Heritage Cases

Slides will be counted and photographed using an Olympus BX51 light microscope, and stored horizontally in their slide boxes in a temperature-controlled laboratory when not in use. Immersion oil will be used for 100x photography to examine fine detail and slides cleaned at the end of each day. Counts will be used to construct pollen diagrams and images will comprise plates for the manuscripts. The project centres on palynological material from two borehole cores, F414 (Bethal) and PA106, Lindley, Free State originally prepared by Dr Grigor Aitken for his PhD thesis. Much information was never published on when Dr Aitken wrote his thesis, and he has since left the field. In order to prepare new publications, the slides have to be completely re-counted and photographed. Each slide can take up to two weeks to count and photograph, depending on richness of the material. Accordingly, the project is so time-consuming that it will require approximately 9 months to complete, along with other research commitments. Dr Barbolini’s postdoc at the ESI came to an end in April 2017 while she was still busy counting the material. She is now based at the University of Amsterdam but wants to complete the project so that the manuscripts can be written up. It is not possible to complete this analysis on a research visit as the work is too time-consuming. Furthermore, as the material has already been used for a PhD thesis, no other Masters or PhD student would be able to use these slides for their own project. All necessary microscope and camera equipment is available at the University of Amsterdam to photograph the specimens. The slides themselves are in good condition and sealed so that oxygen cannot penetrate the mounting medium, and stored in sturdy slide boxes that can be latched shut. No destructive sampling of any kind will be engaged in and the slides will be returned to the ESI collections after completion of the project in the same condition.