Since 1996 the West Turkana Archaeological Project (WTAP) has been searching for evidence of human origins buried in sediments on the western shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya.

The field of human origins archaeology spans nearly three million years, concentrating specifically on the Rift Valley in East Africa. The West Turkana Archaeological Project (WTAP), founded in 1994 by Dr. Hélène Roche from CNRS in Paris, is now directed by Dr. Sonia Harmand of the Turkana Basin Institute at Stony Brook University and Dr. Jason Lewis from Rutgers University’s Department of Anthropology and Center for Human Evolutionary Studies. As a collaborative international initiative, WTAP aims to uncover archaeological evidence of our prehuman ancestors within the fossil beds of the West Turkana region, a stunning area in Africa’s Great Rift Valley often regarded as the “cradle of humanity.”

Over its more than fifteen years of dedicated research, WTAP has made significant contributions to our understanding of tool-making behaviors among early humans. The Turkana region is recognized as one of the world’s most vital sources of evidence regarding human origins, thanks largely to four decades of exploration led by the Leakey family.

For several decades, WTAP has been the sole project investigating the Earlier Stone Age on the western side of Lake Turkana. The team operates nearly every summer while also making shorter visits to Nairobi’s National Museums of Kenya for analysis each February. Throughout this period, they have discovered and excavated numerous sites and fossils spanning the last 2.5 million years of hominin evolution. Each year brings new findings that enhance our understanding of hominin technology’s development.

Among their notable discoveries are the oldest known Acheulean stone tools, dated at 1.76 million years old from Kokiselei 4—an important find highlighted as a cover article in *Nature* in September 2011. They have also identified some of Kenya’s earliest sites, including Nasura 1 and Lokalalei 2C, which date back 2.34 million years. Over two decades, WTAP has cataloged an impressive array of more than 60 archaeological sites, with 35 having undergone excavation or testing—significantly enriching our knowledge about hominid behavior and its diversity over time.

The project has assembled an interdisciplinary team focused on surveying and excavating sites within the Nachukui Formation on the western shore of Lake Turkana in Northern Kenya. WTAP’s primary objective is to shed new light on behavioral evolution, origins, and adaptations of Australopithecus and early Homo within a clearly defined geographical area and reconstructed environmental context. Additionally, WTAP is developing a parallel line of investigation that seeks a global understanding of hominin behavior—particularly regarding tool-making and usage—as interpreted from archaeological remains dating back as far as three million years or more.