Faculty Member, Archaeology
Bournemouth University, Applied Science
About
My research views the human body as a product of society and how skeletal remains can be used to analyse changes in social identities, like other forms of material culture. As skeletal data and funerary evidence are in fact a product of the same social system, they should be used complement each other. Accordingly my research integrates skeletal evidence of identity, established methods based on funerary archaeology with evidence from material culture. I believe that this produces a stronger, more complete picture of societies which are not structured along our modern divisions of disciplines within archaeology.
My PhD addresses the impact of changing faith on identities in early Medieval Spain, focusing in particular on how gender identities changed with the conversion to Islam. By integrating grave evidence such as burial orientation and grave type with changing patterns of activity markers on human skeletal remains, I was able to demonstrate that female activity patterns changed little over time and remained similar between non-Islamic and Islamic women. Men however had different skeletal activity patterns to those of the preceding Visigoths. As Islam is a ritual, practice based faith, it seems that men, who were operating in the public area, would be more likely to change their activities in accordance with faith. In this research I have developed an innovative strategy for studying religious identity, an area that still lags behind research into gender, age and ethnic identity.
As part of a wider project on the Medieval Islamic population in Écija (Iberia) working with Dr Zakrzewski (Southampton), I have undertaken strontium stable isotope analysis in order to identify non-local individuals. The results of this analysis will be combined with non-metric traits and craniometrics to answer questions on the mobility and movement in the region. This data will be added to current debates on the arrival of Islam in the region, conversion and migration.
I am currently co-ordinating a research project reanalysing the Anglo-Saxon cemetery from Great Chesterford. This has included collaborative work with Durham analysing tuberculosis DNA. Re-examination of the skeletal material revealed a high proportion of individuals with physical impairments that could be seen as debilitating. This included tuberculosis, traumatic lesions, leprosy and various congenital disorders. As disability results from environment rather than solely of impairment, to understand disability in the past it is critical that evidence from other areas of archaeology and history are taken into account. Accordingly, my project aims to take a holistic approach to explore the concept of disability in the Anglo-Saxon period. Therefore skeletal evidence of impairment has been combined with data from burial rites, evidence for the treatment of pathology and historical documentation on the social attitudes towards individuals perceived to be different.
I am also member of a cross departmental research project with the Centre for Learning Anatomical Science (School of Medicine) at the University of Southampton. This group aims to combine methodology and knowledge from the field of osteoarchaeology to modern anatomical and medical research. The current project has assessed the types and frequencies of blood vessel pathways in the skull with a view to assisting surgical intervention. Primary research has produced promising results which may indicate sex differences. Ongoing research is now focusing on biological ethnicity variation in the distribution and presentation of blood vessel pathways.
