Mochi field trip

Riparo Mochi is one of the key sites documenting the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Italy, and the coast of the Mediterranean. It contains the key reference sequence for the Proto-Aurignacian. Previously, we had built a good chronometric sequence that was outlined by Douka et al. (2011) in the Journal of Human Evolution. We went back to the site with our PalaeoChron collaborator and excavator Stefano Grimaldi, and his colleague Fabio Santaniello, to take new samples from the Mousterian levels, as well as collect some burnt flint samples for TL dating.

The site of Mochi is located on the Balzi Rossi coast of Liguria, near the Italian town of Ventimiglia, and the French resort of Menton. It's a very tough place to work, the Cote d'Azur...