British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship Award
Dr David Griffiths, Director of Studies in Archaeology, has been awarded a Senior Research Fellowship by the British Academy in conjunction with the Leverhulme Trust.
The award will ensure that Dr Griffiths's departmental duties are covered by a replacement post for the next academic year, allowing him to devote the time to writing up the Birsay-Skaill Landscape Archaeology Project, which he has led since its inception in 2003.
The Birsay-Skaill Landscape Archaeology Project covers a wide stretch of coastal territory in Orkney, northern Scotland. Dr Griffiths and his research team, including current Kellogg D.Phil student Jane Harrison and Bodleian digital map librarian Michael Athanson, have been using a variety of investigative methods to chart the history of human settlement in the area, throughout many centuries of coastal and environmental change.
A detailed account of the project, including excavation reports and photos of 'finds', can be found on our website at: www.conted.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/birsay-skaill/
Dr Griffths said: "I am delighted that the potential of this research has been recognised by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, not just for myself, but for Continuing Education and Kellogg College as well, particularly the students who have participated in our fieldwork over the years".
The highlights of the project have been a new and extensive spread of geophysical survey, and several excavations. The largest and most productive of these has centred on a miraculously-intact Norse longhouse of the 11th century AD, deeply buried under layers of windblown sand.
The Birsay-Skaill Landscape Archaeology Project has research collaborations with various universities in the UK and beyond, and has been funded by Historic Scotland, Orkney Islands Council and private donation. The Senior Research Fellowship is highly competitive, with only a 6% chance of success.
The Department has an extremely strong offering of courses and programmes in Archaeology. For more information, please see: www.conted.ox.ac.uk/archaeology
Published 17 April 2014