Professor Ian Ralston

Former research students (first or second supervisor) with whom I am still in touch include:

Kenneth AITCHISON was recently awarded his PhD for his in-depth review of archaeological employment in the UK in the period particularly since c. 1990, a component of the wider studies of archaeological employment at the European level for which he has become well-known. He currently directs his own Sheffield-based consultancy, whilst working part-time as Study Skills Manager for the Institute of Conservation.

Derek ALEXANDER Aspects of the later prehistoric and protohistoric settlement of west central Scotland. M Phil 2003. Derek Alexander is now principal archaeologist with the National Trust for Scotland.

Gordon J. BARCLAY Ph D 2002. Dr Gordon Barclay submitted a portfolio of his publications on the Scottish Neolithic for his doctorate. Having been an Inspector of Ancient Monuments, he held a senior managerial position within Historic Scotland until his recent retirement to allow him to focus on his research interests in the archaeology of the Second World War in Scotland.

Emma R. CARVER The visibility of imported wine and its associated accoutrements in later Iron Age Britain. M Phil 2000. Emma’s thesis was published as BAR Brit Ser 325 in 2001. She in now Head of Interpretation at English Heritage.

Ruby CERON-CARRASCO ‘De iasg agus dhaione’. A study of the utlilization of marine resources as recovered from selected Hebridean archaeological sites. PhD 2002. Ruby has continued to work at postdoctoral level on fish remains and her thesis was published as BAR Brit Ser 400 in 2005. She is now employed by Historic Scotland.

Ciara CLARKE Fungal spores as palaeoenvironmental indicators of anthropogenic activity. Ph D 1995. Dr Clarke now occupies a senior position with the applied company, AOC Archaeology, in Loanhead, Midlothian.

Samantha DENNIS Having been awarded (2008) her doctorate for her thesis on The use of experimental archaeology to examine and interpret Pre-Pottery Neolithic architecture: a case study of Beidha in southern Jordan, Sam now lives and works in Shetland.

Andrew W. HOAEN The use of palynofacies analysis in archaeopalynology. Ph D 2000. Andy has worked for Glasgow University and the Open University notably in SW Scotland and has also undertaken fieldwork, more particularly in the Matterdale area of Cumbria. He now lectures at the University of Worcester.

Mark W. HOLLEY The artificial islets of the central inner Hebrides. Ph D 1998. Mark’s PhD was published as BAR British Series 303 in 2000; he continues to be involved in underwater archaeology in his native Michigan.

Jane KENNEY The beginnings of agriculture in Britain: a critical assessment. Ph D 1993. After a period as a surveyor with RCHME, Jane Kenney has been working as a freelance excavator in Britain and overseas.

R. Celeste RAY Defining and managing a historic landscape: an interpretative approach to Scotland’s battlefields. MSc CRM 1991. Dr Ray completed her PhD at UNC Chapel Hill and is now employed in the Department of Anthropology at Sewanee, the University of the South, Tennessee and has published widely on the Scottish diaspora in the southern United States amongst other topics..

Tanja ROMANKIEWICZ is a conservation architect who obtained her doctorate on the domestic architecture of the Scottish Iron Age (for which I acted as external supervisor) from the Technical University in Berlin in late 2010. It will shortly be published by British Archaeological Reports. She works in Leith for Addyman Archaeology, a division of Simpson and Brown, conservation architects.

Kirsty A. SABINE (Aberdeen M Litt) Kirsty Sabine’s MLitt thesis was on the hut-circle groups of Highland Scotland. Before her untimely death, she ran a small archaeological contracting business in Aberdeenshire.

Adrian TAMS Soil micromorphology of archaeological deposits with particular reference to floor surfaces on settlement sites in the Western Isles, Scotland. Ph D 2003. Adrian went on to a post-doctoral position in Soil Science at Nottingham University.

Jennifer E THOMS Aspects of economy and environment of north west Lewis in the first millennium AD: the non-marine faunal evidence from Bostadh and Beirgh considered within the framework of north Atlantic Scotland. Ph D 2004. Jennifer has taught in the UHI Millennium Institute network, worked for the applied company, AOC Archaeology, and now carries out freelance zooarchaeological work, and authoring archaeological reports.

Graeme WARREN Towards a social archaeology of the Mesolithic in eastern Scotland; landscape, contexts and experience. Ph D 2001. Graeme is now a Lecturer in Archaeology at University College Dublin, and has published volumes on the Mesolithic recently with Tempus.

Jane WEBSTER The identification of ritual in the later Iron Age, with specific reference to selected themes in protohistoric Gaul and Britain. Ph D 1991. Jane, who now teaches at Newcastle University, has published widely on this and related topics.

Shelly WERNER followed her M Phil (2002) on Later Prehistoric Settlement in eastern Scotland north of the Tay; a GIS-based analysis, in 2008 with her Ph D, within the Institute of Geography,  entitled An assessment for the case of shared traditions in the North Channel Region. Recently she has been working for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland before joining CFA Archaeology Ltd.