diff --git a/pigpen-avro/build.gradle b/pigpen-avro/build.gradle
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52284bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pigpen-avro/build.gradle
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+dependencies {
+  compile project(':pigpen')
+
+  provided 'org.clojure:clojure:1.6.0'
+
+  compile 'org.apache.avro:avro:1.7.7'
+  compile 'com.googlecode.json-simple:json-simple:1.1.1'
+  compile 'org.xerial.snappy:snappy-java:1.0.4.1'
+
+
+  provided 'org.apache.pig:pig:0.11.1'
+  provided 'org.apache.hadoop:hadoop-core:1.1.2'
+  provided 'org.antlr:antlr:3.5.2'
+  provided 'log4j:log4j:1.2.17'
+}
diff --git a/pigpen-avro/resources/example_data.avro b/pigpen-avro/resources/example_data.avro
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..16fca54
Binary files /dev/null and b/pigpen-avro/resources/example_data.avro differ
diff --git a/pigpen-avro/resources/example_data.json b/pigpen-avro/resources/example_data.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..082ca65
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pigpen-avro/resources/example_data.json
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+{
+  "browserTimestamp": 1417997369042,
+  "rawHash": {
+    "uId": "14125918269",
+    "bNo": "15959",
+    "rallyRequestId": "qs-app-04144pliuzkfbmu1aiwzrecc81s5.qs-app-049893092",
+    "queryParams": "",
+    "sId": "12850"
+  },
+  "metadata": {
+    "schema_id": "e48b9786fd4598fa27c1de354f735"
+  },
+  "requestSpan": {
+    "metadata": {
+      "schema_id": "7d8d87ef3315c672a28b6ae2d31bd9fa"
+    },
+    "unhandledException": {"null": null},
+    "handledExceptions": {"null": null},
+    "spanId": "2873f846-c867-4e08-8aa8-530f63bbee2b",
+    "parentSpanId": {"string": "0baef555-47ef-48a3-b218-6bfd33094ecd"}
+  },
+  "panel": null
+}
+{
+  "browserTimestamp": 1417997368078,
+  "rawHash": {
+    "uId": "14125918269",
+    "bNo": "15959",
+    "queryParams": "",
+    "sId": "12850"
+  },
+  "metadata": {
+    "schema_id": "e48b9786fd4598fa27c1de354f735"
+  },
+  "requestSpan": {
+    "metadata": {
+      "schema_id": "7d8d87ef3315c672a28b6ae2d31bd9fa"
+    },
+    "unhandledException": {"null": null},
+    "handledExceptions": {"null": null},
+    "spanId": "3e313af4-76b8-48cf-abc8-92033f225126",
+    "parentSpanId": {"string": "7673ed70-cfd0-4fb3-9722-33ae8a977301"}
+  },
+  "panel": {"null": null }
+}
+{
+  "browserTimestamp": 1417997392079,
+  "rawHash": {
+    "uId": "14125918269",
+    "bNo": "15959",
+    "queryParams": "",
+    "sId": "12850"
+  },
+  "metadata": {
+    "schema_id": "e48b9786fd4598fa27c1de354f735"
+  },
+  "requestSpan": {
+    "metadata": {
+      "schema_id": "7d8d87ef3315c672a28b6ae2d31bd9fa"
+    },
+    "unhandledException": {"null": null},
+    "handledExceptions": {"null": null},
+    "spanId": "3e313af4-76b8-48cf-abc8-92033f225126",
+    "parentSpanId": null
+  },
+  "panel": {"com.example.PanelInfo":{"defOid": {"long": 29991883477}}}
+}
diff --git a/pigpen-avro/resources/example_schema.avsc b/pigpen-avro/resources/example_schema.avsc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9996556
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pigpen-avro/resources/example_schema.avsc
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+{
+  "type": "record",
+  "name": "ExampleRecord",
+  "namespace": "com.example",
+  "fields": [
+    {
+      "name": "browserTimestamp",
+      "type": "long"
+    },
+    {
+      "name": "rawHash",
+      "type": {
+        "type": "map",
+        "values": "string"
+      }
+    },
+    {
+      "name": "metadata",
+      "type": {
+        "type": "record",
+        "name": "SharedRecordSchema",
+        "namespace": "com.example",
+        "fields": [
+          {
+            "name": "schema_id",
+            "type": "string"
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    },
+    {
