Amazing view from a paleolake in the Rub al Khali 🥰

Best for the end, Unit 4, briefly described, no picture, is now described as : "pyramid's core consists of meticulously sculpted massive andesite lava (Unit 4)".

End of thread, I am tired.

Here a picture from Unit 3 (same than layer 3 I assume). So the geoarch had access to opened sections and was able to collect "organic soil" within a very precise context (and report visible structure and/ excavation + hand-picked bulk sediments the top, middle, bottom of Unit 3 for instance).

More over, the numbers 1115, 750 and 1130 indicate the depth of the samples extracted from the core to be dated. And we can see that a sample that was 750 cm deep have been dated to ~ 25,000 BP, while the other ones that are 1130 cm deep (so much deeper) are between 19,000 and 13,000 BP.

That’s the description of « Unit 3 » = weathered columnar and rounded rock fragment showing spheroidal weathering, intercalated with soils or weathered materials… then it becomes « organic soil » in the table showing age-dating results.

This is a perfect example of why context and stratigraphy are important while doing geoarcheology. Here the Palaeolithic pyramid is dated with 3 radiocarbon age dating made on « organic soil », all coming from « Unit 3 ».

Idk how to start on Bluesky so here a nice field picture from last year in Oman, fieldwork with Dana Pietsch. This micromorphological sample made our day. Results coming soon hopefully