‘Up the close and doon the stair,/ Ben the hoose wi’ Burke and Hare/ Burke’s the butcher, Hare’s the thief,/ Knox the boy who buys the beef.’ This Scottish children’s rhyme has brought over the centuries the memory of the famous William Burke and Edmund Hare duo, and their crimes which shook Edinburgh in 1828:…
This year’s EAA in Maastricht was somehow smaller then the last one I’ve attended (Istanbul), but with a very packed program the difference was hardly visible. To be fair, program is always a concern as the overlap between similarly themed sessions seems to be a constant, but hopefully next year’s organisers will be more…
My book chapter is finally out: ‘And then they were Bodies: Medieval Royalties, from DNA Analysis to a Nation’s Identity’ , in Premodern Rulership and Contemporary Political Power. The King’s Body Never Dies, 2017, (eds.) Karolina Mroziewicz, Aleksander Sroczyński. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. In short, I have tried to evaluate the role of Medieval King’s…
I’ve just come back from the Medical Anthropology Network Meeting (5-7 July, Lisbon, Portugal) and the highlight of the 2nd day was an important and one of a kind debate on the ethics of circulation of human remains, with the specific focus on a Portuguese recent case study. Before going into further details, I should mention…
When it comes to researchers interested in the history, ethics or anthropology of bodies and collections, I’d always be one of the first to read anything written by Zoe Crossland, Elizabeth Hallam, Ewa Domanska, Liv Nilson Stutz, or Duncan Sayer- to name a few (though of course not always agreeing with all their points of…
[..] especially from the sixteenth century onwards, [anatomists] have developed a wide range of techniques for preserving, modelling and displaying bodies and parts thereof. To arrest putrefaction after death, bodies have been dried or immersed in fluid, and to exhibit various aspects of these bodies practitioners have engaged in such work as sculpting, inflating, injecting,…
This is the first post in what announces to be a series on Anatomical bodies/collections (see intro) – I thought it is only appropriate to draft my thoughts in a more systematic manner given that I’ve been immersed in the world of dead bodies on display for quite a while now. Of course there are many available resources…
Originally posted on DivMeanBody: Divergent Meanings: understanding the postmortem fate of human bodies found in Neolithic settlements from the Balkan area in light of interdisciplinary data:
The workshop in Thessaloniki has just ended (Ritualizing Funerary Practices in the Prehistoric Aegean and viewing the human body acts of transforming, organised by Sevi Triantaphyllou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and…
‘Exploded’ Beauchene skulls, feet in jars or mounted vertebrae lined up in wooden cupboards or behind glass door cabinets are common presences in anatomical collections. Caught between the living and the dead, organic life and man-made artifacts, they hold within stories of past and present medical, anatomical or anthropological practices and world-views. Why were they chosen…
This Saturday I had the pleasure to hear the anatomist & illustrator Emily Evans talk as part of Cambridge Science Festival. Her lecture on the history of anatomical illustrations and the contemporary interest in anatomy, outside the dissection rooms, made me think one more about how one can justify, and in the same time explain…
Originally posted on DivMeanBody: Divergent Meanings: understanding the postmortem fate of human bodies found in Neolithic settlements from the Balkan area in light of interdisciplinary data:
This is a quick mention of an upcoming workshop on Funerary Archaeology in the Prehistoric Aegean: Ritualizing Funerary Practices in the Prehistoric Aegean: acts of transforming and viewing the human…
These are some of the titles I have stumbled upon & that caught my eye at the start of the year, most of which have been published in 2016. New Developments in the Bioarchaeology of Care: Further Case Studies and Expanded Theory (Springer 2017, edited by Lorna Tilley and Alecia A. Shrenk, ebook) This 19 chapters title,…
Kirkkotilan ja hautaustapojen muutokset muuttuvassa maailmankuvassa
Mortuary Archaeology of the Râmeț Bronze Age Landscape
I study dead babies from the past
Bioarchaeology, Death Rituals, and the Body by Dr Trish Biers
University of Birmingham, 17-18 February 2017
Exploring the weird & wonderful world of fragrance & funerals
Seasonality & the Archaeology of a Year
An interdiscplinary seminar May 17-18 2016, London
News on the best uses of Heritage for social and organisational change
A curiosity for all things bony
A Blog by @AcademicsSay
My perpetual struggle with the history of anatomy
Nineteenth Century Perspectives
Advocating Engagament with Human Remains Collections
June 18-20, 2015 at CRASSH, University of Cambridge
History, Healthcare and Policy | Dr Anne Hanley
Public Engagement with Archaeological Themes & Practices
RUSSELL DORNAN | museums | digital | natural history | photography
WRITER
Archive of projects, events and news from 2012 to May 2017
Music and musicians in early photography
from the perspective of a historian of emotions (Josip Vučković)
Stories from the Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford
A research blog about Early Medieval artefacts
The mutterings of a couple of thanatology nerds
An Examination of the Relationship Between Food and Death in Rituals, Culture, Religion and Society.
Exploring Time Travel of Place
Death, Sex and everything in between
