Fieldwork was underway last week at Varsche Rivier 003 (VR003) – the core site of Marishka Govender’s [@minxgovender] PhD research. 

Slide 2: Marishka sampling archaeological sediments across VR003’s deep Late Pleistocene layers to reconstruct past vegetation, climate, and rainfall seasonality. 

Phytoliths – microscopic silica fossils left behind by ancient plants – are the focus of Marishka’s PhD. Her research aims to understand how environmental shifts influenced human innovation, behaviour, and movement across the Succulent Karoo–Fynbos boundary. 

Slide 3: To support this, she’s also collecting modern plants and soils to build the region’s first modern phytolith reference collection – an essential tool for interpreting changes in the archaeological record.

From 90 000 year old sediments to living landscapes, every sample brings us closer to the story of how Homo sapiens adapted to environmental change in arid southern Africa. 

#Phytoliths #Archaeobotany #Palaeoecology #HumanEvolution #EnvironmentalDrivers #StoneAgeScience #VR003 #SucculentKaroo #FynbosBoundary #MiddleStoneAge #PhDFieldwork #Palaeolab #PastClimates #HumanInnovation #PhDLife #Fieldwork2025 #GENUS #Genuspalaeosciences