This medal was endowed in 1992 by Professor Sir Grahame Clark, a Fellow of the Academy from 1951 to his death in 1995. The medal was awarded for the first time in 1993.
Eligibility
Eligible nominations can be for academic achievement involving recent contributions to the study of prehistoric archaeology.
2018 winner
Dr Alison Sheridan is a prehistorian of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age of Britain and Ireland, specialising in ceramics and stone axeheads and in jewellery of jet and jet-like materials, faience, amber and gold. She has also played an active role in the debate over the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Britain and Ireland, and was co-Chair of the Neolithic Panel of the Scottish Archaeological Research Framework. She is a graduate of Cambridge University, where her doctoral thesis focused on the Irish Neolithic, and is currently an Honorary Fellow at the University of Edinburgh’s School of History, Classics and Archaeology. She has been a curator at National Museums Scotland since 1987, becoming Principal Curator of Early Prehistory in 2006 and, from 2017, Principal Archaeological Research Curator in the Department of Scottish History and Archaeology. She was part of the team that created the Early People gallery of the National Museum of Scotland. She was President of the Prehistoric Society 2010–2014 and has been a member of various high-profile research projects including the Beaker People Project, the GENSCOT ancient DNA project, the Times of their Lives project and (as Co-Ordinator for Britain and Ireland) the international, French-led Projet JADE that investigated the distribution of Neolithic axeheads made from Alpine rock. She is currently PI of an AHRC-funded project that has created a Research Network to investigate gold in Britain’s auriferous (gold-bearing) regions, 2450–800 BC.
"I am overwhelmed and deeply honoured to be the recipient of this prestigious medal. This is a wonderful endorsement of the value of museum-based research and of the role of the museum curator in furthering our understanding of our prehistory. It is a real privilege to be working at such a fascinating time."
- Alison Sheridan
Previous winners
2016 Professor Kristian Kristiansen, University of Gothenburg
2014 Dr Joan Oates FBA, University of Cambridge
2012 Professor Charles Higham FBA FRSNZ, University of Otago, New Zealand
2010 Professor Richard Bradley FBA, Professor of Archeology, University of Reading
2008 Professor Paul Mellars FBA, Professor of Pre-History and Human Evolution, University of Cambridge
2006 Professor Geoffrey J Wainwright MBE FSA
2004 Professor Barrington W Cunliffe CBE FBA
2002 Dr John Wymer
1999 Professor D J Mulvaney FBA
1997 Professor J D Clark
1995 Dr John Coles
1993 Professor Stuart Piggott