Director of the Ness of Brodgar Project
University of Highlands and Islands Institute of Archaeology
TAC Festival 2023 Keynote Address::
"Excavations at the Ness of Brodgar"
Nick Card has worked widely throughout Britain since graduating from Glasgow University. Since moving to Orkney over 30 years ago, he has directed and managed a wide range of projects for the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology within the University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) Institute of Archaeology that he assisted in establishing.
He has been an Honorary Research Fellow and Research Associate of the UHI, a Member of the Orkney World Heritage Site Research Committee, a Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland, Chair of the Ness of Brodgar Trust, and Vice President of the American Friends of the Ness of Brodgar.
Since the inscription of Orkney’s World Heritage Site, Nick has been involved in research and fieldwork relating to the sites: as director of the excavations at Bookan Chambered Tomb, as co-ordinator of the WHS geophysics program, and as a major contributor to the Research Agenda. His interests lie in all aspects of the prehistory of Britain and the Highlands and Islands, with particular reference to the Neolithic.
Since 2004, Nick has directed excavations at the Ness of Brodgar, one of the most important complexes of Neolithic buildings in western Europe, which has become internationally recognized and reported on widely, including a cover article in National Geographic. That project website is nessofbrodgar.co.uk. He has been the recipient of several awards, including recognition by the American Institute of Archaeology, the Current Archaeology Research Project of the Year, the international Andante Travel Archaeology Award, and in 2019 a Shanghai Archaeological Forum Award.
He has published widely and lectured in the UK and abroad. In 2017 he was awarded the Kress Travelling Lectureship by the Archaeological Institute of America, under which he lectured across the USA, including at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.