University of the Highlands and Islands graduate Katie Joss has been awarded the Highland Society of London Prize by the university for her research into diet in post-medieval Orkney.
The award follows Katie being named UHI Orkney’s Student of the Year earlier this year. Katie completed her BSc (Hons) Archaeological Science earlier this year.
Her dissertation – Faunal Remains and Historical Narratives: An Investigation of Post-Medieval Diet Within Northern Scotland: Putting the Evidence from Skaill, Rousay in Context. – analysed more than 2,300 animal bone fragments from Skaill, Rousay, to investigate diet and how people obtained their food between the 17th and 19th centuries.
Combining archaeological evidence with historical records, her research revealed a subsistence economy centred around products obtained from living animals, including significant evidence for dairying, supplemented by locally processed meat and the intensive exploitation of local marine resources.
The quantity of rabbit remains was particularly significant, suggesting that rabbits played a greater role in the local diet than previously recognised.
Katie said: “It is a huge honour to have been selected to win this year’s Highland Society of London Prize, for my dissertation.
“This achievement would not have been possible without the support that I have received from my lecturers, family, friends and fellow students. However, particular thanks must go to my dissertation supervisor, Dr Julia Cussans, for her support and guidance over the last year, which has allowed me to produce a piece of work deemed worthy of such an award.”
The Highland Society of London is a charity founded in 1778 to promote and support the traditions and culture of the Scottish Highlands.
The Highland Society of London Prize, awarded by UHI, recognises the undergraduate dissertation of the year in the university’s Humanities and Gaelic subject network on a Highlands and Islands theme. Eligible students are nominated by programme leaders, with dissertations addressing a social, cultural, environmental or historical aspect of the region.
