To be or not to be an ancestor? Osteobiography meets funerary taphonomy in prehistoric Italy

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• Jess Emma Thompson (University of Cambridge)
• Friday 31 January 2025, 13:15-14:00
• Seminar Room, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Site.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Qin-Qin Lü.

This talk will present the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of the ERC -funded ‘Ancestors’ Project, illustrating the relationship between deathways and politics in prehistory with some new results from Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age burials in Italy. The ‘Ancestors’ Project incorporates archaeological theory, bioarchaeology, taphonomy, isotopic, proteomic and genomic analyses to connect traditionally disparate domains of research. From this multi-stranded approach, we extend by now well-used formula for building up life histories—or osteobiographies—into post-mortem treatment, looking at the range of ways the dead were interacted with. Anthropological accounts remind us that cross-culturally the ancestors can provide a powerful force in everyday life. Where ancestors are socially active, their remains are often handled, modified, displayed or passed around among the living. These actions leave traces in burial contexts, and on the bodies and bones themselves. Incorporating analysis of isotopic origins, diet, health, and genetic relationships, we can start to see which kinds of individuals were chosen for active ‘afterlives’. From this, we ask who emerged as ancestors, and how the role of the ancestors changed throughout prehistory in peninsular Italy.

Bio

Jess is a bioarchaeologist working particularly on European prehistoric contexts. She has been based at the dept since 2015 when she started her PhD studying the largest collective burials on the Maltese archipelago, as part of the ERC -funded FRAGSUS Project. Since 2020, she has been working on the Ancestors project (also funded by the ERC ), carrying out bioarchaeological analysis of prehistoric human remains in Italy and collaborating with the ancient DNA and isotopes teams. Over the past 10 years, she has fried her eyesight studying tens of thousands of small bone fragments. So whilst it is somewhat bittersweet, she is really excited to be taking on a new job in the next two weeks, as the osteoarchaeology curator at the National Museum of Scotland. No doubt, the fragments will follow her there, though!

Please join us in-person in the McDonald Institute seminar room or join online.

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This talk is part of the Pitt-Rivers Archaeological Science Seminar Series series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• AUB_Cambridge Seminars
• Pitt-Rivers Archaeological Science Seminar Series
• Seminar Room, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Site

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