Becky is the Research Technician for PalaeoHub within the Department of Archaeology. She provides teaching support for all of the Undergraduate and Masters Human osteology and Zooarchaeology practical classes. She helps to enable the smooth running of the PalaeoHub by looking after the labs and teaching rooms.
She also supports departmental research projects including analysing European rat remains for Dr David Orton’s RATTUS project and analysing faunal remains from excavation projects such as Harewood House and Malton Roman Fort.
Main Responsibilities
Research Technician at the PalaeoHub
Teaching support for human osteology and zooarchaeology practical classes
Technician for the PalaeoHub labs
Consultant on zooarchaological projects within the department
Providing technical support for dissertations
Providing key card access
Becky has a BSc in Archaeology from the University of Bradford. Her dissertation reviewed improvements in techniques of age estimation and sex assessment for a collection of human remains from the medieval cemetery of Box Lane, Pontefract.
Following this, she undertook a MSc in Zooarchaeology at the University of York. Her dissertation assessed an assemblage of microfaunal remains from Thaw Head Cave near Ingleton, North Yorkshire, with the aim of enabling both climate and environmental reconstructions of the landscape outside of the cave.
Before taking her current position Becky was the research technician for the POSTGLACIAL project, which involved excavation at Star Carr and Flixton Island in order to investigate the Late Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic landscape in the Vale of Pickering near Scarborough. She started working at Star Carr in 2007 and during the POSTGLACIAL project she was the Finds and Environmental Manager as well as the faunal specialist; analysing the animal remains and writing reports. Becky has also excavated at Flixton School House (2009), also in the Vale of Pickering.
Previous work in archaeology includes a year working for the commercial archaeological company West Yorkshire Archaeological Services (WYAS) based in Morley, Leeds; six months working for the Landscape Research Centre as a commercial archaeologist, and a year work placement as part of her undergraduate programme. The placement was split between the Biological Anthropology Research Centre (BARC), based at the University of Bradford, working with collections of human remains; and the University of York as a consultant Zooarchaeologist under Professor Terry O’Connor.