A PROFESSOR from Penarth has won an international award for her archaeology book.

Miranda Aldhouse-Green, of Church Avenue, is a professor of archaeology at Cardiff University.

In 2015, she published a book called 'Bog Bodies Uncovered', an archaeological crime scene investigation.

It has now won the Society for American Archaeology's book of the year award for 2016.

But professor Aldhouse-Green wasn't even aware that she had been nominated by her publisher until the society's committee contacted her to invite her to the award ceremony.

Out of 19 different awards handed out by the society this year Mrs Aldhouse-Green was the only British winner.

She flew to Orlando in Florida, in April, to receive a plaque from professor Diane Gifford-Gonzalez, the society's president.

Professor Aldhouse-Green said: "It was just mindblowing to receive the award. I wrote it at a difficult time for me and wasn't sure it was any good but my publisher said it was the best thing I had ever written.

"The fact that I have won for this work is just absolutely wonderful."

Commenting on the subject matter of her book, she said: "The bodies, often 2000 years old, are preserved by having been buried in peat bogs in Britain, Ireland the northern Europe.

"Their bog burials caused their hair, skin, nails and internal organs to survive intact, making it possible to tell what sort of people they were and how they died, often violently at the hand of a third party.

"This book is their story. My findings suggest that these individuals were sacrificed at times of great crisis within their communities."

'Bog Bodies Uncovered', published by Thames and Hudson, is available on Amazon and at Griffin Books on Windsor Road, Penarth.