Yorkshire Philosophical Society awards prizes for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Dissertations
Last week, in the Tempest Anderson Theatre at the Yorkshire Museum, the Yorkshire Philosophical Society presented dissertation prizes to our undergraduate and postgraduate students
The YPS is a charitable learned society dating back to the 1820s, founded to support understanding of the natural and social sciences. The history and archaeology of York have always been central to the Society's interests, and they have offered support for our students for many years now.
The society sponsors two prizes for our students. The Charles Wellbeloved Prize is awarded in memory of the society's Honorary Curator of Antiquities between 1823 and 1858 (a period that oversaw the opening of the Yorkshire Museum). Wellbeloved was an important figure in the early study of York's history and archaeology, overseeing for instance excavations in the cloister of St Mary's Abbey.
The award is presented to the best undergraduate presentation on an archaeological subject that year. This year, it was jointly awarded to two students:
- Andrew Hill, for “Landscape Dominance in Archaeology and the Historic Environment”
- Jacob Laughton, for “Ships of the Desert. Reconstructing Camel Husbandry Regimes in Southwest Asia Using Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotope Analysis”
The Society were delighted that Jacob was able to attend and receive his award in person, and to tell us a little bit about his project.
The Herman Ramm Memorial Award is awarded by the Society to perpetuate the memory of Herman Ramm OBE, MA, FSA (1922-91), who spent his career with the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments in York, making particular contributions to our understanding of the city's Roman archaeology. It is awarded to the postgraduate student in the Department of Archaeology at the University of York who has submitted the best dissertation on an archaeological subject during the year.
This year, the prize went to Marcie Weeks, for 'Respect your elders: Formulating a new funerary archaeological approach to identifying the elderly and assessing attitudes towards the aged in Anglo Saxon England'
Presentations were made by Steve Ashby on behalf of the society, followed by a lecture on 'Artefactual geographies of the Viking world', which appropriately enough highlighted the work of a number of our other undergraduate, masters and PhD students.
Congratulations to all our award winners, and many thanks to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for their continued support of our students' work.