Chris Stojanowski prepares to document a skeleton, afterwhich it will be mapped and jacketed. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration. www.projectexploration.org

Gobero preserves a cemetery of more than 200 human skeletons buried over a five 5,000-year period. It is the earliest and largest Holocene (10,000-8,000 years ago) cemetery in the Sahara. Until the discovery of Gobero, so few human remains had been discovered in the southern Sahara, archaeologists questioned whether the area had ever been an attractive location for human occupation. Gobero suggests that a significant population thrived in the area and that these people were linked with people living elsewhere in the Sahara and along the northern coast of Africa.

When paleontologist Paul Sereno approached the anthropology department at Arizona State University about partnering on the project, a young bioarchaeologist named Chris Stojanowski jumped at the chance. He helped lead an unusual field team comprised of both archaeologists and paleontologists who worked side by side to understand this dynamic story of human history.

Dr. Chris Stojanowski is an assistant professor at Arizona State University. He was interviewed in August 2008 by Gabrielle Lyon for the Project Exploration website.

Chris surveys a newly discovered skeletal site in order to devise an excavation strategy. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration. www.projectexploration.org

Q: How did you get interested in the science of studying ancient humans?
A: I would say that I wasn’t necessarily drawn to science, but to a fascination with the past. I remember being interested in dinosaurs from an early age. Honestly, I used to love the Sid and Marty Croft show Land of the Lost when I was a kid, as campy as it was. There was something about the exploration and discovery that fascinated me, the finding of a “lost world”. My path to anthropology really began in grade school when I was exposed to Latin from a teacher who had been a nun. I really cannot overstate the importance this had for the rest of my life. Latin led me to Roman history and mythology, and I competed in Latin and Roman history competitions in grade school. Our team actually won the New Jersey state championships for several years running. When it came time to choose a major in college, my love for the past took over, and here I am today.

Paul Sereno and Chris consider the best collection strategy for a highly-weathered human skeleton. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration. www.projectexploration.org

Q: How did you get involved in this particular project?
A: Paul contacted Dr. Jane Buikstra at my university because he knew her from when she worked at the University of Chicago. Jane had heard of and respected Paul’s work and asked if any of the junior faculty were interested. I was, and she recommended me to Paul. I knew nothing about Niger or Africa beforehand, but years of grad school and the grind of being an untenured assistant professor created a bit of wanderlust in me.

View on camp from the kitchen tent. (Can you spot the two tiny kites in the sky?) Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration. www.projectexploration.org

Q: What fieldwork had you been involved with prior to the work at Gobero? How was that similar or different from the fieldwork in Niger?
A: I had never done fieldwork outside of the United States. I had only been to Italy, Greece and Tahiti before this trip. So the 2006 season really was a trial by fire for me: it was my first time to Africa, let alone a country like Niger, let alone fieldwork in a climate like that. I had worked throughout the southeastern United States and in New Mexico on various field projects, but nothing can really prepare you for sleeping in the open with really no comforts to speak of. It was hard, but at the same time very liberating. I didn’t mind the spartan conditions and actually enjoyed the lack of processed foods, solitude and complete isolation from the modern world. Without e-mail you really start talking to other people.

2006 Expedition to Niger Team. From left to right: Hima XYZ, Gabrielle Lyon, Paul Sereno, Chris Stojanowski, Isabella Massamba N’Siala, Helene Jousse, Andrew Sommerville, Brian Nagurski, Enzo Cocca, Carlo Giraudi, ??, ?? (seated) Stephanie Crofts, Hannah Moots, ??, ??, Elena Garcea, Jeff Stivers. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration. www.projectexploration.org

Q: What was it like as an archaeologist to work alongside paleontologists in the field?
A: I had a constant awareness of how different the field methods were in the two disciplines. The most obvious difference was the use of plaster jackets to remove specimens, something I hadn’t thought about before really and initially may have somewhat resisted. But by the end, I remember being so glad to pass certain difficult portions of a burial to the paleontologists because I knew the end result would be better. I think several of the nicer skulls were saved this way and certainly some of the more interesting burial positions were preserved using the paleontological fieldwork methods.

