Newsroom University of Swagֱ��

Call for papers: St Helena Research & Innovation online conference

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 12:53:43 +0100

The was officially launched in November 2019. To celebrate its fifth anniversary an online conference will take place on Wednesday 20 November 2024 in collaboration with Swagֱ��. If there is enough interest, this may extend to a second day or half-day on 21st November.

Exploiting the improved internet access made possible by the Equiano undersea cable, this will be our first globally-accessible and multi-disciplinary research conference with a singular focus on St Helena.

We aim to bring together researchers and other key stakeholders based on the island; those who are based off-island but have done research on, or around, St Helena; or research that has been part of wider regional studies that includes St Helena and those who have an interest in finding out more about the research work undertaken to date in this fascinating, historically and environmentally significant location.

Why get involved?

This is an excellent opportunity for those who have conducted research on, or about, St Helena to network with others, and explore the impact of their work and its possible application.

The event will be free to all attendees, and widely publicised on-island and to interested parties and organisations off-island including other British Overseas Territories; institutions, development and other NGOs with a particular interest in St Helena and small island states.

Themes

The conference will be organised around the following broad themes. Each will feature a keynote speaker and then a number of short (15-20 minute) presentations:

Natural sciences, including ecology, earth sciences, biology (terrestrial and marine) and agriculture
St Helena is internationally recognised as a biodiverse landscape of significant value. Yet it faces significant challenges in this regard, battling to sustain its endemic flora and fauna in the face of threats posed by invasive species and possible climate change. Energy, food and water security are also issues of crucial importance.
Humanities, anthropological, historical, and archaeological studies
The island’s colonial history, first under the East India Company, then under British Government rule, is a microcosm of the colonial experience, including its role in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean slave trade.
Contemporary social science, culture and economy
Small island states face distinct economic and social challenges, including declining populations; how to integrate into digitally-driven 21st century economics and business practices; how to leverage new educational opportunities based around distance learning; and so on.
Medical science, health and telemedicine
St Helena has an ageing population, isolated from many medical resources: yet the improvements in communications also open up opportunities in telemedicine and research into the mental and physical health of small, rural communities.

Submissions that may cross different themes are encouraged. The themes are also open to revision: in the you can suggest an alternative theme.

Plenary discussion

A key outcome of the conference is to explore opportunities for interdisciplinary synergies that can create benefits for the sustainable economic and social development of the island. We seek to identify research needs and gaps, and produce a preliminary list of research priorities for St Helena. Each theme, and then the conference as a whole, will therefore conclude with a plenary discussion focused on this agenda.

Submission

Interested presenters, please submit a 250-word abstract using the before Monday, 16 September 2024. Presentations should be around 15 minutes long.

For more information

Contact Rebecca Cairns-Wicks on rebecca.cairns-wicks@sainthelena.edu.sh or Drew Whitworth on drew.whitworth@manchester.ac.uk, telephone +44 7501 963630.

The Past at Their Fingertips – Using the Archaeology Lab for Schools Outreach Activities

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 11:58:33 +0000

Colleagues Sonja Bernhard (TLSE Coordinator) and (Archaeology PhD student) ran an Insight Day giving the year 12 students first-hand experience with the archaeology teaching collection in our archaeology lab. Based upon the success of this event we want to promote our labs for use as an outreach space.

Thursday, 25 January 2024 saw the return of SALC’s popular Insight Days for Year 12 students. 200 students from Sixth Form Colleges across the North West (as far afield as Carlisle and Lancaster in some cases) came onto campus to explore History, English and related disciplines via presentations and hands-on workshops. And it does not get much more hands-on than the ever-popular object handling session in the Archaeology lab!

Every last workbench was filled by students eager to learn from our PhD researcher Jane Barker how to handle ancient artefacts safely and what they can tell us about the people who made and used them. With Archaeology no longer offered at A level, it is ever more important to give students opportunities to explore this discipline and make them understand how it links Humanities with a scientific, lab-based approach.

Jane said:

We plan to show off our lab and include handling sessions at future Insight Days and other school events. They are a vital part of showcasing what makes Archaeology at Swagֱ�� special and unique.

Discovery at Arthur’s Stone led by University of Swagֱ�� team

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 13:29:09 +0100

A team from the universities have been excavating at Arthur's Stone in Herefordshire, and continue to make exciting discoveries at the site, believed to date to 3700BC.

Professor Julian Thomas, Director of Archaeology at the University of Swagֱ��, is leading the project with Professor Keith Ray of Cardiff University. Swagֱ�� colleague Dr Nick Overton is Associate Director.

When asked about the recent work undertaken by the team, Professor Thomas said:

Members of the public are now able to visit the site and see the work undertaken by the team. Since the BBC’s news story regarding the discovery of the cremated remains, the site has become a popular destination for enthusiasts.

Professor Thomas added:

The project is an important research excavation that acts as a training exercise for British and overseas students. As well as academics, the project is staffed by professional archaeologists taking leave of absence from commercial archaeology units, most of whom are graduates from Swagֱ�� and Cardiff. It also brings together 38 current and recently graduated Swagֱ�� students, who are taking Archaeology-related degrees. There were also 10 students from Cardiff University and five students from a variety of American universities.

Faculty of Humanities to host first British Academy lecture

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:18:36 +0000

On Monday, 7 March 2022 the University will welcome David Wengrow FBA, Professor of Comparative Archaeology at University College London.

