Dr Lindsey Buster

Lindsey studied at University College London (2003-2006; BSc), the University of York (2006-2007; MA) and the University of Bradford (2009-2012), where she completed her PhD on Iron Age roundhouses in Scotland. Lindsey has since been a post-doctoral researcher (2014-2018) on the ENTRANS, Sculptor’s Cave and the Continuing Bonds projects at the University of Bradford, before becoming a Teaching Fellow in European Iron Age Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh (2018-2019). In addition to her role as Lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology, she is funerary archaeology lead on the ERC-funded COMMIOS Project (based at the University of York), which uses socio-cultural and scientific approaches (osteology, stable isotopes and aDNA) to understand Iron Age population dynamics, connectivity and mobility across Britain and the Near Continent.

As Lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology at CCCU, Lindsey teaches 'Themes in Holocence Prehistory', 'The Archaeology of Preshitoric Britain' and 'Foragers and Farmers in Prehistoric Europe'.

Lindsey’s research focuses on the intersection of ritual and domestic life in later prehistory. Her interests include the ritualisation of the domestic sphere, non-normative funerary practices and the application of contemporary social theory to past societies. Lindsey co-directs fieldwork at the Covesea Caves: a prehistoric mortuary landscape in north-east Scotland, and co-authored Darkness Visible: The Sculptor’s Cave, Covesea, from the Bronze Age to the Picts, published by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Her co-edited volume Between Worlds explores the enigmatic nature of cave landscapes at a global scale.

Inspired by her work on the AHRC-funded Continuing Bonds Project, which used archaeology as a catalyst for discussions around death, dying and bereavement among palliative care professionals today, Lindsey’s research also examines the insights that contemporary lived experiences can shed on our interpretation of cached objects in the archaeological record. Her publication on Problematic Stuff in Antiquity, has also recently featured in Sapiens magazine.

Research and knowledge exchange

Recognition

• Winner of the Historic Environment Scotland Research Showcase (2016)
• New Generation Thinkers 2017 Finalist (AHRC/BBC Radio 3)
• Winner of the Saltire Society Research Book of the Year 2021
• Short-listed for Current Archaeology Research Project of the Year 2022

Media

• Underground Britain. Lion TV (for Channel 5). First broadcast 23rd October 2014.
• Mystic Britain. Blink TV (for the Smithsonian Channel). First broadcast 4th June 2019.
• Bone Detectives: Britain’s Buried Secrets. Tern TV (for Channel 4). First broadcast 11th January 2020.

Teaching and subject expertise

Membership

• Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA)
• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
• Prehistoric Society
• European Association of Archaeologists

Committee Responsibilities

• CIfA Scottish Special Interest Group

Conference organising committees

• Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) 2015, University of Bradford
• Iron Age Research Group Student Symposium (IARSS) 2010, University of Bradford
• First Millennium Studies Group Day Seminar 2011, University of Edinburgh

Session Organisation

European Association of Archaeologists Annual Meeting

• 2014, Istanbul: Caves as Ritual Spaces in Later Prehistory (with Dimitrij Mlekuž, University of Ljubljana; Eugène Warmenbol, Free University of Brussels)

• 2015, Glasgow: Human Remains in Caves (with Eugène Warmenbol, Free University of Brussels)

• 2016, Vilnius: Transcending Borders in Later Prehistoric Europe (with Ian Armit, University of Bradford; Hrvoje Potrebica, University of Zagreb; Matija Črešnar, University of Ljubljana; and Philip Mason, Centre for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia)

Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting

• 2015, San Francisco: Biographies of Enclosure in Global Context (with Jennifer Birch, University of Georgia; Ian Armit, University of Bradford)

Publications and research outputs

Fowler, C., Olalde, I., Cummings, V., Armit, I., Büster, L., Cuthbert, S., Rohland, N., Cheronet, O., Pinhasi, R., and Reich, D. 2021. ‘Complex kinship practices revealed in a five-generation family from Neolithic Britain’, Nature 601: 584–587.

Patterson, N., Isakov, M., Booth, T., Büster, L., Fischer, C.-E., Olalde, I., Ringbauer, H.... [et al] ... Pinhasi, R., Armit, I. and Reich, D. 2021. ‘Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age’, Nature 601: 588–594.

Armit, I. and Büster, L. 2020. Darkness Visible. The Sculptor’s Cave, NE Scotland: From the Bronze Age to the Picts. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Büster, L., Warmenbol, E. and Mlekuž, D. (eds) 2019. Between Worlds: Understanding Ritual Cave Use in Later Prehistory. New York: Springer.

Armit, I., Potrebica, H., Črešnar, M., Mason, P. and Büster, L. (eds) 2016. Cultural Encounters in Iron Age Europe. Budapest: Archaeolingua, Minor Series 38.

Büster, L. 2021. ‘Problematic stuff: death, memory and the reinterpretation of cached objects’. Antiquity 95(382): 973–985. Doi: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2021.81

Büster, L. 2021. ‘Iron Age mnemonics: a biographical approach to dwelling in later prehistoric Britain’. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774321000263

Croucher, K., Büster, L., Dayes, J., Green, L., Raynsford, J., Comerford Boyes, L. and Faull, C. 2020. ‘Archaeology and contemporary death: using the past to provoke, challenge and engage’, PLoS ONE 15(12): e0244058. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244058.