+      "name": "requestSpan",
+      "type": {
+        "type": "record",
+        "name": "ExampleNestedRecord",
+        "fields": [
+          {
+            "name": "metadata",
+            "type": "com.example.SharedRecordSchema"
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "spanId",
+            "type": "string"
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "parentSpanId",
+            "type": [
+              "null",
+              "string"
+            ]
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "unhandledException",
+            "type": [
+              "null",
+              {
+                "type": "record",
+                "name": "Exception",
+                "fields": [
+                  {
+                    "name": "exceptionClass",
+                    "type": "string"
+                  },
+                  {
+                    "name": "exceptionMessage",
+                    "type": [
+                      "null",
+                      "string"
+                    ],
+                    "default": null
+                  },
+                  {
+                    "name": "exceptionStack",
+                    "type": "string"
+                  }
+                ]
+              }
+            ]
+          },
+          {
+            "name": "handledExceptions",
+            "type": [
+              "null",
+              {
+                "type": "array",
+                "items": "Exception"
+              }
+            ]
+          }
+        ]
+      }
+    },
+    {
+      "name": "panel",
+      "type": [
+        "null",
+        {
+          "type": "record",
+          "name": "PanelInfo",
+          "fields": [
+            {
+              "name": "defOid",
+              "type": [
+                "null",
+                "long"
+              ],
+              "default": null
+            }
+          ]
+        }
+      ]
+    }
+  ]
+}
diff --git a/pigpen-avro/src/main/clojure/pigpen/avro/core.clj b/pigpen-avro/src/main/clojure/pigpen/avro/core.clj
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8bf4a03
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pigpen-avro/src/main/clojure/pigpen/avro/core.clj
@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+;;
+;;
+;;  Copyright 2013 Netflix, Inc.
+;;
+;;     Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+;;     you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+;;     You may obtain a copy of the License at
+;;
+;;         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+;;
+;;     Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+;;     distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+;;     WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+;;     See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+;;     limitations under the License.
+;;
+;;
+
+(ns pigpen.avro.core
+  (:require [clojure.string :as str]
+            [pigpen.raw :as raw]
+            [pigpen.core :as pig])
+  (:import [org.apache.avro
+            Schema
+            Schema$Field
+            Schema$Type
+            Schema$Parser
+            SchemaNormalization]
+           [org.apache.avro.file DataFileReader]
+           [org.apache.avro.specific SpecificDatumReader]
+           [org.apache.avro.generic GenericData$Record]
+           [pigpen.local PigPenLocalLoader]))
+
+(set! *warn-on-reflection* true)
+
+(declare field-names)
+(defn- prefixed-names [record-schema prefix]
+  (for [subfield (field-names record-schema)]
+    (str prefix "." subfield)))
+
+(defn- field-names [^Schema parsed-schema]
+ (->> (.getFields parsed-schema)
+       (map (fn [^Schema$Field field]
+              (let [type (.getType ^{:tag Schema} (.schema field))]
+                (cond
+                 (= type Schema$Type/RECORD) (prefixed-names (.schema field) (.name field))
+                 ;; pig only supports union of null, <type>.
