With two packed sessions, a sell-out field trip, and one Mr. President, Archaeology is a huge hit at the BSF.
Professor Keith Dobney undertook the role of President of the Anthropology & Archaeology Section at the British Science festival held in Aberdeen last week. He organised the Section’s Presidential Session, entitled “The Northern Past.” On Sunday morning he chaired a series of talks by colleagues in the Archaeology Department (Dr Rick Knecht, Dr Kate Britton and Dr Charlotta Hillerdal) which told a packed audience how archaeologists from the University of Aberdeen are revealing how ancient arctic cultures in Alaska adapted to extreme environments, revealing their life histories, food webs and the direct links between past and present indigenous communities.
Archaeology fans were spoilt for choice as Sunday also featured a workshop session on the Submerged Landscapes of Orkney, run by Caroline Wickham-Jones. Caroline and her team presented the methods they use to study and recreate the submerged seabeds around Orkney, and offered a sneaky-peek into the first results of this fascinating project.
A well-attended Sunday afternoon field-trip (led by other Aberdeen University Archaeologists Dr Jeff Oliver and Dr Gordon Noble) to Bennachie, showcased how our community archaeology project is helping to tell the story of 19th century crofter-colonists who made the hillside their home. As well as being the site of a spectacular Pictish hill fort and alleged battle site of Mons Graupius, one of the bloodiest conflicts of Roman Britain, Bennachie was also the focus of later tension between colonists and local landowners, evidence of which is now being uncovered through a range of archaeological and historical techniques.
Image: The BSF Presidential Medal (sadly, not modelled by Keith!)