Dr. Agness Onna Gidna is a Senior Curator of Paleontology at the National Museum of Tanzania (NMT). She is the first Tanzanian woman to hold a doctorate in Physical Anthropology. She holds a BSc in Archaeology and History from the University of Dar es Salaam, a Masters in Physical Anthropology from Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) and a PhD in Physical Anthropology from the University of Alcala (Spain), which was supported by a prestigious Baldwin Fellowship from the Leakey Foundation. She has expertise in archaeological fieldwork, taphonomy, zooarchaeology, paleoanthropology, and education of the public about the past. She has more than a decade of experience as a curator of vertebrate fossil collections including some of the most important findings of Tanzania’s cradle of humankind at Olduvai Gorge.
Packaging finds at Olduvai Gorge (Photo: Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo).
Dr. Gidna is a co-founder and co-director of RAPT (Research on the Archaeology of Pastoralism in Tanzania), an international project investigating early herding in northern Tanzania including at the site of Luxmanda, the largest known Pastoral Neolithic site. She is also the first Tanzanian woman to direct research at Olduvai Gorge, where she has been a co-PI of The Olduvai Palaeoanthropology and Paleoecology Project (TOPPP) since 2017. Dr. Gidna has been conducting research at Olduvai Gorge for more than a dozen years, focusing on vertebrate taphonomy and its implications for Plio-Pleistocene hominin evolution and behaviour.
Dr Gidna in the field, Olduvai (Photo: Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo).
Her exceptional research is on modern lion carcass modifications in Tarangire National Park and their implications for the interpretation of Plio-Pleistocene fossil fauna and early human behaviour at Olduvai Gorge. The results have become the premier reference for research at African Plio-Pleistocene sites. As Senior Curator of Palaeontology at the NMT, she won a grant from the Paleontological Scientific Trust (PAST) of South Africa to curate and inventory the early human fossil remains of Tanzania for the first time. She won a second grant from PAST to develop a novel archaeological education program for primary and secondary school students and their teachers in three schools in Babati District (Luxmanda, Bashnet and Ufana). In addition, she won a grant from Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) to curate the archaeology and palaeontology collections from Olduvai Gorge. In her role as a curator, Dr. Gidna has supervised many Tanzanian student projects on human evolution and two Tanzanian students pursuing MA degrees in Germany and the UK. Dr. Gidna has played key advisory, technical, and scientific roles in the establishment of two major exhibitions on “Tanzania: the Cradle of Humankind” at NMT (Dar es Salaam) and Ngorongoro Conservation Area respectively and a third exhibition at the Mary Leakey Living Museum, NCA. She is a member of the Advisory Board for the Human Fossil Record Organisation based in London, UK.
Post by Noel Lwoga and Mary Prendergast
Images by Mary Prendergast and Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo and used with permission.
Congratulations to Dr. Agnes Gidna, You have inspired many including me and please keep it up!!!
Agness Gidna was my class mate while pursuing our bachelor degree at the University of Dar es Salaam (2005–2008). We shared nearly all courses and her performances were always outstanding. I’m not surprised to read all these achievements within such a short time. A link to her individual academic publications will indeed be appreciated and inspire young ladies wishing to climb the ladder.
Dr. Gidna congratulations.
Dr.Agnes was my classmate in high school(Ifakara High School from 2001-2003). Dr.Agnes has always been a gentle, quiet, attentive and visionary person. I commend and pray to God for her more success????