My research focuses on the archaeobotany and environmental archaeology of Scotland, Norway, North-West Europe and the North Atlantic islands (Atlantic Scotland, Faroes, Iceland, Greenland). My main research interests are hunter-gatherer plant use, the changing nature of the relationship between people, plants and their environment during the transition to farming in North-West Europe, and understanding changing agricultural practices in relation to climate, environmental and social change in the past. I am also interested in adaptations to challenging environments in the past (e.g. mountains, islands, marginal environments) and the environmental consequences of the spread of agriculture across the North Atlantic islands from prehistory to the Viking-Norse periods.
Main Research interests:
- Archaeobotany: continuity and change in crop production, land use, wild plant gathering, use of fuels and human-environment interactions
- Mesolithic and Neolithic archaeology: hunter-gatherer and early farmer economies, hunter-gatherer plant use, changing agricultural practices, speed and nature of the transition to agriculture, adaptations to challenging environments and climate change
- Archaeobotanical taphonomy and experimental archaeology
- Role, potential and issues with the use of archaeological data to inform current and future responses to climate/environmental change
Rosie Bishop 