Congratulations Dr Johnson…

Tuesday, February 19, 2019 (10:11 AM)

Dr Martha Johnson with a piece of Lewissian Gneiss recovered from the site.

All the team at the Ness would like to send our congratulations to our resident geologist, who has been awarded her PhD.

Dr Martha Johnson has worked at the Ness for several years now and her thesis was entitled Rock matters: A geological basis for understanding the rock at the Ness of Brodgar.

Dr Johnson is originally from Virginia, on the east coast of the US, and her research was supervised by staff at the UHI Archaeology Institute. She undertook the viva for her thesis with Professors Colin Richards, of the UHI, and Gabriel Cooney, from Dublin, in August last year.

Ness director Nick Card said: “Martha’s thesis is a brilliant piece of work that will have implications for work at any archaeological excavation.

“We have been very fortunate to have had our own personal geologist working on site, which has given us an unparalleled insight into the stone used to construct this 5,000-year-old complex — undoubtedly the biggest component of the Ness excavations.”