Holding up a belly plate from a soft-shelled turtle found in a Tenerian garbage dump, zooarchaeologist Hélène Jousse of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna, Austria, was amazed by the potpourri of animal species in burials and in the ancient lakebed. From teeth, bones and partial skeletons, she identified elephant, hippo, giraffe, hartebeest, warthog, lion, python, mud turtles and many more that thrived at Gobero during the Stone Age. Photo © Mike Hettwer, courtesy Project Exploration.

Intrepid zooarchaeologist and explorer Dr. Helene Jousse was born in France and grew up in Le Mans, a town 200 kilometer west from Paris, France, between Normandie and the famous “Chateau de la Loire” region. One of four children (an older brother and younger twin sisters), she studied geology and paleontology before attaining her PhD in geology and zooarchaeology. A polyglot, Helen speaks and works in English, Slovak and German. She splits her time between Vienna, Austria, where she is working on a post-doctorate at the Museum of Natural History, and Nantes, France.

Helene was invited onto the 2006 Niger Expedition team to lead the work on the fossilized animal specimens preserved at the site. The discovery of a series of middens (garbage dumps) at the site offered an extraordinary opportunity to understand what the inhabitants of Gobero ate and how they interacted with the animals with which they lived. During the expedition, Helene spent many hours collecting middens and sieving sediment surrounding burials in search of clues that would help the team piece together the story of how these two ancient peoples made their living through time. After the expedition, Helene took on the task of identifying and analyzing the more than 43 different animal species preserved at the site.

Helene Jousse sieves sediment collected from around burial sites in search of associated fossil material and grave goods. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration.

Helene was interviewed by Gabrielle Lyon in August 2008 for the Project Exploration website.

Q: What is a zooarchaeologist?
A: A zooarchaeologist looks at the relationship between humans and animals in prehistoric and historic times. The field includes zoology, archaeology and paleo-environmental studies.

There is a lot you can learn by studying the relationship between humans and animals: human economic and social activities involve the animal world. Food, traditions, superstitions, funeral rites and artistic performances can involve animals. The way humans used animal products is another area included in this field, not just meat or milk, but also animal bones, teeth, ivory, and skin, are useful for tools, harpoons, beads, pendants, ornaments and for making clothes.

Two distinct cultures lived and buried their dead at Gobero. These grave sites sometimes contained animal bones and jewlery. Photo © Mike Hettwer, courtesy Project Exploration.

Lastly, human activities have consequences for animals—for example, domestication. Human settlement and activities (urbanization, agriculture) may cause changes in the distribution, size and ecology of animal groups.

When you find a fossil of an animal at an archaeological site the first step is to identify the species preserved in the sediments. For example, you need to be able to identify the bones and teeth of vertebrates (fish, reptiles, birds, mammals) and the shells of invertebrates organisms (mollusks). Identifying these animals requires solid knowledge in comparative anatomy and ecology.

The exquisite preservation at Gobero not only preserved humans in burials but more than 43 species of animals. WHAT IS THIS JAW? Photo © Mike Hettwer, courtesy Project Exploration.

Q: How did you first get interested in this kind of work? What makes it enjoyable for you?
A: When I was working on my masters in paleontology in 1998 in Lyon, France, I began to look at fauna from the Sahara in Mali. It was so rich and interdisciplinary!

Now I study animal fossils discovered in association with former human occupations in Africa. I am working to figure out their history, distribution and adaptation to the climate change in the last 10,000 years. I get to be involved with archaeology, zoology, ethnoarchaeology, geology. I really enjoy travelling, digging, and getting to know people in the places I work and explore.

Q: In the United States there are fewer women involved with science than men. In addition, women often are paid less for the same jobs. Is this the case in the European Union (EU)?
A: It is still the case in the EU, but less and less. Archaeology is an attractive discipline for women. One of the main differences between men and women in academics is that it can be harder for women to develop their professional career because of familial responsibilities. Our society is changing on this point towards more equality so the differences are less pronounced than before.

An expedition provides a unique, hands-on training opportunity for undergraduates like University of Chicago's Stephanie Crofts, here working alongside Helene Jousse, learning techniques necessary to properly excavate a midden. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration.

Q: What advice would you have for young women thinking about entering science as a profession?
A: Entering science in the EU is a hard challenge; it is a constant duel between work and having a social life. I don’t believe that working as a geologist, palaeontologist or archaeologist is more difficult for a young woman than a young man. From my own experience, it is more a question of capacity, competence and motivation. If you are driven, the work requires compromises with relatives and friends, and over time relationships or motivation can decline.

My advice is to keep motivated if science is your passion, because even if it is hard to find a job, it is important to do the work you are passionate about—just be careful not to forget the people around you!

Q: You led the excavation and study of the middens found at the Gobero site. What was involved in collecting these and what was involved in studying them? What kinds of questions did they help to answer?
A: Middens are basically “garbage pits” – and the preserved refuse is extremely valuable. The remains thrown in middens give a direct picture of what people used to eat. By studying the middens I could understand what the two human populations subsisted on.

