Back from the Darkness…

In May of 2017 I directed the final season of fieldwork (at least for now) in the Naqalimare region of the Sigatoka Valley, Fiji. This time we investigated the deposits inside Naihehe Cave.  Kyle Riordan (OSU Graduate Student in Anthropology) led the excavation of two test units in the cave, and collected samples for the analysis of sediment origin, deposition, and structure.  Excavations in Fiji were followed by two weeks of analysis at Idaho State University’s CAMAS lab, where Kyle directed the analysis of the sediments using elemental scanning microscopy.  Analyses at OSU’s laboratories are still ongoing– radiocarbon dates for charcoal layers discovered in the cave are coming soon!