For most people when looking at the ground they only see dirt. Archaeologists who look at it under the microscope see real beauty. Microstructures and microfragments of sedimentary deposits that give us information about palaeoenvironments and human activities of the past: it is the micromorphology of soils and sediments.

It is a true window into the past, once the undisturbed blocks of sediment are extracted and transformed into a thin section that is polished at 30 µm, we look at intact deposits from thousands of years ago that are observable under the petrographic microscope.

Also, at the Archaeological Micromorphology and Biomarkers Laboratory (AMBI Lab), University of La Laguna (Spain), we have a microscope connected to a high-resolution scanner that allows us to save the images and work with the slides from any computer, especially useful when we go on a trip and have to do preliminary studies. Technology is wonderful!

Long live the Geoarchaeology, the sediments and all the little things they hide.