Facilities and Equipment

We view and analyze archaeological sediments, deposits and features as archives of paleoenvironments as well as of human behavior and study these archives with geoarchaeological means. To study this sedimentary archive, we employ a microcontextual approach with micromorphological analysis contextualizing other datasets. This approach allows us to identify sedimentary components, but also sedimentary structures, anthropogenic and pedogenic features, and to understand their spatial and temporal relationships.

The laboratory is equipped with an Olympus BX53-P polarizing microscope for archaeological soil micromorphology study of thin sections. We use plane and cross polarized light as well as oblique incident light. Documentation is performed with a microscope camera, cellSens software and a Wacom tablet. We scan thin sections with an Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner.

The microarchaeology laboratory houses a reference collection with over 300 thin sections from over 20 archaeological sites. The collection encompasses various environments, riverine and lacustrine shore contexts, deserts, sandstone and limestone rock shelters and caves. Archaeologically, we house material from the Middle to Later Stone Age, Lower to Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic and the Classic Period of Mesoamerica.