Archaeologist 🇮🇹🇪🇺 | Directeur de Recherche @CNRS @archeosciences 🇫🇷 | PI @PEOPLE_ERC_StG | Southern African Stone Age 🇿🇦🇱🇸 | Microarchaeology ⛏️🔬
Bordeaux, France
Joined May 2020
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So here it is! I wrote a little handbook about "Infrared Spectroscopy of Archaeological Sediments" published by @CambUP_Archaeo. The book is in open access and includes the reference spectra of 74 standard materials in both transmission and ATR modes. 👇
cambridge.org/core/elements/…
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
🚨 New article spearheaded by Dr Michaela Ecker on the reconstruction of past environments at Florisbad 🇿🇦 based on plant biomarkers, geoarchaeology, and luminescence dating of the Middle Pleistocene deposits, in open access 👇
nature.com/articles/s43247-0…
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
Non-analog environments supported early Homo sapiens in southern Africa 200 000 years ago dlvr.it/TW758H
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
#Communiqué 🗞️ Il y a 300 000 ans, les premiers Homo sapiens émergent en Afrique. Des scientifiques étudient les sédiments de Florisbad et Lombard’s Drift (Afrique du Sud) pour reconstituer leur environnement.
👉 cnrs.fr/fr/presse/etudier-le…
ALT Étudier les paysages passés pour comprendre l’adaptation des premiers Homo sapiens
50 years after the survey led by Dr Patricia Vinnicombe, Dr Nthabiseng Mokoena, Dr Maïlys Richard and I started a new survey of the Senqunyane valley in highland Lesotho 🇱🇸⛰️. Lots of Stone Age shelters and San rock art! #archaeology @archeosciences @CNRSshs @nul_roma
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
And it's a wrap! Many thanks to the organizers and the cohort of wonderful students from all over Africa for making the James Brink Field School a success! And now...to the lab! ⚗️🔬
#archaeology
@archeosciences
@ERC_Research
@CNRSshs
@CNRSAquitaine
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
Together with excavation, an important part of hands-on training in this field school is the collection of sediment samples for different laboratory methods, and their on-site analysis.
#archaeology
#JamesBrinkFieldSchool
@archeosciences
@ERC_Research
@CNRSshs
@CNRSAquitaine
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
Yesterday and today we had lectures by Dr Benoit Longet on the Pleistocene lithic industries of the Free State and by Dr Maïlys Richard on trapped charge dating
#archaeology
#JamesBrinkFieldSchool
@archeosciences
@ERC_Research
@CNRSshs
@CNRSAquitaine
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
Speaking of teeth 🦷, here is a beautiful example of wildebeest from 120,000 years ago, which we found today!
#archaeology
#palaeontology
#JamesBrinkFieldSchool
@archeosciences
@ERC_Research
@CNRSshs
@CNRSAquitaine
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
Besides artifacts we are finding teeth 🦷, which Dr Maïlys Richard will date using electron spin resonance coupled with uranium series.
#archaeology
#JamesBrinkFieldSchool
@archeosciences
@ERC_Research
@CNRSshs
@CNRSAquitaine
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
Today after fieldwork we had a presentation on phytolith analysis by PhD candidate Beatrice Bin, followed by laboratory practice on phytolith extraction and counting
#archaeology
#JamesBrinkFieldSchool
@archeosciences
@ERC_Research
@CNRSshs
@CNRSAquitaine
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
Today we found the first artifacts from the MIS 5 level at Florisbad! In the afternoon Dr @MichaelToffolo gave a lecture on infrared spectroscopy and students worked with FTIR to analyze sediments.
#archaeology
#JamesBrinkFieldSchool
@archeosciences
@ERC_Research
@CNRSshs
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
Today we started the excavation! Fieldwork was followed by a lecture on stone tool technology by Dr Will Archer and knapping practice.
#archaeology
#JamesBrinkFieldSchool
@archeosciences
@ERC_Research
@CNRSshs
@CNRSAquitaine
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
The James Brink Field School has officially started with a tour of Florisbad 🇿🇦 and the first training session on total station recording. Soon more updates as the excavation of the MIS 5e levels starts!
#archaeology
@ERC_Research
@archeosciences
@CNRSshs
@CNRSAquitaine
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
The PEOPLE team is back in Florisbad 🇿🇦 for a new season. Besides working on river terraces in the region, this year we will dig the MIS 5e occupations at Florisbad within the framework of the "James Brink Field School in Pleistocene Archaeology and Palaeontology".
#archaeology
New article led by Dr Mae Goder on the Middle Palaeolithic site of Nahal Besor 37, where I contributed with micromorphology and micro-FTIR of combustion features. In #openaccess 👇
@archeosciences @CNRSAquitaine @CNRSshs
doi.org/10.1007/s12520-026-0…
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
🚨 Publication alert🚨 Early humans in South Africa were quarrying stone as long as 220,000 years ago at the site of Jojosi @NatureComms - specialized, long-term use of a source of a raw material source in Stone Age Africa: Read the paper #openaccess here nature.com/articles/s41467-0…
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
📢New article in open access led by Dr Maïlys Richard on the newly discovered Middle Stone Age site at Baden-Baden, South Africa 🇿🇦, where humans were present 91,000 years ago.
nature.com/articles/s41598-0…
@archeosciences @ERC_Research @CNRSAquitaine @CNRSshs
Michael B. Toffolo 🦥 retweeted
📢New article in open access led by Dr Benoit Longet on the survey of the Riet River dongas, South Africa 🇿🇦, where we found new Earlier to Later Stone Age sites.
doi.org/10.36615/safa.21.434…
@archeosciences @ERC_Research @CNRSAquitaine @CNRSshs
We are accepting applications for the "James Brink Field School in Pleistocene Archaeology and Palaeontology", to be held at the Florisbad Quaternary Research Station (National Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa) from 22 June to 3 July 2026. Deadline: 6 February 2026.
