Quaternary Scientific - QUEST

Overview

Quaternary Scientific provides an expert environmental archaeological (palaeoenvironmental and palaeoeconomic) service to archaeological companies, environmental consultancies and government organisations.

The business includes a network of specialist and technical staff (internal and external to the University of Reading) that service all aspects of environmental archaeological contract work.

Facilities

Facilities for geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany and geochronology include:

• Field equipment for conducting survey and mapping (e.g. electronic totalling stations and differential global positioning systems)
• Field equipment for ground investigations, such as conventional sampling using peat corers, and column, bulk and Kubiena sampling, and drilling equipment using an Atlas Copco 2-stroke percussion engine, percussion gouge set, Stitz piston corer or Eijkelkamp window sampler
• Computing and computer graphics suite supporting PC systems, ArcView geographical information systems (GIS), landscape analysis and visualisation, and remote sensing
• Palaeoecological laboratories for analysis of pollen, diatoms, insects, waterlogged wood and seeds, charcoal and charred seeds, Ostracoda and Foraminifera
• Sedimentology and soil science laboratories, for soil micromorphology, particle size analysis, peat humification and organic matter determinations
• Geochemistry laboratories with facilities for atomic absorption spectrometry and ICP-AES
• Geochronology laboratories with facilities for ²¹⁰Pb dating, U-Series dating, optical and thermo-luminescence dating, and tephrochronology
• Artefact analysis laboratories, with facilities for gas chromatography mass spectrometry for organic residue analysis

Clients

The client base includes organisations based in the UK and abroad, including; the Environment Agency, National Trust, English Heritage, Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd, Oxford Archaeology, Wessex Archaeology, Northants Archaeology, CgMs Consulting, Giffords, Scott Wilson, AOC Archaeology, Birmingham Archaeology, Ove Arup, Compass Archaeology, Surrey County Council, Surrey County Archaeological Unit, Surrey Archaeological Society, RPS Consultants, Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Amelie (France) and Archaeological Development Services Ltd (Ireland).

Staff

The core staff members of Quaternary Scientific are:

• Nicholas Branch BSc MSc PhD
• Chris Green BA DPhil
• Robert Batchelor BSc
• Gemma Lafferty BSc MSc
• Kevin Williams BA
• Peter Morgan BSc MSc
• Dan Young BSc MSc

If you require further information, please contact Rob Batchelor (c.r.batchelor@reading.ac.uk) or Nicholas Branch (n.p.branch@reading.ac.uk). Refer to the Things to do now box above for further contact details.