Current Position
I am an archaeobotanist and environmental archaeologist, and my research focuses on the archaeology of Scotland, North-West Europe and the North Atlantic islands. I am particularly interested in hunter-gatherer plant use, the changing nature of people-plant interactions during the transition from hunter-gathering to agriculture, and changing agricultural practices in relation to climate, environmental and social change.
I’m currently Associate Professor in Palaeobotany at the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger in Norway. I analyse archaeobotanical remains from the museum’s excavations, which date from the Mesolithic to the Medieval period, and research hunter-gatherers and early farmers in Scotland, Norway and the wider North-West European/North Atlantic region. In 2024-2025 I will lead a research project at the Centre for Advanced Study in Oslo (‘Climate, Crops, and Crisis? Examining Agricultural Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change in Prehistory’) which will examine the resilience of prehistoric farmers to climate deterioration in early prehistory (https://cas-nor.no/project/climate-crops-and-crisis). I co-lead the FRONTIERS research group/programme area at the University of Stavanger (with Dr Daniel Fredh, University of Stavanger) (https://www.uis.no/nb/frontiers).
I am actively involved in several ongoing excavation and post-excavation projects in Scotland. For example, I am the archaeobotanist for the early Neolithic settlement at the Braes of Ha’Breck, Orkney where an internationally important assemblage of cereal grain was uncovered spread across a house floor (excavations directed by Dr Antonia Thomas and Dan Lee, UHI, Orkney, UK; see http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/orkneys-first-farmers.htm) and I am collaborating with Prof. Mike Church (Department of Archaeology, Durham University) and Prof. Darren Gröcke (Earth Sciences and the Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory, Durham University: https://sites.google.com/view/siblgrocke/home) on the stable isotope analysis of the archaeobotanical remains from this important assemblage. I collaborate with Prof. Graeme Warren (School of Archaeology, UCD) on excavations of hunter-gatherer sites in Glen Dee in the Cairngorms (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gm5xdz; https://www.digitscotland.com/archaeology-covering-6000-years-of-scotlands-past-attracts-thousands-this-summer/), and with Prof. Steven Mithen (Department of Archaeology, University of Reading) on post-excavation work for the Mesolithic site at Rubha Port an t-Seilich, Islay. Together with Dr Scott Timpany (Institute of Archaeology, UHI), Nick Card (Director of the Ness of Brodgar) and Anne Mitchell (Ness of Brodgar Senior Project Officer), I co-supervise Sarah-Jane Haston (https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/fuel-burning-structure-eight/), a PhD student at the University of the Highlands and Islands, who is analysing archaeobotanical remains from the internationally important Neolithic site at the Ness of Brodgar (https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk).
Previous positions and research
I completed my Arts and Humanities Research Council funded PhD research on Mesolithic-Neolithic plant use in Scotland in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University, UK in 2013. I was subsequently employed as a Post-doctoral Research Associate for the Uig Landscape Project in the same department, as well as conducting research and contract work on various archaeobotanical projects.
As part of my doctoral research, I co-directed small-scale excavations of the first Mesolithic site discovered in the Western Isles, at Northton, Harris, and was a key member of the team discovering a further four sites: Temple Bay, Harris, Tràigh na Beirigh I and II and Pabaigh Mòr on Lewis (PI and co-director Prof. Mike Church, Durham University, UK: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1607325/; https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1606549/). I also conducted post-doctoral research on the Mesolithic plant remains from the site at Northton as part of a University College Dublin (PI: Prof. Graeme Warren, UCD, Ireland) funded project to investigate the importance of edible roots and tubers in hunter-gatherer subsistence.
From 2016-2018, I was an Irish Research Council Post-doctoral Fellow in the School of Archaeology at UCD in Dublin, Ireland (research mentor: Prof. Graeme Warren). My research project used novel laboratory and field experiments to elucidate the major preservation biases and taphonomic processes affecting different plants in Mesolithic-Neolithic archaeobotanical assemblages in North-West Europe.
In 2019, I returned to Durham University to conduct archaeobotanical research on a Mesolithic-Neolithic transition site on Shetland at West Voe (PI: Prof. Mike Church, Durham University) and on a project using stable isotope techniques on modern and archaeological hazelnuts to assess past diets and soil health in North-West Europe (PI: Prof. Mike Church, Durham University, with Prof. Darren Gröcke, Earth Sciences). I also conducted research on the archaeobotanical report for Balbridie, an early Neolithic site in Aberdeenshire which produced one of the largest Neolithic assemblages of cereals in Britain (PI: Prof. Ian Ralston, University of Edinburgh). A paper on the stable isotope results from Balbridie and 3 other Scottish Neolithic sites is published in Antiquity (https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2022.107). I was a member of the European Land-use Group which formed part of the PAGES LandCover6K project (http://pastglobalchanges.org/ini/wg/landcover6k/intro). The PAGES LandCover6K project aimed to link land cover (pollen) data and land use data (archaeological, historical) to generate maps to inform models of climate change.
From 2013-2020, I also conducted archaeobotanical research on a number of other prehistoric sites in the UK, including Mesolithic samples from Geldie Burn, Cairngorms for Prof. Graeme Warren (UCD, School of Archaeology), Cramond, Edinburgh for John Lawson (City of Edinburgh Council Archaeology Service), and Flixton House School, North Yorkshire for Dr Barry Taylor (University of Chester), as well as Viking/Norse samples from Iceland (Aðalstræti, Reykjavík and Gásir in Northern Iceland) for the Icelandic Institute of Archaeology in Reykjavík.
In 2020, I moved to the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger in Norway to take up my current position.
Rosie Bishop 