As you read original field updates, keep in mind the conditions under which they were written: the team was working from sunup to sundown in extreme heat and without access to the internet. Field updates were written late at night by the light of a solar lantern on computers powered by truck batteries. The finished updates, with captioned photos, were then posted via a satellite phone to a webmaster in Chicago, who then built the website in real-time. In 2000 it cost $7 per minute to send an email via satellite!

When expedition teams returned to the site in 2003 and 2005, Project Exploration again provided a window onto the science—and the discoveries being pieced together at the site.

NOVEMBER 4, 2000 FIELD UPDATE, “An Ancient, Human World.” Paul Sereno and Gabrielle Lyon penned a special feature update to capture the excitement of the initial discovery. You can read it HERE and see some of the very first photos taken at the site.
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January 24, 2004 FIELD UPDATE, “Stones and Bones.” This 2004 update by Paul Sereno, written at the close of the 2003 Expedition to Niger, recounts what it was like to return to the site and realize, for the first time, its scale and the exceptional quality of what is preserved. “By the second day we had mapped 130 skeletons...”
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2003 Interview with Jeff Stivers. Gabrielle Lyon’s 2003 interview, “Stones and Bones,” with archaeology student Jeff Stivers, gives a feel for what it was like to be on an expedition when a “dream site” is discovered.
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