A team led by University of Glasgow scientists has been awarded a grant worth around £250,000 from Historic Environment Scotland to undertake research on Early Iron Age crannogs on Loch Tay.

Crannogs are a type of ancient loch-dwelling found throughout Scotland and Ireland.

Professor Gordon Cook, Professor of Environmental Geochemistry and Deputy Director of SUERC (Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre), and Dr Derek Hamilton, based at the SUERC Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, will lead the Living on Water project which will develop a social history for Loch Tay in Perthshire, focusing on the crannog dwellers who lived there over 2,500 years ago.

The project will combine state-of-the-art scientific techniques (radiocarbon dating, stable isotope analysis and Bayesian statistical modelling) with more traditional archaeological practice (underwater excavation and environmental analysis).

The project, which will be led by archaeologists and radiocarbon scientists based at SUERC – Professor Cook, Dr Hamilton, Michael Stratigos, and Dr Piotr Jacobsson – will involve partners including The Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology (Dr Nick Dixon), the Scottish Crannog Centre (Barrie Andrian), AOC Archaeology Ltd (Dr Anne Crone), and the Universities of Bradford (Prof. Ian Armit) and Nottingham Trent (Dr Jennifer Miller). The award runs from May 2017 for 36 months.

Divers exiting the water and Prof Cook taking the samples to the shore

First published: 18 July 2017

<< 2017 Jul-Aug


Find out more

Historic Environment Scotland

Scottish Crannog Centre