This is a short summary of what happened earlier this week during the two days of the ‘Can science accommodate multiple ontologies? The genetics revolution and archaeological theory‘ Workshop which we held at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research (11-12 June) (see here the Programme, and Abstracts). With this event we hoped to foster critical…
‘Strange, elongated skulls reveal medieval Bulgarian brides were traded for politics’ reads a Sciencemag.org headline. More conservative, National Geographic captions the same news as: ‘Pointy Skulls Belonged to ‘Foreign’ Brides, Ancient DNA Suggests’. Both of these, along many others, actually point (no pun intended) to a recent PNAS study in which ‘genomic data from 41 graves…
‘Through the desire of all parties concerned, to keep the affair from the public, at least for the present, or until we had farther opportunities for investigation — through our endeavors to effect this — a garbled or exaggerated account made its way into society, and became the source of many unpleasant misrepresentations; and, very…
‘I once had to play a game (part of an exhibition guided tour): to choose a word that defines myself and write it on my name tag…’ (post) When I meet new people at social events, the first question I get asked is: what is it that you do? The answer always puts me in…
Originally posted on These Bones Of Mine:
This post and style has been influenced by Svetlana Alexievich’s Second-Hand Time: The Last of the Soviets (Время секонд хэнд) publication, which was released in 2013. It is a work of non-fiction prose which explores the personal impact of the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in…
On the verge of Janus having turned his face to the New Year, it is good to do a short summary of the year past, and to think of the one to come. Projects Probably the most enjoyable activity of 2017 has been a short guest text I wrote for a blog – yet to…
In anticipation of the upcoming gift-giving period, I have put together the results of a web browsing spree: potential presents for those people in your lives who appreciate a good anatomical pun, and are interested in the fundamentals of bodies (anatomists, archaeologists, osteologists or others). 1. Cards Either you need a card for a romantic…
These are just some quick thoughts prompted by what I found to be a questionable narrative published recently in the Atlantic and entitled: The Saintliness of Undecayed Corpses by Katherine Harvey, a research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. What follows are simply my own views on the matter, coming from someone who has been interested…
Ahead of the official opening on October 2nd, I had the opportunity to visit the new exhibition held in the Octagon Gallery at UCL: What Does It Mean To Be Human? Curating Heads at UCL (2nd October 2017- 28th Feb 2018). So how did I find it? I should just mention that the organisers were welcoming, and…
‘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…
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 medievalist historian of emotions. By 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
