The paper led by @MMartinonT on Mtoto - the oldest known human burial in Africa https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03457-8 - is sensational in every sense and I'm grateful I got to play a small part in this study 1/n

I'm equally grateful that the part I played involved exploratory fieldwork - especially as I'm missing fieldwork atm - as it presents such an important means to challenge and advance our understanding of the past 2/n

Here's a quick day in the life in the field 3/n

Every morning we'd drop Ruth Tibesasa off at the banks of Kilifi Creek to manage flotation work 4/n

Its a bit of a drive from Kilifi - and this photo doesn't do justice to quite how bright and saturated the red of the soil and green of plant life can be 5/n

Parking up at Jackson's house and being met everyday by a gaggle of kids 6/n

The walk to site: In those trees is a ridge, and in that ridge is a cave, and in that cave 7/n

and everyday, entering the cave you walk through a cloud of butterflies - which i have entirely failed to capture for you here 8/n

Panga ya Saidi is an incredible place to work, and have lunch, including the fieldwork favourite peanut butter, avocado, tomato and chilli sauce sandwich 9/n

We'd get back home just before sunset 10/n

here's the proof 11/n

The archaeology at PYS is incredible, but having such a great fieldwork team makes all the difference 12/n

Special thanks to @NicoleLBoivin and @MDPetraglia for getting me involved in this incredible project! n/n