The main aim of this project is to explore past biodiversity in North-eastern Scotland using metabarcode (e.g., 12S) and metagenomic sequencing of ancient DNA extracted from lake sediments and peat bogs, with special emphasis on the period spanning the 5th to 11th centuries AD (also known as the ‘Dark Ages’). This encompass the Pictish period, which is an emerging research theme in archaeology and paleoenvironmental studies, especially since written historical sources are scarce. The study aligns with ongoing palynological and palaeolimnological research and will provide new insights to the relative abundance of wild and domestic fauna (and possibly floral diversity) across time, which will enable reconstruction of human land-use and long-term impact on native fauna and flora. The study sites will be decided by the student in consultation with the supervisory team, but we envision that the project will generate data from at least five sites.
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