Archaeology

Students’ ‘roundhouse’ models on display in the Student Research Room

Models produced by students of the Archaeology of Architecture and Space, Place and Time go on display in the Student Study Room. (Published 15 November, 2017)

Roundhouse models in the SRR

It’s a full house in the Student Research Room with a display of models created as part of the courses Archaeology of Architecture (UG) and Space, Place and Time (PG).

The courses teach the study of architectural remains by archaeological means and methods. Students are given an excavated plan – in this case a Roman Iron Age roundhouse at Thainstone in Aberdeenshire (near Inverurie) – and are asked to reconstruct its superstructure, its height, its construction, its materials, its use, and first and foremost test whether this structure actually was a round house or in fact used for something else.

Dr Tanja Romankiewicz, who teaches the courses, said, ‘The results have been amazing – most students interpreted the remains as a house, but we also see a timber circle with ceremonial use, a workshop or a workshop-cum-dwelling.’

‘The results vary in roof height and roof angle, in floor size and spatial organisation, in public and private areas, in materials and construction – they are as complex and varied as they can be – and as they probably were in prehistory.

‘The students’ reconstructions also show how important it is to think and visualize in alternatives, to engage reflectively with the past, by presenting different, often conflicting images - limited only by the students’ own creativity, and their academic rigor of what is possible to extrapolate from the archaeological evidence as preserved.’

The models will be on display in the Student Research Room until 28 November.

View images of the models on display