MRes – Master of Research
The MRes (Archaeology) degree offers students the opportunity to develop their interests in a wide range of topics. from prehistory through to Viking, later Medieval and Contemporary archaeology, including those within the area of archaeological science.
It is designed for students who wish to develop research topics and skill in preparation for PhD research, as well as those who wish to enhance their existing research skills and experience through a substantial piece of independent research.
MRes students will have access to specialist laboratories and equipment, with archaeological fieldwork benefiting from a wide range of excavation and survey equipment and state-of-the-art geophysics equipment and software.
PhD – Doctor of Philosophy
A PhD is a high level, globally-recognised qualification, rooted in original research and is rigorous and demanding. Most students are passionate about their area of interest and pursue a PhD as a result of their academic curiosity and desire for research excellence.
A PhD will typically take three to four years of full-time study, or five to six years of part-time study.
Research at the UHI Archaeology Institute
Research at the UHI Archaeology Institute falls within the following themes:
- Environment and Landscape
- North Atlantic Communities
- Prehistories
- Archaeology for the Future
Cross-cutting: sustainability; Islands and Coastal; Heritage Management; Art/Archaeology
Our staff would welcome proposals for postgraduate research in the following areas:
- Burial archaeology
- Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age Scotland
- Cultural Heritage Management – global
- Climate change and Heritage
- Islands Archaeology, including Polynesia
- Mammalian and avian zooarchaeology – traditional, biomolecular and histological approaches
- Animals in the Viking and Norse world
- The archaeology of food, fodder and commensality
- Agro-pastoralism in northern latitudes
Associate Professor Scott Timpany
- Intertidal archaeology and submerged landscapes
- Ancient/Native woodlands of the British Isles and Ireland
- Woodland management and charcoal production (prehistoric to recent)
- Prehistoric to Post-Medieval Agricultural Practices
- Landscape reconstruction and human agency
- The relationship between art and archaeology
- Contemporary archaeology and heritage
- Graffiti and mark-making practices
Antonia is also available to supervise MRes/PhD by Creative Practice on an art/archaeology topic through our partners at the Centre for Island Creativity. For more information please contact Malcolm Innes at UHI Shetland: malcolm.innes@uhi.ac.uk.
- Archaeology of medicine
- Human remains as artefacts
- Forensic archaeology
- Archaeobotanical interpretation of economy and subsistence
Dr Clea Paine
- Soil micromorphology
- Geoarchaeology
- Human-environment interaction; hunter-gatherers/mobility in climatic and environmental context
- Climate of the last glacial cycle; climatic contexts for human dispersals
- Landscape change and geomorphology
- Zooarchaeology (particularly fish, marine shells and/or marine mammals)
- Human diet in the later medieval and post-medieval periods (interdisciplinary project, involving history and archaeology)
- Post-medieval whaling and sealing
- Medieval and later landscapes of belief and identity in the Scottish Northern Isles
- Maritime pilgrimage in the North Atlantic
- Church archaeology in the Highlands and Islands
- Historical Archaeology research with a focus on combining place-names, folklore, archival sources with landscape archaeology
- The Northern Isles in the early modern period
- British Mesolithic material culture
- Prehistoric osseous technologies
- The contemporary archaeology/politics of prehistory
- Creative approaches to sound in archaeology
- Later prehistoric landscapes in northern Scotland
- The use of experiential and artistic practices in landscape archaeology
- The integration and interpretation of remote sensing and geophysical survey data
- Landscape approaches to the archaeology of memory and memorialisation
- Visualisation of archaeological landscapes
- Contemporary or historical sociolinguistics of Scandinavia or Scotland
- Communication and interpretation of heritage
- Contemporary public engagement with heritage and archaeology, public history, public archaeology, tourism
- Runic inscriptions
Contact Professor Jane Downes to discuss your ideas (jane.downes@uhi.ac.uk).