The lecture, titled ‘For an anthropology and archaeology of freedom’ will draw on Professor Wengrow’s collaboration with the late Professor David Graeber. The lecture will argue the importance of an ethnography of freedom to the foundations of anthropology.

Professors Wengrow and Graeber recently co-authored the New York Times bestselling ‘The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity’.

The public lecture will be followed by an audience Q+A and a drinks reception, all hosted at Alliance Swagֱ�� Business School. Tickets are available to book online:

Ancient bone protein reveals which turtles were on the menu in Florida, Caribbean

Mon, 04 Nov 2019 13:02:04 +0000

Thousands of years ago, the inhabitants of modern-day Florida and the Caribbean feasted on sea turtles, leaving behind bones that tell tales of ancient diets and the ocean’s past.

Now, an international team of scientists led by the University of Swagֱ�� has used cutting-edge analytical technology to analyze ancient proteins from these bones to help identify which turtle species people fished from the ocean millennia ago. This can aid modern conservation efforts by helping construct historical baselines for turtle populations, many of which are now endangered, and illuminate long-term trends of human impacts.

The technique, known as collagen fingerprinting, allows scientists to visualize distinct chemical signatures in collagen, the main structural protein in bone, that are often species-specific. This provides a complementary alternative to comparing specimens’ physical characteristics and analysing ancient DNA, two methods that can be unsuccessful for species identification in fragmented archaeological bones found in the tropics.

Applying collagen fingerprinting to more than 100 turtle samples from archaeological sites up to 2,500 years old, the researchers found that 63% of the collagen-containing bones belonged to green turtles, Chelonia mydas, with smaller numbers of hawksbill turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata, and ridley turtles, Lepidochelys species. Some specimens previously identified as sea turtles from their skeletal features were in fact bones from snapping turtles, terrapins and tortoises.

“This is the first time anyone has obtained species-level information using proteins preserved in archaeological sea turtle bone,” said Virginia Harvey, the study’s lead author and a doctoral researcher in marine biology and zooarchaeology at the University of Swagֱ��. “Our method has allowed us to unlock ancient data otherwise lost in time to see which species of turtle humans were targeting thousands of years ago in the Caribbean and Florida regions.”

Globally, sea turtles have been exploited for millennia for their meat, eggs, shells and other products. Today they face threats from habitat loss or disturbance, poaching, pollution, climate change and fisheries. Only seven species of sea turtle remain, six of which are classified

as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. Gaining a historical perspective on how turtle populations have changed through time is a crucial component of conserving them today, said Harvey.

One of the research team’s initial goals was to discern whether any collagen still survived in the bone remains. In an analysis of 130 archaeological turtle samples, the team was able to detect collagen in 88%.

“We were very impressed with the levels of protein preservation in the turtle bones, some of which are thought to be up to 2,500 years old,” said study co-author Michelle LeFebvre, assistant curator of South Florida archaeology and ethnography at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “The fact we were then able to use the protein signatures for species identification to better understand these archaeological sites was very exciting.”

The team uncovered an unusual chemical signature in a small number of bone samples that could suggest they belong to a different species than those present in our oceans today. But when the researchers attempted ancient DNA analysis on them, they found the material was too degraded.

“Where DNA sequencing can often give more accurate information about species identity, this molecule is very fragile and does not always survive too well in ancient samples from hot, humid climates,” said study co-author Konstantina Drosou, ancient DNA specialist at the University of Swagֱ��.

In contrast, proteins are present in much higher concentrations and therefore more likely to survive in the archaeological record, Drosou adds.

“Proteins are very sturdy molecules,” Harvey continues. “The absence of preserved DNA in these samples means we have not been able to verify whether they represent a new species of sea turtle or not, but it does show us that our work here is far from complete. There is so much that we can still learn from the turtle remains at these sites and beyond.”

Using collagen fingerprinting to correct misidentifications based on physical characteristics was “a nice additional outcome of the study,” said Michael Buckley, senior author and senior research fellow at the University of Swagֱ��.

Susan deFrance, study co-author and professor in the University of Florida department of anthropology, said juvenile sea turtles are often misidentified because they are small and may lack the characteristics used to distinguish adult sea turtle bones.

“This is the first time we have been able to look so specifically into the preferred food choices of the site occupants,” she said. “At the Florida Gulf coast site, they captured a lot of juvenile turtles. The positive species-level identifications of these samples could not have been accomplished without this collagen fingerprinting technology.”

From the same site along Florida’s Gulf Coast, the researchers found green turtle remains in both refuse heaps and mounds, but ridley turtle specimens were only found in mounds, suggesting that they may have been reserved for feasting rituals, said LeFebvre.

“We knew these ancient people were eating sea turtles, but now we can begin to hone in on which turtles they were eating at particular times,” she said. “It’s no different than today—we associate certain foods with certain events. It’s how humans roll.”

The researchers are also eager to continue to apply collagen fingerprinting to further archaeological museum specimens, many of which have yet to be positively identified to species level.

Harvey said she hopes the study inspires further research on sea turtles and other vulnerable and endangered animals.

“Now that this method is available, we hope that biologists, archaeologists and conservationists globally will continue this important work.”

The researchers their findings in Royal Society Open Science.

Casper Toftgaard of the University of Copenhagen and Andrew Kitchener of National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh also co-authored the study.

Funding for the research came from the University of Swagֱ�� and the Royal Society.