Colmer Prize for excellence in Local Archaeology awarded to Exeter Uni Graduate Phoebe Holland

Phoebe scans a menhir or standing stone at Mabe Menhir in the grounds of St Laudus' Church in Mabe, Cornwall, using an Artec Leo handheld structured light scanner which uses light to scan and build a model of the menhir. It produces detailed 3D models. (Photo:Phoebe Holland)

This year's Angela and Tony Colmer Prize for excellence in Local Archaeology has been awarded to 21 year old Exeter University graduate Phoebe Holland. Fairlynch chairman Trevor Waddington gave Ivybridge-based Phoebe a cash prize of £100, a certificate and our warm congratulations for her outstanding research on rock art and the adoption of prehistoric monuments by early Christians on the edge of Dartmoor.

The prize, awarded annually by the Fairlynch Museum in Budleigh Salterton and Exeter University was set up in honour of benefactors Tony Colmer and his wife Angela. Until Angela’s death in 2007 and Tony’s in 2011 they worked tirelessly for the Fairlynch Museum, developing the archaeology collection and championing the area’s history.

Trevor Waddington, said, “We pride ourselves on our archaeology gallery and it is so important to see new work on the area’s past revealing fresh secrets. The award both encourages a new generation of archaeologists and pays tribute to the work that Angela and Tony did for the museum."

Phoebe said, “I’m particularly interested in the prehistoric story of Devon and Dartmoor in particular. I did a lot of work revealing evidence of rock art and how 3-D modelling can identify significant new data."

The university promotes rigorous scientific methodology in archaeological investigation and teaches the use of new technologies available to help with recording and analysis of ancient artefacts and structures. Phoebe’s dissertation was titled “More Than Meets the Eye: Using 2D and 3D Digital Techniques to Explore and Document Prehistoric Rock Art and Early Medieval Sculpture in Southwest Britain." With the technology, she was able to detect the addition of crosses to some standing stones, etching that is now so faint, it had previously been unobserved. 

Phoebe would like to use the technology to make archaeology more accessible to the public, perhaps in the museum or education sector. We wish her a successful and rewarding career!

Above, left-right: Angela and Tony Colmer; Phoebe Holland receives her prize from Trevor Waddington with Fairlynch Curator of Archaeology Jan Oke looking on; Phoebe and Jan looking at the Archaeology displays in Fairlynch Museum. Jan was awarded the Colmer prize in 2016. (Photos: Fairlynch Museum)