This midden, collected and studied by Helene Jousse, preserved critical information about what people were eating when they were living at Gobero. Photo © Mike Hettwer, courtesy Project Exploration.

It is rare to find so many well preserved remains in midden deposits in the Sahara because the dry, windy environment is so extreme. We were lucky - the deposits were particularly rich at Gobero.

To understand the story the middens preserved I needed to identify every single tiny piece of fish bone and fossil fragment; about 60,000 were preserved in total in only two middens!

Q: How did working at Gobero with an international team of so many specialists affect you?
A: At Gobero, I realized I had the scientific background and the experience to be able to work at different levels. I could fully investigate this kind of complex site—not only in terms of excavating the fauna, but also in terms of helping to organize the overall expedition, participate in the geological survey, and discuss the sampling strategy of human bones for further analyses. Working like this was very satisfying.

Helen Jousse spent many hours sieving sedment collected from burial sites in search of tiny remains that otherwise might have been lost. Her work, and careful analysis in the lab of preserved sediment, helped the team collect evidence of 43 animal species, 20 kinds of trees; 30 kinds of shrubs, grasses and algae (recovered from pollen) preserved at the site. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration.

Q: Do you have a favorite memory?
A: My favorite memory is NOT the endless hours and hours I spent sieving and sorting the sediments of the midden deposit. It was full of charcoal ash that blackened my face and arms, and in the field the opportunity to wash yourself is very low!

My favorite memory is when I discovered the huge tortoise shell that I found just outcropping from the lake sediments the very last day of excavation, when a wind storm started to blow. From the way it was lying, I guessed it could be complete, or at last have a good part of the shell preserved. Paul Sereno drove the car to protect us against the wind, and in a hurry, but carefully, we dug out that whole shell. We made a plaster jacket to collect it, and I was really proud to bring it back to the camp.

The most complete tortoise ever found in the Holocene of the Sahara. Photo © Mike Hettwer, courtesy Project Exploration.

Later on in the lab of the University of Chicago, Paul’s colleagues did an unbelievable job of preparing and restoring it. They were able to expose the skeletal elements preserved inside. It is one of the most complete tortoise found in the Holocene Sahara, if not the only one!

Q: You chose an unusual costume for the Halloween party in the field. Can you tell us about it ?
A: I have to admit that I was sceptical about the idea of a Halloween party in the field. Europeans and French people don’t celebrate Halloween. I had never done it before. But I was far from home, and working with a team of and Americans, and I eventually I came around to thinking it would be a good idea to have a fun evening in the camp.

Helene in Halloween field garb - a fashionable "midden" stiched together with camp refuse, complete with shoulder bag. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration.

I was wondering what to do for a costume, and [one of the team members] Hannah, who was excavating the midden deposit with me, suggested : “Oh! You should be a midden!” I thought it was an excellent idea, so for a few days before Halloween I collected all the clean garbage of the camp, and I sewned them onto my clothes: cereals box, plastic packaging. I made a necklace out of dried grapefruit peel and a “garbage purse” in a funny Frenchy haute couture style!

Q: Can you describe how you worked with the team AFTER the fieldwork was over?
A: In the first few months almost all the specialists sent their reports in right away. Very quickly there was a emailing exchange of the scientific results from the geology, palynology (pollen), zooarchaeology, anthropology and dating of many of the specimens. As a result, the complex situation of having two distinct human populations of Gobero, their traditions, artifacts and the environments they lived in, became rapidly comprehensible.

I traveled twice to the University of Chicago to finish identifying the fauna and to discuss with Paul how to publish our results. I really appreciated this level of communication, and the efficiency of it all.

Helene and Paul Sereno outside the lab at the University of Chicago. Photo © Gabrielle Lyon, courtesy Project Exploration.

Q: What questions do you still have about Gobero that you wish you could answer?
A: The main issue concerning the fauna is related to the Tenerean people and their use of cattle. At the time the Tenerean people occupied Gobero, most of the population in the Central Sahara were pastoralists, and those other sites provide lots of cattle bones. In contrast, at Gobero, there are hardly any cattle bones; most of the remains are of fish. This suggests that the Tenerean people relied heavily on fish.

There is a big question about what the Tenerean people were eating. Did they use the Gobero lake during particular times of the year and leave their cattle someplace else? To help answer this kind of question, I’d need to do a thorough study of the size and ecology of the fossil fish, to figure out their age and seasonal behavior.

The 2006 Expedition team an international and large one: 18 people from Niger, the United States, France and Italy.Photo © Mike Hettwer, courtesy Project Exploration.

Q: Is there anything you would like people to know?
A: I would like to point out how pleasant it is to work with such an international and motivated team. I learned a lot, especially as a young French researcher, about how research works in the USA. For example, I learned how to find funding for the project, how to present the results to diverse communities (scientific, journalistic, public), to prepare fossil material for exhibition from people in Paul’s lab, and also how much our scientific work is a motivation for children and young people, something I realize more with the work that is done by Project Exploration. This project was not just one excavation with a published paper. It is a large and diverse project developed for lots of audiences. It takes more energy and time this way, but it provided me much more personal satisfaction.