Meet the REAL Young Indiana Jones

Young Indiana Jones was a good story. But the real thing is even better. Meet Andrew Du.

Buried deep in the sand of a remote spit called Koobi Fora hides a treasure trove of artifacts tracing back to the beginnings of humankind. Found on the eastern side of Kenya's Lake Turkana, the site is a prime spot for paleontological research — and there we uncovered a new nonfictional adventurer, in the flesh. Step aside, Harrison Ford: Andrew Du is the real young Indiana Jones.

Du, 22, earned his bachelor's degree in evolutionary anthropology at Rutgers University. Since then he's spent the past three summers in Africa uncovering a trail of rare, 1.5-million-year-old human footprints. Garnering media coverage worldwide, these findings from Rutgers’ Koobi Fora Field School yielded key information about the soft-tissue anatomy of the oldest human-like foot, information that could not be verified by fossilized bones alone.

During Du’s most recent six-week African adventure, he returned to the same site in time for the discovery of a new set of hominid footprints and hand bones, finds currently under preparation for publication. Andrew has taken the lead in conducting his own research into percussive technology; he presented at a conference in Cambridge, England, and National Geographic filmed some of his experiments. With the passion of an archaeologist and the adventurous thirst of a treasure hunter, he is determined to find a methodology for recognizing and deciphering the implications of early man’s use of primitive stone tools.