Middle Awash Project
The Middle Awash Project is an international research expedition conducted in the Afar Region of Ethiopia with the goal of determining the origins of humanity.
Researchers have discovered the remains of four hominin species, the earliest subspecies of homo sapiens as well as stone tools.
All specimens are permanently held at the National Museum of Ethiopia, where the project's laboratory work is conducted year round.
The Middle Awash Project takes place in a semi arid, rather remote part of the Afar rift.
The rift margin marks the western end of the study area, while the Gewane-Adaitu highway lies on its east.
In 1938 two Italian geologists Michele Gortani and Angelo Bianchi, conducted a geological survey of the area.
The first European to take paleontological interest in Middle Awash was a French professor named Maurice Taieb who surveyed the area in the 1960s.
Ultimately, Taieb decided to focus his studies on an area North of Middle Awash called Hadar.
In 1975 Jon Kalb decided to leave the Hadar team to start the Rift Valley Research Mission in Ethiopia (RVRME for short).
While fieldwork on this mission only went on until 1978, RVRME laid the groundwork for the Middle Awash Project, even going so far as to propose nomenclature for the entire Southern Afar Region.
Though the nomenclature served as the basis of the past several decades of research, on their official website the Middle Afar Project had this to say: “the RVRME stratigraphic nomenclature impossible to apply because descriptions of beds and marker horizons were imprecise, upper and lower contacts were undefined, there was no valid mapping of a reference area, and boundaries between formations were set systematically at fault contacts.
[5] In 1981 Professor J. Desmond Clark, a prominent African prehistory expert of the 20th century, initiated the Middle Awash Project with the approval of the Ethiopian Culture Ministry.
During the Project's initial run researchers including Professor and paleontology expert Tim White explored both sides of the river.
Clark recapped their time in his 1984 paper as when the “Archaeological excavations were undertaken at Bodo and Hargufia, the first radiometric dates for the area were determined, and the first Pliocene hominids were recovered”.
[5] Clark and White were planning to continue their research in Middle Awash however circumstances made this impossible.
In October 1982 the Ethiopian government banned all foreign prehistory expeditions while they reformulated their policies on international researchers.
The other notable change that happened was by 1992 Dr.Giday WoldeGabriel joined the expedition as the Head of Geographical Studies and helped them finish the bulk of their work on the East Side of the Awash River.
[7] Ardipithicus kadabba was discovered in 1997 on the Western Side, at site Asa Koma,[8] by Yohannes Haile Selassie and Giday WoldeGabriel.
The fossil was extremely fragmented and required much reconstruction, but eventually proved valuable for the knowledge of Ar.
Its reconstructed cranium is smaller than those of later hominins, and stable isotope analysis suggests a more omnivorous diet than great apes.
Australopithecus garhi was discovered by Tim White in the Bouri Peninsula area of Middle Awash.
Limb fossils, such as a left femur, right humerus, radius, and ulna, parts of the fibula, and pieces of the foot, are located 278 meters from the skull.
Lab work is primarily focused on fossils dated to approximately 4.4 million years ago as well as assembling additional Ardipithecus ramidus evidence for publication.
