Dr Huw Groucutt
@huwgroucutt
Archaeologist, Senior Lecturer at University of Malta, PI: TerraForm ERC project.....posting about old stones, and occasional bones. Exploring human responses to climate change, particularly in Malta and Arabia.
A much younger and much fitter me exploring this cave, when I was about 16.
Behind this innocuous little gate on a hillside in South Wales lies the 33 km long Agen Allwedd cave system. Digging efforts are currently underway deep beneath Mynydd Llangatwg to connect the cave to the neighbouring Ogof y Daren Cilau. This will make a cave system more than 60 km long.
#FlintFriday. Still one of my favourites. Lovely Levallois flake we found at Mundafan in southern Saudi Arabia, made around 85,000 years ago on the edge of what was then a lake.
Starlink and a robotic total station....and paper and pencil...working side by side.
Ġgantija Neolithic 'temples', built some 5000 years ago. Shown during the dry season and the wet season. Always impressive.
#FieldworkFriday. On Friday's during excavation we take care of post-excavation work and training students in basic methods (how to complete a stratigraphic unit sheet, photography, and autolevel use).
The quest for shade! Archaeological excavation in the hot Mediterranean summer.
Back to the excavation....this was the last day last year, on to more exciting findings!
It was a pleasure to host several visiting European Research Council 'National Contact Point' colleagues, from across Europe in a visit organised by Lili Kankaya from Xjenza Malta.
#FieldworkWeek. It's been a great few days doing TerraForm project fieldwork in Malta. Working with my great team at the University of Malta, and with visiting collaborators from the Universities of Durham and Milano.
(1/4) Fun fieldwork this week. Here we are looking at portable optically stimulated luminescence (P-OSL) data, to guide further sampling and analyses...
I'm curious how people organise their herbs and spices? Here is mine.
Exciting times with the TerraForm project. Today was the first day we used our new differential GPS system. This allows us to record the position of anything to within a few mm accuracy. Shown here with my spatial guru, Dr Dario Calderone.
Ok well if you find these Bronze Age pits interesting....here are a few more from Malta and Gozo :)
Bronze Age 'rock cut pits' (probably grain silos), at Wardija San Ġorġ. Hundreds of these pits are known in Malta, mostly in fortified/defensible positions.
#FieldworkFriday....No fieldwork this week...but i'm having fun writing about clay.
Lovely Bronze Age pottery from Malta (Source: Peet et al., 1910; doi.org/10.1017/S006...)