As the Cleveland Museum of Natural History prepares for the unveiling of its landmark transformation in December, FreshWater is highlighting some of the research that happens, both within the museum’s walls and around the world. Today, we share what two CMNH anthropologists were doing in Kenya this past summer.

What does it mean to be human?

That is the profound question that noted Cleveland Museum of Natural History (CMNH) anthropologists Emma Finestone and Elizabeth “Ebeth” Sawchuk have been trying to answer this year during their frequent research expeditions to Africa.

Finestone and Sawchuk spent part of last summer in Kenya, conducting fieldwork and student training crucial to the study of human evolution. Immersion in the cradle of humanity—Africa, after all, has yielded numerous fossil findings of our ancient ancestors—is key to a field with a longstanding legacy at CMNH.

“Every trip to Kenya, people will ask me if I found anything,” says Finestone, whose research on early humans’ use of tools offers insights into human cognitive abilities, social structures, and technological advancements.

CMNH anthropologist Emma Finestone has spent a decade excavating stone tools from multiple sites in western Kenya.“We always find thousands of samples of old stone tools and other artifacts. Each time we find something new, we’re getting another piece of the puzzle, and that many more data points about how our ancient relatives were making and using these tools.”

Finestone headed an international team on an expedition in August, excavating sites spanning 3 million years of evolutionary history. Among other work, the Boston native analyzed stone tools used to butcher hippos more than 2.6 million years ago.

Building relationships

Although Finestone joined CMNH in 2022, she has been excavating the same Kenyan sites for a decade. Working in the country’s Homa Peninsula—an area known for its rich concentration of artifacts and fossils—requires patience and a long-term vision.

Finestone focuses on the evolution of stone tool use in the human lineage, conducting archaeological fieldwork in Kenya every year.

“You’re not just going to a new place every year, you’re building relationships that benefit the science,” she says. “Before my PhD, I worked at [Chicago’s] Lincoln Park Zoo studying ape cognition. That’s what draws me to technology and tool use.”

The field work is the dessert, but the lab work is the vegetables,Meanwhile, Finestone’s colleague Sawchuk conducts high-impact genetic research, running the gamut among archaeological excavation, lab work, and ancient DNA analysis. These projects allow Sawchuk to understand how herders and farmers moved around Kenya’s Central Rift Valley over the last 5,000 years.

Sawchuk says she believes her work casts light on a resilient species still considered young, by evolutionary standards. This summer, she led three digs in Kenya, spending weeks studying collections alongside a Kenyan research student. While lab work may not be glamorous, it's still an essential part of an anthropologist's life, she says.

“The field work is the dessert, but the lab work is the vegetables,” Sawchuk says. “I always want to be in the field. Excavating sites and uncovering something that nobody has seen in 5,000 years is an absolute high.”

Understanding a shared past

Ebeth SawchuckCMNH has a long history of discoveries in the field of human origins. In 1974, fossils of one of the oldest known human ancestors, an Australopithecus afarensis specimen nicknamed “Lucy,” were uncovered in Ethiopia by former museum curator Donald Johanson.

Today, the nearly 4-million-year-old Lucy specimen famously resides at CMNH. Meanwhile, Finestone and Sawchuk left a piece of Lucy's legacy in Ethiopia this past summer—a photo exhibit in English and Amharic showcasing her early years.

The collaboration underscores a broader goal of empowering African researchers often challenged to obtain visas for international conferences. In the field, Finestone worked with two paleoanthropology scholars from the National Museum of Kenya.

On-the-ground training fills a resource gap further bolstered by a $307,000 grant given to CMNH by the National Science Foundation in October. The grant not only supports human origins research, but it will also benefit interns and graduate students from the U.S. and Kenya.

Emma FinestoneOn paper, this critical funding can help answer fundamental questions about what makes us human. Ideally, these funds will also deepen the relationship between CMNH researchers and African research communities, says Finestone.

“This field is about connecting people to their shared origin and seeing that we’re all connected by ancient behaviors that evolved millions of years ago,” she says. “People in [surrounding research areas] get excited about these questions and want to learn more.”

CMNH researchers’ exciting finds coincide with a $150 million museum transformation project set for completion in December. Along with a revamped visitor’s hall containing Lucy and other iconic attractions, CMNH will have a bright, welcoming core it’s never had before.

The two events are a happy coincidence, says the DNA anthropologist Sawchuk, as connecting with humanity's oldest ancestors is essential to understanding our shared past.

“We should all feel a connection to Africa, because we were all Africans thousands of years ago,” Sawchuk says. “Maybe most people can’t travel there, but understanding our history can connect us to who we are as a species.”