Association of Professional Geneaologists, Member Number: 0015330
Human Skeletal Biology, Ethics, Archival History, and Public Health
Network:
FIELDWORK in forensic and settlement archaeology, 1100 BCE - 1300 CE
2018-2022
Over the past several years, I’ve had the chance to participate in archaeological fieldwork across Europe and the Middle East, working with both human remains and material culture in complex, high-pressure environments.
My first formal bioarchaeological experience was in Poland, where we excavated a 13th-century cemetery and recorded child mortality data from medieval graves. I helped complete skeletal profiles, document pathology, and prepare over 200 individuals for reburial.
Most recently, I contributed to a long-running excavation of a mass grave site associated with the Napoleonic period in northern Spain. The site is closely tied to a series of 18th and 19th-century military conflicts, including the wars with revolutionary France (1793–1795) and the later Napoleonic campaigns. Many of the individuals recovered show signs of direct connection to these events: some were found in anatomical position, others comingled in what appears to be a hasty wartime burial. Uniform buttons, boots, and ammunition suggest that one dense grouping of remains belonged to French soldiers. Other graves included a Spanish combatant, buried in uniform, and a young individual with a cranial trepanation - possibly a patient from when the site served as a military hospital.