Human Osteoarchaeology

The course will cover the methodological and theoretical backgrounds to human osteoarchaeology, introduce the student to the chemical and physical characteristics of bone, and to the functional morphology of the human skeleton. Classes will consist of a taught component that outlines how osteoarchaeologists reconstruct individual life-histories based on age, sex etc.; this is combined with hands-on identification of different skeletal elements and the markers used to inform the analytical methods. Additional scientific methodologies are also introduced that increasingly form a major component of human osteoarchaeology.