+                 (= type Schema$Type/UNION)  (let [record-fields (->> (.getTypes (.schema field))
+                                                                      (filter #(= (.getType ^{:tag Schema} %) Schema$Type/RECORD))
+                                                                      (map (fn [rec] (prefixed-names rec (.name field)))))]
+                                               (if (empty? record-fields) [(.name field)]
+                                                   record-fields))
+                 :else                       (.name field)))))
+       flatten
+       vec))
+
+(defn- parse-schema [^String s]
+  (.parse ^{:tag Schema$Parser} (Schema$Parser.) s))
+
+(defmethod pigpen.pig/native->clojure org.apache.avro.util.Utf8 [value]
+  (str value))
+
+(defn dotted-keys->nested-map [kvs]
+  (->> kvs
+   (map (fn [[k v]] [(-> k name (clojure.string/split #"\.")) v]))
+   (reduce (fn [acc [ks v]]
+             (try
+              (if v (assoc-in acc (map keyword ks) v) acc)
+              (catch Exception e
+                (throw (Exception.
+                        (str "can't assoc-in record: " acc "\nkeys: "
+                             ks "\nvalue: " v "\nkvs: " kvs)))))) {})))
+
+(defn load-avro
+  "*** ALPHA - Subject to change ***
+
+  Loads data from an avro file. Returns data as maps with keyword keys corresponding to avro field names. Fields with avro type \"map\" will be maps with string keys.
+
+  Example:
+
+    ;; avro schemas are defined [on the project's website](http://avro.apache.org/docs/1.7.7/spec.html#schemas)
+    ;; load-avro takes the schema as a string.
+    (pig-avro/load-avro \"input.avro\" (slurp \"schemafile.json\"))
+
+    (pig-avro/load-avro \"input.avro\"
+       \"{\"namespace\": \"example.avro\", \"type\": \"record\", \"name\": \"foo\",
+  \"fields\": [{\"name\": \"wurdz\", \"type\": \"string\"}, {\"name\": \"bar\", \"type\": \"int\"}] }\")
+
+  Make sure a
+  [piggybank.jar](http://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.apache.pig/piggybank/0.14.0)
+  compatible with your version of hadoop is on $PIG_CLASSPATH. For
+  hadoop v2, see http://stackoverflow.com/a/21753749. Amazon's elastic
+  mapreduce comes with a compatible piggybank.jar already on the
+  classpath.
+"
+  ([location schema]
+     (let [^Schema parsed-schema (parse-schema schema)
+           storage (raw/storage$
+                    ["piggybank.jar"]
+                    "org.apache.pig.piggybank.storage.avro.AvroStorage"
+                    ["schema" (SchemaNormalization/toParsingForm parsed-schema)])
+           field-symbols (map symbol (field-names parsed-schema))]
+       (->
+        (raw/load$ location field-symbols storage {:implicit-schema true})
+        (raw/bind$
+         '[pigpen.avro.core]
+         '(pigpen.pig/map->bind (comp
+                                 pigpen.avro.core/dotted-keys->nested-map
+                                 (pigpen.pig/args->map pigpen.pig/native->clojure)))
+         {:args (clojure.core/mapcat (juxt str identity) field-symbols)
+          :field-type-in :native })))))
+
+(defn- attrs-lookup [^GenericData$Record record attr-names]
+  (cond
+   (nil? record) nil
+   (empty? attr-names) record
+   :else (attrs-lookup (.get record ^{:tag java.lang.String} (first attr-names)) (rest attr-names))))
+
+(defmethod pigpen.local/load "org.apache.pig.piggybank.storage.avro.AvroStorage"
+  [{:keys [location fields] }]
+  (reify PigPenLocalLoader
+    (locations [_] (pigpen.local/load-list location))
+    (init-reader [_ filename]
+      (-> ^java.lang.String filename (java.io.File.) (DataFileReader. (SpecificDatumReader.))))
+    (read [_ reader]
+      (for [datum ^SpecificDatumReader reader]
+        (zipmap fields (map #(attrs-lookup datum (str/split (name %) #"\.")) fields))))
+    (close-reader [_ reader] (.close ^{:tag java.io.Closeable} reader))))
diff --git a/pigpen-avro/src/test/clojure/pigpen/functional/avro_test.clj b/pigpen-avro/src/test/clojure/pigpen/functional/avro_test.clj
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..235d7b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pigpen-avro/src/test/clojure/pigpen/functional/avro_test.clj
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+;;
+;;
+;;  Copyright 2013 Netflix, Inc.
