User:Oliviagower3/sandbox

Early Life and Education
Harmand recieved her PhD from Paris Nanterre University in 2005.

Lomekwi 3 Stone Tools
In 2011, Harmand discovered the Lomekwi 3 stone tools in the Turkana Basin of Kenya near the town of Lomewki. This discovery was made while Harmand was leading the West Turkana Archaeological Project team along with Jason Lewis. They were both working with Stony Brook University's Turkana Basin Institute at the time.

At the Lomekwi 3 site, between 2011 and 2012, there were 149 stone artifacts recovered in total. These artifacts were found at the Lomekwi 3 site which sits above the Toroto Tuff, dated at about 3.32 Ma. The 149 found artifacts range from small broken flakes weighing less than 1kg to anvils and passive elements weighing about 12 kg. All of these tools are evidence of knapped stone tools. Stone tool knapping was previously associated with the genus Homo. The discovery of stone tools from the Oldevai Gorge in Tanzania dating to about 2.6 Ma brought forth a theory of non-homo hominins usage of stone tools because there is only fossil evidence of homo to 2.4-2.3 Ma. The tools found at Lomekwi 3 are dated to ≈3.3 Ma which pushes back the evidence of stone tool use by nearly 700,000 years, and further expands the overall archaeological record. Furthermore, these discoveries support the theory of usage of stone tools by non-homo hominids. Harmand and other archaeologists and paleoanthropologists specifically suspect Australophithecines including A. Africanus, A. Sediba, A. Garhi, A. Aethiopicus, and A. Robustus to be possible non-homo stone tool knappers.

Acheulean Tools
Harmand also worked along the northwest shore of Lake Turkana in Kenya in 2011, recovering and studying acheulean tools. The stone tools found at the Kokiselei 4 site are dated to about 1.76 Ma which pushes the evidence for acheulean tool use back an extra ≈300,000 years. Acheulean tools are thought to be connected to Homo erectus because their were H. erectus fossils found in the same area that are dated to a similar age.

Work at Stony Brook University
Sonia Harmand is currently an Associate Professor at New York's Stony Brook University teaching in the Anthropology Department. Along with professorial work, Harmand is an associate research scientist at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), and the head of the West Turkana Archeological Project (WTAP) as of 2012. Harmand's research utilizes the chaîne opératoire method to aid in her analysis of stone tools. The central focus of her research at Stony Brook is on the origins of hominin technology and the role of biomechanics in stone tool production.