University of Edinburgh at the ScARF launch

Since officially starting at Edinburgh at the beginning of January, one of my major tasks has been coordinating the university's stand at the launch of ScARF - the Scottish Archaeological Research Framework, an initiative which highlights current strengths in Scottish archaeological research, and directions for future work. I have learned some valuable lessons from this, firstly that 2 weeks is very little time to coordinate 10 students, produce 10 project flyers and 3 A0 posters, and secondly, no matter how little time you have, never leave printing until the day before, and always get proofs! But, lessons learned (and apologies for spelling some names wrong!), the event yesterday evening went really well, and I was pleased to catch up with many old friends and colleagues. It turns out that I know more people in Edinburgh than I thought!

University of Edinburgh stand at the ScARF launch event

The posters we displayed highlighted all of the postgraduate research in Scottish archaeology in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology. Subjects span early prehistory to the Medieval period, with approaches as diverse as visualisation, ceramic analysis, GIS and osteoarchaeology. It was really interesting to see the range of material that students are working on in the department, and also to have a look at some of the other displays that were on show at the event, which was hosted by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in the Royal Society of Edinburgh building. There is a real sense of heritage and its importance here that is very energising, and much potential for collaboration between academia and other parts of the heritage sector that is very exciting.

I highly recommend having a look at the ScARF website - although it is focused on Scottish archaeology, it also has a wealth of background information on cutting edge archaeological science, and the suggestions made for future research are widely applicable outside Scotland as well. And of course, there's all the info on Scottish archaeology! The more I get involved the more I am becoming fascinated by this. It is especially relevant to my work at York on Neolithic Grooved Ware, which actually originated in Orkney. Hopefully more of that to come in future!