, Audiovisual Department of IIAC. • Deborah […]
Towards 50 Key Questions for Historical Ecology
On November 12-13th 2014 in Uppsala Sweden, the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University and the Mind and Nature and the Integrated History and future of People on Earth research network sponsored the 1st International Workshop on Historical Ecology: The Next Generation. Organizing this workshop were REAL ESRS Anna Shoemaker and Nik Petek. […]
Archaeological fieldwork in Baringo Pt. 1
The REAL archaeological expedition to Lake Baringo began this autumn. From September to November 2014 a team of experienced researchers criss-crossed the southern Baringo lowlands looking for signs of past human occupation. In their quest for knowledge they traversed kilometres under the hot African sun, battling spitting cobras, gruesome thorn shrubs, and the ferocious (but […]
UNIVERSITY OF YORK REAL-CAPACITIE-AAREA TRAINING WORKSHOP
The University of York hosted a 6 day training workshop for the REAL members and also invited participants from the environment department and other research groups (CAPACITIE, AAREA, ENVIRON). This was held at the University of York Heslington East Campus and the Department of Archaeology, Kings Manor. The training course 24th-26th was aimed at imparting […]
PAA/SAfA Conference 2014
The REAL project was well represented at the jointly held 14th Congress of the Pan African Archaeological Association for Prehistory and Related Studies and the 22nd Biennial Meeting of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists which took place 14th-18th of July at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Nik Petek presented on Gifts, Feasts, and Social […]
Phytolith Training Workshop – University of Cape Town
During the week of June 30th – July 4th 2014, Anna Shoemaker and Nik Petek had the opportunity to participate in a Phytolith Training Workshop at the University of Cape Town led by Professor Carlos Cordova of the Department of Geography, Oklahoma State University. The workshop was hosted by Professor Michael Meadows, Department of Environmental […]
Project Overview – Resilience in East African Landscapes (REAL)
Project summary The strong temporal dynamics of the East African landscape and natural-resource distributions have always encouraged people to innovate and adapt to changing conditions. However, the realities of current social and environmental changes are occurring at unprecedented rates and amplitudes. Increasing population growth, changes in patterns of land tenure, industrialization, weak systems of governance, […]
Obsidian tools
Obsidian is a volcanic extrusive rock with a glassy texture that is very hard and dense. The volcanic glass is usually black in colour, but it can also be dark green and brown. In rare cases trace elements of mineral crystals can cause obsidian to reflect light in various colours, or even the colour spectrum […]
Amboseli fieldwork
Assorted REALers accompanied Esther and Colin on their fieldwork trip to the Amboseli region. Two swamps were targeted for analysis, resulting in some beautiful cores and a ton of fun, all under the watchful eye of Mount Kilimanjaro. Further activities included mapping the sediment depth, taking pictures with the trusted Quad “Don’t land me in […]
First visit to Lake Baringo region
The Lake Baringo Basin is a place the vast majority of people have not heard of, and neither would I if it were not for the Tugen Hills, just west of the lake, famous for their hominin remains. If I had to describe it in a few words, I would say it is an area […]