As part of the 2018 undergraduate experimental archaeology module, the students were tasked with designing an independent experiment based around a prehistoric artefact. The objects chosen were Palaeolithic rondelles, which are circular sections of bone and sometimes stone often found with a central perforated hole.

​These objects have been studied previously, particularly with an eye as to what the function might be. The students were among the first to undertake an experimental assessment of the rondelles and examined the production and possible functions of both bone and stone replicas.

​The full details of their investigations were published (see below) and some of hypotheses tested included: a children's toy, a form of mobile art, a spindle whorl for textile and fibre production and potentially a fly wheel.