Exploring The Origins of the Updated Ape

Since my last post I have managed not only  finished my diploma but completed my Msc with a distinction allowing me to have the opportunity to do a Phd in the future. I have been back to Spain to dig and have spent time in South Africa at the cradle of mankind. I continue to visit UCL where I volunteer in the Lithics Lab participating in on going research into the origins of the African Acheulian at Olduvai gorge in Tanzania.

I have spent the majority of my time this past year working on refurbishing my old home to include a dedicated laboratory to allow research into human origins.  My dream is to house a good 3D printer to allow fabrication of custom parts and print out my own copies of fossils I wish to study. The lab is not completed yet, but progress is occuring although slow, as due to cost constraints, I have to do all the work myself.  My first project will be to try to design a 3D photogrammetry system that will allow instantaneous 3D image capture of stone tools. Currently this takes about a couple of hours per item, and we have several thousand artifacts to study, hence the need for a faster system.

I will try to update this more regularly now and hopefully include some pictures to keep things interesting. Meanwhile, I made a youtube video of my trip to Spain search “updatedape in Spain” in youtube if anyone is interested.

I am busy preparing for exams, I need a minimum mark of 65% in order fulfil the requirements for my conditional offer of a place to study MSc. Paleoanthropology and Palaeolithic archaeology (PAPA) in September. Great civilisations of antiquity disastrously collapsed due to dogged pursuance of fanciful ancient belief systems imposed by men whose real concern was self-aggrandisement. By studying a wide range of subjects in an atmosphere that welcomes/demands constructive criticism such as UCL, I hope not to make those mistakes myself so that I can hope to aspire to be an updated ape.

I have been bamboozled into setting up a Blog, whatever that is. I have never seen or read a blog but have heard people talk about it. I feel I can say what I like, as I am confident no one will find this or read this ever.(automatic spell checker drives me insane)

Setting up the blog was not a good experience, the programmers clearly cannot be classified as updated apes. It has ended up nothing like I intended and despite shelling out loads of money it seems you are still very limited in what you can do. As I write this I am confronted with a screen with more undecipherable instructions screaming at me than a banshee in full flight (Tip: just ignore them as, like a banshee, they are fictional). Still, I have got to try, to be fair the most difficult thing I experienced doing an MSc in 2 years from scratch, was mastering simple computer skills, and this is just an extension of my abject failure to understand my fellow updated apes.

This summer I plan to journey to South West Spain to take part in an ongoing archaeological exploration of  caves once inhabited by our Neanderthal brethren some 400,000 years ago. They have conveniently left behind some of their remarkable stone tools and their bones. From this evidence we hope to understand something of how they managed to survive for half a million years in an hostile ice age environment and why, with the appearance of a far less brainy, weaker Homo sapiens, dissappeared. We are going to need this knowledge to ensure we don’t end up disappearing as well.

I plan to document this journey (the first of many journeys of discovery I hope to undertake) as a way of recording my experiences in a way similar to an old fashion diary. Diaries of past explorers have proved to be immensely valuable in allowing us to recreate their incredible discoveries and insights into this remarkable world. I am comforted by the fact that unlike pen and paper this medium for recording information is highly unlikely to be readable in 20-50 years time so no one will be obliged to read this drivel.