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Showing posts from 2018

Earthslides lab - the final stages!

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It's been a frustratingly long process, but we have finally been given an end date for the set up of the new Earthslides lab at Newcastle - I am pleased to say that it will be up and running by the 22nd December. I started discussions about acquiring Earthslides way back at the end of 2017, when previous owner Julie Boreham announced her retirement. It wasn't until April that I mentioned this on my blog, which is about the time it took to put forward a proposal to the university to purchase the equipment/business, and to secure the funding. After getting an agreement in principle the next major hurdle was finding a space to house the new lab. Space is always an issue, but we managed to find a room in the same building as our existing Wolfson lab , which is ideal. However, as the room was currently a tea room/storage area, it has required a complete refurbishment to make it suitable to use as a lab, hence the rather long delay in the whole process. I have never been in a pos

Conferences and interviews

For the past year I've been involved in the organisation of the 5th biennial  Landscape Archaeology Conference , which is being held this week at Newcastle and Durham. It's a step up from organizing DIG2017 last year , which had around 100 participants, compared to LAC's estimated 300. The timing has been rather unfortunate for a number of reasons. Firstly my pregnancy, which means I was unable to attend the drinks reception at the wonderful Wylam Brewery . I love this venue and have been trying to get an event organised here for ages, so am a bit gutted I missed out on it. There are many people I would have liked to catch up with, including plenary speaker Dr Nicki Whitehouse . But the main reason I've been absent from LAC is that I had another important event this week - an interview for an ERC consolidator grant , which happened to clash with the full day Geoarchaeology and Landscape session I was supposed to be co-chairing at LAC. Many thanks to Dr John Blong for

My first video conference presentation - EAA Barcelona 2018

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Following on from my previous post , I am disappointed I couldn't go to Barcelona in person for the European Association of Archaeologists conference last week. The EAA itself is one of the few chances I get to meet up with European colleagues and friends in person, and Barcelona is one of my favourite cities. On the plus side, it did give me the opportunity to learn how to make a video presentation. It turns out my beloved Surface tablet has a bells and whistles version of PowerPoint that lets you record your presentation with video and sound all in one go, and export it as an MP4. The presentation focused on pilot studies I have been leading as part of a Wellcome Trust seed award in Humanities and Social Sciences, to test the feasibility of applying various civil engineering methods to an archaeological settlement, and building a network of researchers in Turkey and Europe. Pilot studies are fantastic as a 'proof of concept' to justify full scale studies, but also in som

Two tales of being #pregnantinthefield

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I am a big fan of keeping my personal and professional life separate, and so have debated whether to blog about this. But I figured it might be helpful for other female researchers, and it's cathartic, so here we go. I had my first child in 2013. Aside from a week long bout of morning sickness at the beginning, the pregnancy was straightforward and I felt pretty good throughout it. I carried on with fieldwork and other physical activities, including a road trip from Florida to Oregon that included hiking around various national parks when I was about 7 months pregnant.  I was determined not to let being pregnant change my life in any way, and to carry on as normal. I wasn't trying to prove anything, I just like being busy and active. The actual birth was ok too, if not entirely straight forward (definitely not going to blog the details of that particular experience...). There were some complications but I recovered quickly and was out in the field again with a not-quite-2 mo

Funding opportunities for Archaeology ECRs in the UK

Following a discussion elsewhere on the interwebs, I thought it might be useful to create a list of postdoc funding opportunities in the UK, distinguishing between those which are open to UK, EU and international applicants. All of these fund various aspects of archaeology, though some are more geared towards science than others so you will need to make sure your topic fits the remit. Having been a reviewer for several postdoc applications, I should emphasise that all of these are extremely competitive, and the best thing you can do to increase your chance of success is to have a plan for building your CV during your PhD, beyond the 'minimum' requirements. For all of these awards the criteria center on supporting individuals who show ability to become independent researchers, and that means you have to provide evidence that you are heading in that direction. So what sort of evidence are reviewers looking for? This includes most obviously, making sure that you have published

New BSc Archaeology programme at Newcastle!

Exciting news from Newcastle today - the proposal I have been working on for over a year, for a new BSc Archaeology degree, was approved today (pending some minor paperwork tweaks). I am really excited about this - it is something I have wanted to do since I started at Newcastle, and it's been hard work getting all the paperwork in place, but it has paid off, and fingers crossed is the first step in broadening our archaeological science teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, in line with our expanding research profile in this area. Newcastle is actually quite unusual, being one of the only Russell Group universities not to offer  both a BA and BSc in Archaeology. Archaeology is one of those truly interdisciplinary subjects that places emphasis on both science and humanities, and students usually have the option to focus their skills in either area. Since I joined Newcastle I have developed a number of new 'science' based modules in environmental and geoarcha

Getting ready for fieldwork

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It feels like this year has gone by even quicker than usual, and it is a bit surreal that I'm gearing up to head back out on fieldwork already. I had actually told myself that I would not do any fieldwork this year, and spend more time in the lab instead, but plans change and a couple of opportunities came up than I couldn't refuse! Last year blog readers will remember I went to Olynthos in Greece to collect some pilot samples for a new project, looking at use of space within this ancient Greek settlement. It was the first time I had been to Greece, and the project itself is fascinating - lots of mudbricks to excite the geoarchaeologists among you. Earlier this year I was delighted that we successfully applied for funding for a PhD studentship from the AHRC Northern Bridge consortium , and Mara Lou Schumacher will be joining Newcastle later this year to work on the Olynthos material, co-supervised by Prof. Lisa Nevett at Michigan . So I'll be heading back to Olynthos later

Phytolith mystery!

