Archaeology Digs in Africa
Field schools listed below with dates older than the current year may indicate an ongoing project that has not yet established dates for this season.
Berefet, Gambia
May 19-July 9, 2012. St. Mary's College. The PEACE program began in 1996 as The Gambia, West Africa Study Tour. There have been eight field studies programs over the intervening years, and it has evolved so that every other year students have an opportunity to conduct first-hand research in an area of interest in The Gambia. Every other year.
De Hoop Nature Reserve (South Africa)
Annually January-April and September-December. Arizona State University and University of Bergen. De Hoop Nature Reserve, about 200 km east of Cape Town, is the main location for the field school
Fayum (Egypt)
October 17-November 22, 2013. Institute for Field Research (UCLA). The Fayum field school takes place at the Greco-Roman town of Karanis, a large mudbrick settlement founded in the third century BCE as part of the Ptolemaic expanse of agriculture in the Fayum region of Egypt.
IFR: African Projects
The Institute for Field Research conducts several archaeological field projects in Africa each year.
Koobi Fora, Kenya
Mid-June through July Annually. Rutgers University and the National Museums of Kenya. This session includes four weeks at Koobi Fora in northern Kenya, the site made famous by Richard Leakey and his colleagues in the 1970s for finds of ancient hominids and archaeology bearing on our understanding of human origins.
Olduvai (Tanzania)
July 3-August 7, 2013. Institute for Field Research (UCLA). Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, is one of the most important paleoanthropological sites in the world. It was the first place where traces of an early stone tool culture were discovered, and also the site where the transition from the Oldowan (a simple core-and-flake technology) to the Acheulean (defined by the appearance of handaxes) was first documented.
Primate Field School, Kenya
Every August. Rutgers University and the National Museums of Kenya. This field school will give participants the opportunity to experience the diverse habitats of Kenya, and to gain understanding about biodiversity by using primate field studies as the entry point.
Spitzkloof Rockshelter (South Africa)
June 30-August 3, 2013. Institute for Field Research (UCLA). Ancient desert adaptations will be explored through excavations at one of three spectacular rockshelters – Spitzkloof B – and surveys in the surrounding arid landscape.