Thread by @Yara_Haridy

STORY TIME!

Many of you may have read the @nytimes article by @asher_elbein: nyti.ms/3caRvyn

Some of you may want more context as to how "normal" paleo fieldwork became a collapsing museum rescue mission AND case study in how to #DecolonizePaleontology

📸:Mariem Hbaieb

First, I'd like to shout out @nytimes and @asher_elbein for giving us a public platform for this.

This article has been in the works since January 2020!!

Also check out quotes from @emmadnn and @mauritiantales. These are THE people to follow!

nytimes.com/2021/03/22/sci…

The fact that it seems to coincide with certain ethically dubious fossils being published recently is a coincidence but also emphasizes how often this happens.

#DecolonizePaleontology

OKAY STORY TIME
In 2020 I was invited to go looking for shark teeth in Tunisia! Why? My masters was on teeth, I speak Arabic, also I'm a damn good scientist

Mohammad Bazzi, a friend lead the expedition. From the initial email contacts we worked with local geologists.

Professor Ferid Dhahri was the local geologist and he was incredibly welcoming.

WE MET EVERYONE.

HAD COFFEE AND TEA WITH EVERYONE!! These are important rituals in the Middle East, delicious rituals.

We took our time, explained why we were there what we were looking for.

We had a geology student with us, Mohammad Messi who was interested in the Fossils and then went on to complete a masters on the subject!

The first masters in paleo in Tunisia (to my knowledge)

News of us being there travled fast, quickly we met people who 'like fancy rocks'. Not exactly private collectors but people who just thought this stuff was cool.

Soon we found out about localities and outcrops we didn't know about!

Lots of #Scicomm with locals over coffee as we waiting for the right escorts to remote areas or for the right authorizations.

Little did we know that it was THIS.. standing around in the streets rambling about fossils is what would help us out.

Prospecting with locals to remote areas was safer and more productive.

Our main goal was to check out this phosphate quarry which had many shark teeth. The Mine workers knew exactly which layers had the most fossils because they ruined the phosphate purifying machines.

When we explained why these fossils tell a story they were excited and helped!

I MEAN HEAVY DUTY HELPED!!

HOWS THAT FOR PALEO EQUIPMENT!

So on one of our coffee breaks we were talking about fossils and were approached by the coffeeshop owner. We find out that the coffee shop we are at backs up to an old destroyed museum. It was a casualty of the Arab spring.

There was talk of fossils still in there.

The door to the museum was buried shut in the revolution. To stop looting.

So we contacted the mayor and all the proper authorities, it was amazing to watch a community come together and DIG!

I mean this smallish mining town was buzzing, everyone from the head of culture, to journalists, and local government were involved everyone wanted to see what was behind those doors, what remained and what can be saved.

Ya'll the adrenaline. I can't even explain.

We get in there and I cried.

I cried because I was in egypt during the first revolution. I cried because the locals didn't know anything about the museum ( it was set up by french colonists). I cried because everyone was excited to learn what had happened in their own backyard

We handed out masks. We handed out gloves. We assigned people to piles of rubble, and piles of burned or half burned documents.

I became a boss bitch I didn't know I could be in that moment. People would come and ask me if this was a fossil or a rock? is it worth saving?

EVERYTHING WAS WORTH SAVING. We called in more trucks. A government official volunteered an empty office for secure temporary storage.

We photographed. We catalogued. Everyone there knew they were a part of something that day.

I don't know how else to explain it but the air was buzzing with literal excitement.

After about 3 truck loads. We went to the storage facility. It all took about a day because we had a whole community carrying FOSSIL TURTLES like they were new born babies.

The whole time they would ask us. Are you going to take this stuff back?

I would say no. It is staying here, its yours.
We want to study it with Gafsa university but it belongs here with Tunisians.

We met with the local university Gafsa University with big plans on shared paleo resources and hopefully more students in the future.

Like I said Mohammad Messi already graduated with a masters and is currently collabing with us on shark teeth! And we are so luck to have him.

So unfortunately COVID has stopped us from going back this year. Fortunately there was enough excitement and ground work laid that the work hasn't completely stopped.

This expedition was not planned with the intent on it being a #DecolonizePaleontology case study.

But if you respect the locals and respect the fossil heritage it's a good start.

I am not an expert, I just want to do better.

Finally a big thanks to:

Mohammad Bazzi for including me and to all the Tunisians who kept us FED housed and made me feel truly at home. We will be back.

Big thanks to Mariem Hbaieb for allowing me to share her photography and for following us on this adventure!

Paleo in the Middle East is growing! And there are big things coming from the Egyptian side of things too!

Make sure to follow @heshamsallam to keep up to date on Egyptian paleo done by Egyptian teams!