The 2nd AFQUA-Conference was held in Nairobi (Kenya), bringing together Quaternary Scientists working in Africa on a wide range of topics including paleoenvironments, paleoecology and archaeology.
Two talks were given by CRC-members in the focus session “The environmental context for hominin evolution and dispersal” (guided by F. Schäbitz, H. Lamb, A. Asrat & M. Trauth). Frank Schäbitz presented results of the sediment record from the Chew Bahir Basin (Ethiopia), covering 550 ka and drilled within the collaboration of the CRC-806 and the ICDP funded Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project. Felix Henselowsky presented his work from the A1-Project in Egypt, with new datings of the archaeological sequence at Sodmein Cave and a flowstone from the nearby Saquia Cave.
Fruitful discussions of the AFQUA-community at the conference, but also during the excursion to the archaeological sites at Olorgesailie in the Kenyan Rift System, provided a good opportunity to exchange our knowledge related to the African Quaternary. Thus, this can be directly linked to some of our key projects working on the African continent.
Finally, Felix guided a post-conference workshop about GIS and free geodata.
Text: Felix Henselovsky
Felix Henselovsky is PhD-candidate in the A1-project. He is working on Late Pleistocene palaeoenvironments in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
Mid-conference field trip of AFUQA 2018 to the archaeological sites at Olorgosaile (southern Kenya Rift Valley) guided by Dr. Rick Potts. |