Gemma Hudson BA

Project Officer (Survey)

Gemma graduated with joint honours in Archaeology and Geography from the University of Nottingham in 2006. Since then she has worked on a range of commercial and research archaeological contracts, including the River of Stone Project in Caithness which focused on experimental reconstruction of Prehistoric and Neolithic drystone monuments.  Gemma’s research interests are primarily in prehistoric dry-stone building techniques, and her areas of technical expertise are in archaeological survey, particularly laser scanning, GPS and total station survey, CAD.  Gemma was supervised by AOC for her IfA training placement in Digital Survey Techniques, developing techniques for the survey and illustration of a wide range of sites before becoming a permanent member of AOC's staff in April 2008. 

Since joining AOC in 2006, Gemma has primarily worked within the Built Heritage and Survey Sector undertaking numerous building surveys and assessments throughout Britain, including the prehistoric site at Nyster Broch, Caithness, Edgehead Farm steading in Pathead, Oldham Town Hall, the Gothic Ruins at Belton House in Grantham, the 12th century St Andrews Kirk in North Berwick, the medieval battery at Dunbar, East Lothian, The Old Beacon in North Ronaldsay, a detailed survey of  an early 19th century engine house at the former Springfield dye works in Glasgow and  the survey of the harbour walls and buildings at Jamestown Wharf, Saint Helena, South Atlantic. She also supervised the survey of the submerged Neolithic settlement at Pavlopetri, Greece, featured in a BBC documentary in 2011. 

Gemma’s specialism is laser scanning and 3D visualization of artefacts, archaeological monuments and landscapes including the ancient landscape of the Manor Valley in Peebles and the Dundee Museum medieval coffin covers.  Recently, Gemma has been involved in the laser scanning of nine chambered cairns on the Isle of Arran, participating in a conference discussing the survey results exploring the use of laser scanning and photogrammetry in recording these types of archaeological structures. She is a trained geophysical surveyor, and has undertaken numerous gradiometry and resitivity surveys across the UK.

Gemma has coordinated and supervised two major regional archaeological surveys in recent years: the survey and archiving of over 300 monuments in the parish of Assynt, Sutherland and the survey of a further 100 sites in Wigtownshire as part of the Machars Archaeology Project (MAP).