Continuing our survey of the gulley near Castle Rock, I found a huge amount of animal bones. Our goal for today was to search for evidence of hominin and carnivore damage including tooth marks, punctures, and cuts from stone tools. A big part of that was differentiating between green breakage, which happens when the bone is fresh, and dry breakage, which happens due to geological damage after it is fossilized.
I continued excavating my plot at the BK site. You can see here what I’ve uncovered! Most of it was stone tools, with a couple animal bone fragments. Cool-colored thumbtacks denote stone tools, and warm colors are for bones. (Note the stone tool next to the hammerstone I was using to uncover it!!).
This is our last night at Olduvai, so I‘m taking time to savor the breathtaking amount of stars visible here. Every night you could see the Milky Way, and it has been the most stars I‘ve seen in my life. I could probably make an entire appreciation post just for the beautiful night skies here.
I realized I haven’t included a photo of our new tent location yet! This has been so much better and there’s way less sand than being on the cliff (it’s also so pretty!).
I‘m mostly packed up (besides my tent) and I‘ve closed my drinks tab at the camp (shoutout passionfruit Fanta). I‘m so thankful for all the researchers and staff here for hosting us, it was a truly incredible experience. Bye-bye Olduvai!
Spent all my shillings,
Carina
