What animal remains can tell us about life in Viking Age Orkney is the subject of a University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute talk at the Slovenian Science Festival this afternoon.
Cardiff University and the National Museum Wales have a fully funded collaborative doctoral studentship available focusing on human/animal interactions in Wales between AD700-1000.
DNA investigations undertaken on a large collection of whale bone from the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute Iron Age archaeological site of The Cairns, have afforded a glimpse into the complex relationship of Iron Age communities with whales.
Dr Antonia Thomas is a lecturer in archaeology at the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute based in Orkney, Scotland. Antonia’s work focuses on art and archaeology in its broadest sense – from the interpretation of prehistoric art, to the intersections between contemporary art practice and the archaeological imagination.
The University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute is pleased to announce the publication of an important research paper in the Nature Ecology and Evolution journal.
This week, Brenna Frasier from Saint Mary’s University, Nova Scotia and Vicki Szabo from Western Carolina University joined Dr Ingrid Mainland and Martin Carruthers at the UHI Archaeology Institute to examine the collection of whalebone artefacts recovered from The Cairns and Minehowe excavations, Orkney.
Last month we welcomed Justin Ayres, Masters student from Sheffield University, who joined us to work on the Smart Fauna Structure Ten project at the Ness of Brodgar with Dr Ingrid Mainland from the UHI Archaeology Institute.
The excavation at Cata Sand on the island of Sanday in Orkney not only unearthed the remains of Early Neolithic Houses, but also as reported in August, the skeletons of around twelve whales originating in the nineteenth century.
Post-excavation work is progressing well on the whalebone vessel unearthed at The Cairns late last year. The vessel not only contained a human jawbone, but also animal bones, remains of ceramic pots and stone tools.
A key goal for archaeozoology is to define and characterise pastoral farming strategies – how did people in the Middle Iron Age / Viking Late Norse period organise their farming?
