We are currently in South Africa, excavating the Umhlatuzana Rockshelter site in Kwazulu-Natal.  Although the full micromorphological sampling will be done at the end of the excavation, I could not resist and sampled an impressive hearth feature in the top Holocene layers.  You can see the nice stratigraphy of the hearth and the transition from organic-rich to ash layers. The sediments are highly bioturbated with animal burrows visible to the naked eye.

It was also a great opportunity to test out how Kubiena sampling tins work in our context. The sampling was successful with a small, almost inevitable, profile collapse.

Bonus video

Geoarchaeologist Dr. Karkanas extracting a micromorphological sample for the study of paleosols in Hungary’s Koros River Valley