Another UHI alumni is bound for pastures new, with Sue Dyke awarded a prestigious studentship to begin a PhD at the University of St Andrews in January next year.
Highlighting that there’s much more to archaeology than trowels and excavation, Sue has focused on palynology – the study of pollen to reconstruct a landscape’s former vegetation.
One of our introductory courses piqued Sue’s interest in archaeology, but it was a lecture by Associate Professor Scott Timpany that introduced her to pollen analysis.
As a result, she began her BSc (Hons) Archaeological Science in 2018 and graduated with a first-class degree in 2022. It was during her undergraduate studies that Scott invited students to get in touch it they wanted to do some palaeoenvironmental lab work. Sue volunteered and was instantly hooked!
“Scott and Martin Carruthers offered to support me in a project to reconstruct the landscape around The Cairns excavation site in South Ronaldsay and that’s what really set me on my current path,” she explained.
“At first, I was slightly disappointed that the cores from around Windwick contained no Iron Age sediment. The top of the core I worked on, the ‘youngest’ part, dated to the Mesolithic and the bottom dated to 18500BCE!
“But that in itself turned out to be very exciting and really poured fuel on the fire of my enthusiasm.”
She went on to secure funding from the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland to carry out a pollen analysis associated with an Iron Age marsh fort as part of the Tarradale Through Time community archaeology project near Muir of Ord.
Sue’s undergraduate dissertation used fine-resolution pollen analysis, supported by archaeological survey and historical documentary evidence, to investigate the land-use, economy, and environmental impact of postmedieval shielings at Braehour, Caithness.
It earned her the UHI’s Best Undergraduate Archaeology Dissertation Prize and the 2022 John Evans Masters Dissertation Prize. She presented her research at the 2021 Highland Archaeology Festival and as an Instagram poster at the Post-Medieval Archaeology Congress 2022.
In February 2023, Sue began her Masters by Research (MRes) degree.
Sponsored by the Ness of Brodgar Trust, and supervised by Associate Professor Scott Timpany, and Assistant Professor Michelle Farrell (Coventry University) and Professor Jane Bunting (University of Hull), Brave New World: a palaeoecological investigation into Neolithic human-environment interactions on Ness of Brodgar Isthmus, Orkney explored the impact of prehistoric communities on the environment around the Loch of Stenness, Orkney.
Analysing pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs) and microscopic charcoal in sediment cores, taken from the Loch of Stenness by the Rising Tides project in 2014, the goal was to reconstruct the vegetation around the Ness of Brodgar peninsula from c.43000 cal BC to 2000 cal BCE.
Her research focused on two important transition periods – the Late Mesolithic to Early Neolithic (c. 4300 to 3300 cal BCE), when the Ness complex was becoming established, and Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age (2600 to 2000 cal BCE), the period after the decline and disuse of the site.
Earlier this year, Sue secured funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) for her PhD, awarded through IAPETUS doctoral training partnership for environmental and earth sciences.
Based at St Andrews, Durham and the Cairngorms National Park, her research project is entitled Transforming landscapes: the role of large herbivores in Holocene ecosystem dynamics.
She explained: “The first stage will be designing a technique – using pollen, dung fungal and faecal lipid biomarker analysis – to study not just the presence, but intensity, of grazing in past landscapes. Then it will be on to using that technique to study grazing intensity and the effect of that on Neolithic, Bronze Age and Clearance landscapes.
“The project will involve working with agencies, landowners, and the public within the Cairngorms National Park to raise awareness of the usefulness of this kind of palaeoecological analysis, with results being used for present and future conservation and rewilding.”
Looking forward to starting her next phase of study, Sue said: “The UHI Archaeology Institute has been the launching pad for my interest in archaeology and gave me experiences I had only ever dreamed before.
“My time there allowed me to develop a knowledge base I wouldn’t have thought possible at the start of my learning journey. I’m especially indebted to Associate Professor Scott Timpany for providing the opportunity to ‘discover’ environmental archaeology, and for the considerable time, expertise and effort he’s given me personally, and his other students, which allowed me to develop my interest, knowledge and experience in the discipline. I certainly wouldn’t be heading down the road to St Andrews without that support and encouragement.
“I’ve had the most glorious seven years in Orkney and while I’m eager to embrace the next chapter of my academic adventure, leaving the islands, colleagues and friends will be bittersweet. I hope I’m not saying goodbye, but rather ‘see you later’.”
“It has been a great pleasure to have helped Sue on her academic journey towards gaining the opportunity to study for a PhD in palaeoecology at St Andrew’s University with a brilliant team headed by Dr Althea Davies.” said Associate Professor Scott Timpany.
“Sue has done brilliantly well not only in her studies at UHI, highlighted by winning the prestigious John Evan’s Prize for her Undergraduate dissertation, but also in looking beyond her studies to seek additional pots of funding that have enabled her to broaden her research opportunities and gain further experience in pollen analysis.
“All of these experiences will benefit Sue as she goes onto undertake some really innovative research at St Andrews”.
If, like Sue, you are interested in studying Environmental Archaeology at the University of the Highlands and Islands keep your eye out for our new Environmental Archaeology MSc programme that begins in September 2025 as well our BA (Hons) and BSc (Hons) Archaeology degrees.
