Heading to Cape Town today for the 2023 #archaeology field season at #BlombosCave !

Blombos Cave is located on the southern cape of South Africa and has a #MiddleStoneAge component between 100,000 and ~72,000 as well as a #LateStoneAge occupation

Artifacts important to the understanding of early human behavior have been found here such as the oldest drawing of #ochre on a silcrete flake at 73,000 and a ochre grinding toolkit at 100,000

Excavation starts Feb 4th! @AsiaArchaeologist on #tiktok

Part 3 of my postdoc will be carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses of #LateStoneAge fish bone collagen from #BlombosCave, #KlasiesRiverMainSite, and #HoffmansRobberg
Many rocky reef fish like this Red Roman but I’m also excited to sample #Yellowtail (Seriola lalandi) a circumglobal migratory species
Robberg peninsula is a great fishing spot for this fish today so no surprise it is the most abundant by weight in some levels at Hoffman’s/Robberg Cave!
#archaeology #zooarchaeology #scicomm

Working on submitting destructive sampling permits for #StableIsotope analysis of #CapeFurSeal tooth enamel, fish #otoliths and bone collagen.
Here is the seal plan: 🦭
Comparing carbon and oxygen SI of #MiddleStoneAge seals from #KlasiesRiverMainSite and #BlombosCave with #LateStoneAge seals from #Hoffman’s/Robberg and #NelsonBayCave
Planning to compare the archaeological samples with present day seal populations to see if the #foraging environments have changed.
#archaeology #zooarchaeology

A common fish found in #zooarchaeology assemblages at the #LateStoneAge contexts of Blombos Cave, Hoffman’s/Robberg, and Klasies River Main Site are the #Galjoen the national fish of #SouthAfrica !
This feisty fish was named after the Dutch word for Galleon ships which carried cannons for protection. It hangs out near the coast chomping on mussels, barnacles, sea squirts and seaweeds.
Photo 1: Galjoen from #TwoOceansAquarium (top right)
Photo 2: Galjoen premaxilla
#archaeology #SASSI #redlist

Any guesses what #MarineMammal this tooth belongs to?

Working at #UniversityOfCapeTown this week going through the #LateStoneAge #HoffmansRobberg and #NelsonBayCave as I prep a permit for #StableIsotope analysis when I came across this identified by #zooarchaeologist Leesha Richardson.

Thrilled to have made it to the lab in #SouthAfrica to select #MiddleStoneAge and #LateStoneAge #fish and #seals for #StableIsotopes! More fish, seal, and marine sustability content to come…

New introduction time! I’m #zooarchaeologist analyzing #MiddleStoneAge and #LateStoneAge fish and seals from the #SouthAfrican sites of #BlombosCave #KlasiesRiverMainSite and #HoffmansRobberg

I’m a #postdoc at the University of Bergen #UiB with the #SEAS programme for #marine #sustainability, #SapienCE and department of archaeology #AHKR

I will give periodic updates on my work and aim to contribute to the conversations here. 😊

Photo: #Utstein 13th century monastery near Stavanger