Congratulations to University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute undergraduates Gary Lloyd and Paul Jack, who have been awarded Carnegie Vacation Scholarships to complete research at the Ness of Brodgar and The Cairns.
The Carnegie Trust Vacation Scholarships provide funding for undergraduate students who wish to develop their own research projects over the summer.
Both Gary and Paul submitted their research project design to the Carnegie Trust in February and were accepted last week. Students learn how to manage a research project and prepare for postgraduate study. Students will have the opportunity to see their research results published in academic journals or presented at conferences.
Gary has worked at the Ness of Brodgar as a UHI Archaeology Institute student for the past three years and his research project is examining the spatulate stone tools excavated from the site.
These tools are described as course stone artefacts, but check out the Working Stone website for more details on this category of implement.
Gary explained: “The assemblage at the Ness of Brodgar has not been examined as a group and the more complex examples may be unique to the Ness.
“There are 70+ stone tools that have been labelled as belonging to the stone spatula category and I am going to spend eight weeks completing an assessment, recording and cataloguing them, and determine if they have been found elsewhere locally or in the region.”
There will be a further blog post detailing Paul’s work at The Cairns very soon….it is also very exciting research and ever so slightly different!
Photograph of Gary by kind permission of Woody Musgrove. Check out his website and photographs here. 3D model by kind permission of Dr Hugo Anderson-Whymark. See 258 further models on his Sketchfab site here.
