Geoarchaeology Laboratory

The Institute's Geoarchaeology Laboratory is the core hub of the Institute's Earthlab group. It provides staff and students with facilities for geoarchaeological research and teaching.

‘EARTH’ is a generic term for rocks, soils, and sediments (apparently the proto Indo-European root is *er- - "earth, ground.").

‘EARTH’ also brings to mind space, territory, landscape, and the planet. Consequently, it invokes all the terrestrial components of the constructed human niche in their geographical context.

The Geoarchaeology Lab (room B50) is the core hub of the Institute's Earthlab group led by Dr Manuel Arroyo-Kalin. Alongside the Optical Microscopy lab (room B10), which houses high end- optical microscopes with digital cameras, it is the main lab facility for stratigraphic- and landscape-focussed geoarchaeological research at the Institute of Archaeology. The Earthlab group’s agenda is to investigate “past earth” through the study of material signatures of specific human, diagenetic, and sedimentary processes.  

Indicative (ongoing) projects:

• Development of Dutch plaggen soils (PhD, Jonathan Cogdale)
• Lamanai urban stratigraphy (PhD, Francesca Glanville-Wallis, LAHP funded)
• Geoarchaeology and archaebotany of Amazonian dark earths (PhD, Wiktoria Sagan, part of the PARINÃ project, a partnership with Museu da Amazônia, Museu Goeldi, Federal São Carlos University, and Instituto Socioambiental, Brazil)
• Anthrosols and the geoarchaeology of slash and burn cultivation (led by Manuel Arroyo-Kalin as co-Lead with Museu Goeldi; UKRI Grant Voices of Indigenous Amazonia; apply for a competitively-funded NERC PhD Studentship by 20 Jan 2025)
• Geoarchaeology of Low density urbanism in the Bolivian Amazon (in development by Manuel Arroyo-Kalin as co-lead with Bonn University; UCL GEO scoping funds awarded in 2024)   

In 2024 we are delighted to congratulate Dr Ana Vital on obtaining her PhD and Rowan Barton for obtaining a Johnathan Rowe prize on her MSc dissertation. Past MSc dissertations awarded prizes include. Katya Turchin, Kim Hunnisett, Francesca Glanville-Wallis, Selina Amaral, Marina Paraskova, Leon Veal, Jon Cogdale.  

 Earthlab group members use research assets distributed across the Institute of Archaeology. These include:

Room B50 (aka the Geoarchaeology Lab, part of Wolfson Archaeological Science Labs), which houses equipment for geoarchaeological research, including a state-of-the-art Logitech GTS-1 saw and an LP70 lapping unit to manufacture large format thin sections for micromorphological and petrographic analyses. The Lab also has acquired a SUERC pOSL unit for luminescence stratigraphy studies and an Elementar SoliTOC Cube for carbon determinations (to be booked via ClusterMarket). The lab possesses two Bartington magnetic susceptibility meters. The room is equipped with a dessicator oven, a centrifuge, electronic balances, hydrometers, Endecott sieves, pH meters, and assorted glassware for sedimentological research. Room B50 is used primarily for research except during term 2, when it is also used for teaching.

Room 302 (aka the Micromorphology Lab, part of the Palaeoenvironmental Labs) is our facility to dry samples collected in the field and where we resin impregnate/embed samples for the manufacture of thin sections. The room includes a fume cupboard, air extractor and houses a Logitech vacuum impregnation chamber. Room B302 is used exclusively for sample preparation.

Room B10 (aka the Optical Microscopy Lab, part of the Wolfson Archaeological Science Labs) is a shared lab that houses optical petrographic microscopes. In recent years, the Earth lab group has acquired a suite of polarising Leica microscopes and stereo zoom microscopes ('macroscopes') equipped with digital cameras. Room B10 is used exclusively for research; microscopes need to be booked via ClusterMarket.

Room 401 (aka Manuel Arroyo-Kalin's office, part of Manuel Arroyo-Kalin), houses our micromorphological reference collections, which the Cornwall and Macphail thin sections collections, Arroyo-Kalin's research collection, and many of the sample sets used in previous MSc dissertations. In aggregate, these reference slides cover a large number of known contexts studied by micromorphologists across the planet. Our yearly Archaeological Micromorphology Course (next run in February 2025), jointly organised by Manuel Arroyo-Kalin and Richard Macphail, provides an opportunity for dedicated study of these collections.     

Room 405 (aka Photography Studio): in 2025 we will be acquiring a state-of-the-art DJI Mavic 350 drone with an L2 LiDAR, to be used for mapping landscapes and large sites under dense vegetation. 

Lab members also use other equipment and facilities available at the Institute of Archaeology, including the Wolfson Labs's SEM/EDS, pXRF, Muffle furnace, cold store for sediment storage, milling unit, pellet unit, Brillant saw, and the Paleoenvironmental Lab's wet lab for organic matter removal, phytolith extraction and, in future, sieving under red-light conditions.

• Research Enquiries (including doctoral supervision): Dr Manuel Arroyo-Kalin, Associate Professor in Geoarchaeology
• Lab Support: Timea Grego