Optical and near-infrared observations of the afterglow of GRB 980329 from15 hours to 10 days

We report I-band observations of the GRB 980329 field made on 1998 March 29 with the 1.34 m Tautenberg Schmidt telescope, R-, J- and K-band observatio ns made on 1998 April 1 with the APO 3.5 m telescope, R- and I-band observa tions made on 1998 April 3 with the Mayall 4 m telescope at KPNO, and J- an d K-band observations made 1998 April 6-8 with the Keck-I 10 m telescope. W e show that these and other reported measurements are consistent with a pow er-law fading of the optical/near-infrared source that is coincident with t he variable radio source VLA J0702+3850. This firmly establishes that this source is the afterglow of GRB 980329.