Last week, samples that were collected by Dr. Pilaar Birch on fieldwork earlier this summer arrived at the lab safe and sound! The samples are from the site of Uğurlu on the island of Gökçeada, Turkey. Uğurlu is recognized as one of the one of the earliest Neolithic sites in the Aegean, dating to about 8,500-6,500 years before present. Excavations are directed by Dr. Burçin Erdoğu at the University of Thrace. Dr. Pilaar Birch and Dr. Levent Atici, Associate Professor and Director of the Zooarchaeology Lab at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, received a National Geographic Committee for Reseearch & Exploration grant in order to visit the site this summer and conduct zooarchaeological and stable isotope analyses. Now that the samples have arrived, inventory, documentation, and preliminary sampling are underway at the QUIP Lab.
