When did humans first start to use complex stone tools - tools made of more than one part - and why does it matter? Well, we are on a journey to find out and we hope you will check in and follow our progress. We will be reporting directly from the field - and the lab - as our four year project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of Great Britain, unfolds
They say you shouldn’t go food shopping when you’re hungry because you buy impulsively. I’m now a firm believer in that piece of wisdom. More than two weeks after returning from Zambia, I’m still recovering from acute food poisoning that struck during the final few days of the project. The culprit, I think, was a […]
Before Victoria Falls formed, the Zambezi River was very much like we see it today above the falls – wide and shallow. But the old Zambezi was not where the Zambezi flows today. It has left remnants of its former presence 12-15m above the modern river in the National Park, and the gravels it left […]
Everything in archaeological investigations requires patience – and nothing more so than dating. While we waited for Geoff Duller to arrive we had to work quickly, but we knew also we had to make sure we were digging in areas that would be most relevant to dating the sands and their archaeological record. No time […]
This first season of the Deep Roots project is ending but there’s much to catch up on since last time, so I’ll try and condense the frenetic activity of the last two weeks into two, or possibly three posts. Parks and not much recreation We moved into Mosi oa Tunya (aka, the smoke that thunders, […]
English as spoken in Britain offers a rich vocabulary that sometimes just defies understanding, but hits the spot when it comes to conveying meaning. We had been digging and sieving in the gravels of the old Maramba River all morning, finding nothing. I said to my partner on the sieve, ‘not a sausage’. Maggie looked […]
That was a question posed by the interviewer for Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation which is producing a documentary about this project – and the first filming was done, in a pit, on the Maramba River. The river is a small tributary of the Zambezi and its dark green water looks enticing but there are crocs […]
Sunday. A very welcome day off. Time to catch up on what’s been happening both off (thank you, work emails) and on site. And for aching bones and muscles to recover. This first full week of excavation was interspersed with errands – buying essential final bits and pieces. First, excavation bags. No, not the […]