Q: In the field, you led the work involving collecting the human skeletons. What kinds of information did you want to be sure to collect?
A: We do lots of specific recordkeeping—notes on the associations between skeletal elements, descriptions of the positions of the skeletal elements, any soil abnormalities, observations of pathology, sex, etc. These are the types of observations we want to get in the field.

A skeleton flexed in a typical Tenerean burial style. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration. www.projectexploration.org

Basically we wanted to record as much as possible in the field, because once a skeleton is removed from the ground and taken out of its original position much of that data can be lost. For example, something that is crucial to record is whether certain parts of the body were exposed when we found them. Being exposed to the elements, being sandblasted by the wind, can create damage to the bones that may be difficult to distinguish from diseases.

The team pioneered a unique combination of traditional archaeology and paleontology field methods to collect and document what was preserved at Gobero. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration. www.projectexploration.org

Q: There was a Halloween party in the field. What was your costume?
A: I was an arrowhead. I used some duct tape and cut out an arrow shape which I then placed on my forehead. I went to bed early that night! The highlight was Peter Gwin [the National Geographic writer] allowing me a brief call home to see how the kids did with the candy.

Chris and teammate Andrew Sommerville drew inspiration for their Halloween costumes from discoveries made at Gobero - they dressed as an "Arrowhead" and "Lesion boy," respectively for the field party. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration. www.projectexploration.org

Q: What was your favorite part about working at Gobero?
A: Without question, the simplicity of life in the field was extremely enjoyable. When life is reduced to three meals interspersed by working on an amazing site, with no electricity or Western comforts, I think your brain resets. It appreciates this. I wouldn’t say that I would like that life forever or that I am a “changed” man back in the States, but I found it very fulfilling. At the same time, I missed my family tremendously.

Chris works with teammember Brian Nagurski to document each burial meticulously prior to excavation.Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration. www.projectexploration.org

Q: Once the fieldwork was over, what happened next?
A: We have spent almost two years just cleaning all of the bones. We are now labeling and reconstructing what we can, and we’ve collected just enough data to really say something about the basic biology of the people at Gobero. This work is ongoing.

A human jaw fragment from Gobero. Photo © Mike Hettwer, courtesy Project Exploration. www.projectexploration.org

It is not common for a United States institution to have such a large and diverse collection of human remains in need of basic processing, let alone all of the advanced analyses we need to do. The training opportunities for students are tremendous; it’s one of the reasons I was eager to get involved in this project.

Over a dozen undergraduate students volunteered on the early stages of analysis. Right now I have three graduate students and five undergraduate students working on reconstruction (this is during the summer when school is out!), which is great experience for them. It is really enjoyable to walk into the lab and see that a volunteer has reconstructed a femur from a dozen small fragments. This is so good for their training as an anatomist and demonstrates the commitment we all have to this project.

Chris's bioarchaeology lab at Arizona State University.

Q: If you could transport back in time and see Gobero as it was when people were living there, what questions would you most like to learn the answers to?
A: I think the biggest mysteries for me are 1) what happened to the Kiffians and what was life like for them that caused them to abandon the area, and 2) how did the Tenereans manage to come back to the place, bury their dead in the same dunes and not disturb a single Kiffian burial??

Given the 1,000-year hiatus, I wonder if the Tenereans were as awestruck with the place as we were and intentionally respected what evidence there was of existing graves in the dunes. We study the Tenerean burials as an archaeological population, yet they themselves may have been just as curious about the Kiffians as we are.

Q: Now that the scientific paper about Gobero is finished, what’s next?
A: This is just the beginning. I anticipate publications emerging from this project for at least another ten years. Right now I am focusing on describing basic information about each burial. Much of what we can learn depends on our ability to get back to the site for another year of fieldwork. I think if we can double our sample size we can start to develop a clearer picture of the health and disease experiences of the two populations. I really hope to understand what life was like for a typical Kiffian and Tenerian burial, from birth to death.

To learn more about Chris visit
https://sec.was.asu.edu/directory/person/852133.