Pupils’ introduction to zooarchaeology at science festival workshops

Monday, September 22, 2025 (12:58 PM)

Katy with pupils from Shapinsay school. (📷 Cat Lennie)

School pupils across Orkney got to grips with some archaeological science during the Orkney International Science Festival, taking part in hands-on workshops led by Katy Firth, Ness of Brodgar Trust education officer, and Cat Lennie of Historic Environment Scotland.

The workshops, titled What Can the Kye Tell Us?, ran from September 4-10 and introduced children to the scientific analysis taking place on the Ness’ cattle remains. Through hands-on activities with cattle bones, lipid absorption, and even play-doh cow teeth, pupils got a taste of different techniques being used.

A tray of cattle teeth. Given their position in a surviving section of Structure Eleven, these were likely to have been attached to the animal's mandible, which has not survived. (Sigurd Towrie) — A tray of cattle teeth from the remains of Structure Eleven at the Ness. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Each session began with a short introduction to the Ness of Brodgar before pupils rotated around three stations.

Bone analysis challenge – measuring cattle bones to calculate the size of the animals. Pupils discovered that some cattle at the Ness were unusually large for the prehistoric period.
Lipids in pots – testing how different fats absorbed into pretend pots, showing how researchers can identify markers from dairy and meats being cooked and served in them.
Isotopes in cows’ teeth – analysing pretend teeth to give a strontium isotope value and using the BGS Isotope viewer to reveal where cattle may have lived and moved during their lifetimes.

Talking bones - pupils from Shapinsay school. (📷 Katy Firth)

Shapinsay pupils with Historic Environment Scotland's Cat Lennie. (📷 Katy Firth)

At the Shapinsay school.

Over five days, the sessions reached over 150 children across the county, including Stronsay, Stromness, Burray, St. Margaret’s Hope, Kirkwall Grammar School and Shapinsay.

In Burray and St Margaret’s Hope, the workshops linked neatly to the school’s project on archaeology, geology and designers, where pupils have been making connections between archaeological sites and modern jewellery design.

Out in Stronsay.

In Stromness Primary School the P7 pupils were joined by class teacher Miss Moss’s father, Brian Moss, a farmer in Holm, who was able to bring the relevance of the workshop’s themes into the 21st century, by explaining how bulls are bought in sometimes from “sooth” to enhance the herd and breed new characteristics into the cattle.

Katy with Helga and Brian Moss and P7 pupils from Stromness Primary School.

At Stromness primary with Holm farmer Brian Moss.

Katy would like to say a huge thank-you to all teachers, pupils and especially to Brian Moss and Cat Lennie for their help with the workshops. She’d also like to thank Professor Ingrid Mainland for the loaning of the cattle bones from UHI Archaeology Institute’s teaching collection.