john.preston(at)ed.ac.uk
@john_docksp
I’m a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh. The title of my PhD is “The Geomorphology of Vikings and Medieval Harbours in the North Atlantic”. A broad title, I know, but it has allowed me a great deal of freedom to explore the seemingly separate disciplines of coastal geomorphology and archaeology and finds synergies in them to explore research questions pertinent to both. I’m in my 4th year of PhD at the School of Geosciences, in furious write-up mode after spending a couple of enjoyable summers collecting data in Shetland, Iceland and Greenland. The Vikings really knew how to get about.
No Vikings here.
My thesis is part of the Harbours In The North Atlantic 800 – 1300AD project, a multidisplinary project dedicated to identifying lost harbour sites and explaining their abandonment through use of archaeological investigations, geomorphological survey, written sources and topographic mapping of navigational aids (landmarks, cairns et cetera). Some splendid blurb about the details of my project is here, on the Harbours website.
Photography
I’m also an extremely amateur photographer, and enjoy such bizarre pursuits as sneaking into abandoned places and taking pictures, as well as other subject matters. This site’ll also have a selection of those lying around the place. Regardé:
King of a Ruined Empire.
SCIENCE FROM HIGH LATITUDES 