+;;
+;;     Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+;;     you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+;;     You may obtain a copy of the License at
+;;
+;;         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+;;
+;;     Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+;;     distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+;;     WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+;;     See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+;;     limitations under the License.
+;;
+;;
+
+(ns pigpen.functional.avro-test
+  (:require [clojure.test :refer :all]
+            [pigpen.extensions.test :refer [test-diff pigsym-zero pigsym-inc regex->string]]
+            [pigpen.core :as pig]
+            [pigpen.fold :as fold]
+            [pigpen.avro.core :as pig-avro]))
+
+(.mkdirs (java.io.File. "build/functional/avro-test/test-avro"))
+
+(def clj-data
+  [{:browserTimestamp 1417997369042,
+     :requestSpan
+     {:spanId "2873f846-c867-4e08-8aa8-530f63bbee2b",
+      :parentSpanId "0baef555-47ef-48a3-b218-6bfd33094ecd",
+      :metadata {:schema_id "7d8d87ef3315c672a28b6ae2d31bd9fa"}},
+     :metadata {:schema_id "e48b9786fd4598fa27c1de354f735"},
+     :rawHash
+     {"queryParams" "",
+      "rallyRequestId"
+      "qs-app-04144pliuzkfbmu1aiwzrecc81s5.qs-app-049893092",
+      "uId" "14125918269",
+      "bNo" "15959",
+      "sId" "12850"}}
+    {:browserTimestamp 1417997368078,
+     :requestSpan
+     {:spanId "3e313af4-76b8-48cf-abc8-92033f225126",
+      :parentSpanId "7673ed70-cfd0-4fb3-9722-33ae8a977301",
+      :metadata {:schema_id "7d8d87ef3315c672a28b6ae2d31bd9fa"}},
+     :metadata {:schema_id "e48b9786fd4598fa27c1de354f735"},
+     :rawHash
+     {"queryParams" "",
+      "uId" "14125918269",
+      "bNo" "15959",
+      "sId" "12850"}}
+    {:browserTimestamp 1417997392079,
+     :requestSpan
+     {:spanId "3e313af4-76b8-48cf-abc8-92033f225126",
+      :metadata {:schema_id "7d8d87ef3315c672a28b6ae2d31bd9fa"}},
+     :metadata {:schema_id "e48b9786fd4598fa27c1de354f735"},
+     :rawHash
+     {"queryParams" "",
+      "uId" "14125918269",
+      "bNo" "15959",
+      "sId" "12850"}
+     :panel {:defOid 29991883477}}])
+
+
+;; Example data was generated like,
+;; $ java -jar ~/avro-tools-1.7.7.jar fromjson --codec snappy \
+;;     --schema-file example_schema.avsc example_data.json
+(deftest test-avro
+  (let [query (pig-avro/load-avro
+               "resources/example_data.avro" (slurp "resources/example_schema.avsc"))]
+    (is (= (pig/dump query) clj-data))))
+
+(deftest test-fold
+  (let [query (->>
+               (pig-avro/load-avro
+                "resources/example_data.avro" (slurp "resources/example_schema.avsc"))
+                            (pig/map #(get % :browserTimestamp 0))
+                            (pig/fold (fold/sum)))]
+    (is (= (pig/dump query) [4253992129199]))))
+
+(comment (run-tests))
diff --git a/settings.gradle b/settings.gradle
index 238031f..2988181 100644
--- a/settings.gradle
+++ b/settings.gradle
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 rootProject.name='pigpen-multi'
-include 'pigpen-core','pigpen-parquet'
+include 'pigpen-core','pigpen-parquet','pigpen-avro'
 project(':pigpen-core').name = 'pigpen'