Amanda Brend

Amanda works as a Project Officer for Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology. Since completing an undergraduate degree at the University of St Andrews and a postgraduate degree at the University of Glasgow, she has worked on various commercial and research excavations throughout Scotland and northern England, and has excavated extensively in the Northern Isles on a range of sites, dating from the Neolithic to Medieval periods, as well on the community-based SCAPE projects on Unst and Bressay in Shetland. She has experience of a broad range of archaeological skills besides excavation, including archaeological illustration, geophysical survey and air-photo interpretation. Amanda is currently completing a part-time PhD with the University of Durham.

Research Interests

Amanda’s main research interests are the potential of aerial photography for exploring the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age landscapes of eastern Scotland. Through exploring the use of aerial photographs in archaeology she has developed an interest in visual culture in general and the relationship between art, aesthetics and archaeology in particular.

Current Projects

• Forthcoming publication on the excavations of the coastally-eroding Norse to Post-Medieval settlement of Stackelbrae on Eday, Orkney.
• Working towards joint publication of results of the geophysical survey of Orkney’s World Heritage Site.
• Supervisor on the Windwick Bay Landscape Project, South Ronaldsay, Orkney.

External responsibilities and memberships

• Co-organiser of the Scottish Iron Age Matters seminar hosted by Orkney College in October 2008

Recent publications

2010 ‘The role of aerial photographs in the interpretation of Iron Age communities in eastern Scotland’, in Forte, M., Campana, S., & Luizza, C. (eds.) Space, Time, Place: Third International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology, Tirichirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India. BAR International Series 2118, p89-96. Oxford: Archaeopress Ltd.