This is the day we all became archaeologists. We actually got to participate in ongoing excavations, which was insanely cool!!
We excavated at the BK site in the side gorge, and my work area was at level four, which is where some hominin remains have been found in the past. It felt like playing in a sandbox, it was so fun!
The tools I used were: a pink plastic bucket for sediment/rocks, a dust pan, a screwdriver (in place of a chisel), a paintbrush, and a hammerstone. To obtain the hammerstones, we wandered around a prehistoric riverbed to search for cobbles. Mine was a gorgeous quartz hammerstone. It‘s quite ironic to use a past hominin‘s tool to search for more tools. I wonder if the person who made it also thought the quartz was pretty.
In my quandrant, I found several small tools and parts of animal bones including a tooth. After digging for much of the morning, Manuel showed us a brand new site the team is working on (under five days old!).
At the camp, you can buy cold drinks which is really nice after working in the sun. I tried a passionfruit Fanta today. In the afternoon, we returned to the site and continued the excavation. The team there has been working on uncovering a large Sivatherium fossil, which is a relative of modern giraffes. They also found a Megalotragus mandible, which is a large prehistoric kudu.
Diggin‘ it,
Carina
