EAA STUDENT AWARD 2015



The European Association of Archaeologists awards the 2015 Student Award of the European Association of Archaeologists to Patrycja Kupiec for her paper The geoarchaeological quest for shielings in Scotland and Iceland. This paper presents the results of the author’s micromorphological analyses of floor deposits from four sampled medieval sites in the Outer Hebrides and Iceland ― intended to help determinate the status of these places as either seasonally occupied shielings or perennially occupied farms. Thin, periodic occupation surfaces, separated by accumulations of aeolian sand and silt, were identified. These are interpreted as evidence of periods of intermittent occupation, separated by abandonment phases. Comparison of the results also highlights the complex depositional history of shielings, with shifts in the duration and nature of their occupation. This research represents an innovative scientific contribution to the study of historic transhumance in general and of shieling economies in the North Atlantic region in particular. The paper is very well written, with the research problem, methodology, and valid, cost-effective, results, all clearly defined and presented. Overall, this is a study that has the potential to be of international interest.

The European Association of Archaeologists awards special commendation to Christine Cave  for her paper Out of the cradle and into the grave: The children of Anglo-Saxon Great Chesterford, Essex;  and to Alex Davies for his paper Forgetting and Remembering in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age of Southern Britain: Personhood, Identity and Ancestors.

We would like to thank the sponsors of the EAA 2015 Student Award who kindly donated book vouchers worth GBP 1,000:

Archaeolingua

Cambridge University Press

Left Coast Press

Oxbow Books

Oxford University Press

Springer

Thames and Hudson