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Bucket flotation: Gibralter
An archaeobotanical flotation photo gallery
Here at Parsons' Lodge, a Victorian military fort now managed by the Gibralter Museum, a former look-out bunker provides a flotation and wet-sieving station with a view of North Afirca and Spanish port of Algeciras.
Steps provide a convenient way to prepare buckets for pouring flot into a 250 micro sieve.
While a converted bathtube provies a basin overwhich heavy residue is wet-sieved. Specially maide sieves (about 50cm in diameter) fit into a metal frame resting on boards above the bath-tub.
Flots and heavy residues dry with an exquisite Mediterranean view.
The flotation pictured here was carried out in July 2008 as part of a research project of Cambridge University and the Gibrlater Museum aimed at elucidating the Neolithic period at Gibralter (with a focus on the Europa Point area caves). While Gibrlater is famous for its caves, and best known archaeologically for its Middle Palaeolithic and Neanderthal evidence (e.g. from Gorham's Cave), this new project aims to situate Holocene occupation into the wider patterns of transitions towards food-production and ceramic production in Iberia and North Africa.
Above: Gibralter's Europa Point, with North Africa in the background across the Mediterranean.
The Location of Parson's Lodge & Europa Point
This site is produced by Dorian Q Fuller. 2 August 2008.