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One of the nicest things about my job is hearing about the successes of past students. It makes me genuinely happy to see students with enthusiasm and passion for environmental archaeology go on to build successful careers. I taught my first postgraduate students during my time at Edinburgh back in  2013, and they are all doing so well. One recently finished a PhD and gained a great postdoctoral position, another is on track to finish their PhD very soon and has recently published their first paper, and another has a fantastic job as a research technician in a top environmental archaeology lab. I had an email from the latter recently regarding the identification of some unknown phytoliths. They appear to be generic grass long cells, but have odd striations that I have never seen before. The striations are all in the same direction - could this be an artefact of processing or is it surface decoration? I am not sure about surface decoration, it looks a bit too regular. has anyone seen an

Comparing multiple biomarkers

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This year has been very productive from a research perspective. We are at the point of the NERC project where all the results are starting to come in , and it has made me remember the excitement of doing research, rather than the headache of applying for grants and all the admin associated with a complex international project. The postdoc team, Dr John Blong and Dr Helen Whelton , are in Copenhagen this week, collecting the final set of samples for the project, currently archived at the University of Copenhagen's Centre for Geogenetics . Up until now we have been working on samples from the archive in Oregon, and samples we collected during our fieldwork. The samples at Copenhagen are some of the most important from Paisley Caves, the ones that provide the earliest occupation dates from the site, that were found to contain human aDNA. By applying lipid biomarker analysis to these samples, we will be able to compare the DNA and lipid results, something I have been keen to do from a

Micrograph of the Month: Inclusions in omnivore coprolite

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I am so happy that I've actually managed to get some microscope work done over the past couple of weeks. It feels like forever since I had the time to do any lab work, or spend time looking down the microscope. Even on my research leave, I have been so busy writing papers and grant applications that microscope time has taken a back seat. I am currently working on the 30 or so slides we collected as part of a NERC project at Paisley Caves in Oregon . This week I have been focusing on characterising the different types of faeces that are found in the sediments. There are lots of different types - rat and bat dung , ovicaprid type pellets, and of most interest of course, the potential human coprolites. I say potential, as we can't know for sure if they are human without conducting additional biomolecular analysis , but the pictures below show a likely human candidate. In any case we can say that it is omnivore coprolite, containing both digested bone fragments and plant tissues. T

NERC project conference and seminar presentations

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Go team! There was liberal use of the poop emoji. The blog has been quiet this year, but there is lots to report. As well as the announcement of the Earthslides relocation to Newcastle , our NERC project is now a few months into its second year , and we are beginning to see results from all the hard work that the lab team have been doing. Back in April project research associates Dr John Blong and Dr Helen Whelton gave presentations on the palaeoecological analyses and faecal lipid residue work respectively, at the Society for American Archaeology conference in Washington DC. The papers were part of a session we organised on Coprolite Research: Archaeological and Palaeoenvironmental Potentials. Despite being amusingly puntastic, the session really highlighted how coprolites are an extremely important archive of information, despite the fact they are often dismissed in archaeological analyses. I was also very proud to see geoarchaeology PhD student Alicia Sawyer give a great pr

Micrograph of the Month: Mixed fuels

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It's been too long since I've looked at any new thin section samples, but today I had the chance to look at some new stuff from Catalhoyuk . Here are some lovely mixed fuel deposits from an external area, showing A. wood charcoal (Quercus?), with microcharcoal and phytoliths from grasses and sedges. B. is a close up of the ash to try and show some of the phytoliths but it is hard to get a good photo in focus even though the slide is only 30 microns thick. Probably redeposited given the random orientation of the phytoliths.

Earthslides @ Newcastle!

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I have been meaning to write this post for a while, but have been busy behind the scenes sorting out all the logistics. Finally I can announce that Earthslides is to be relocated at Newcastle, as a new facility within the McCord Centre . After many years providing one of the best thin section processing services in the world (seriously!), Earthslides owner Julie Boreham is retiring in June. We have been in discussions since last year about Newcastle taking over the facility. The whole process has taken up a large part of the past year for me, from getting permission from the university, securing the funding to purchase the equipment, to finding a space at the university to put it in (harder than you could ever imagine!), to finally this morning, our first meeting with estates to assess the new space and go over the requirements for getting it refitted. This has been a long term dream of mine - setting up my own micromorphology lab, where we can train researchers and develop amazing c

The role of luck in an academic career

Hello blogging friends, and apologies yet again for the lack of updates. Did I mention that I was on sabbatical at the moment? You would think this would mean more time to do blogging, but in fact it has been a whirlwind of catch up for the NERC and Wellcome Trust projects, both of which have gone amazingly well and have produced some really exciting results. So I've been busy working with the team to start writing up results, presenting at conferences, and crucially, applying for more grants to keep the research going (and keep everyone employed...). Tangentially related to this is some good news - firstly, I passed my 2 year probation period at Newcastle (I've been here 2 years and 7 months now), and in the same week, I also found out I am being promoted to Senior Lecturer. Hurray! I think the 2 grants went a long way towards getting that promotion. And this is where luck yet again plays a role in an academic career, even after getting over the many hurdles it takes to actua

EGU Imaggeo winner!

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What better way to start the new year than with a post on a small but satisfying achievement. Last year I was contacted by the EGU (|European Geosciences Union) about featuring a photograph of mine on their blog series . The EGU have an open access image repository where you can upload geoscience themed photographs for reuse. They chose a photo of mine that is actually quite old - I uploaded it in 2010, and it was taken in 2007. At the end of 2017 they had a competition to vote for the top 12 images of the year, and it turns out that my photograph was selected . Some of the samples I collected during that trip have been featured on thin section of the month . This was actually the second time I visited Fiji, the first being for my undergrad dissertation around 2003 . I visited with the same team in 2007, scouting out potential postdoc projects. It unfortunately never got off the ground but I still have those ideas in the back of my mind, maybe some day I will get back there. As you