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Within the last two decades, the fields of dental anthropology and bioarchaeology have seen a drastic increase in the number of studies investigating the internal structures of human enamel in archaeological populations. Due to its relatively low cost and preparation time, combined with a high degree of accuracy, destructive histological analysis has become a common methodology in enamel research. However, despite its accuracy and presence within academic literature, institutions often reject applications to perform histological analysis as standard procedure. Most frequently this is justified because destructive analysis negatively impacts future research. As a result, many studies are forced to utilise published data or attempt to access the small number of dental histological slides already in existence. This paper details the processes and procedures followed during histological sampling, with the aim to provide an easily accessible reference for curators allowing them to make more informed decisions regarding requests to conduct histology on samples within their care. Moreover, this paper highlights the preservative methods available to researchers which, when employed, both limit the negative impact to future research and expand the type of material which institutions can provide access to. Access to these new materials provides curators with alternative responses to applications rather than rejecting proposals entirely. Methods include high quality resin casting, which allows for future metric and micro-wear analysis, and digital stitching methods for producing dental cross section databases which institutions can offer access to instead of further destructive sampling.

To download this paper, please click here.In October 2018 a one-day conference was held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology focussing on the ‘Digital Dilemma’ in biological archaeology —specifically human remains research where the use of digitisation methods have increased exponentially over the last decade while comparatively little discussion of the ethical and legal considerations of these data has taken place. Papers presented at Digital Dilemma 2018 explored the use of digital data in human remains research, discussing both the benefits provided by these data, areas of ethical or methodological concern and suggestions for future research. This paper and the following conference proceedings will discuss this research demonstrating the importance that this Digital Dilemma in archaeology continues to be discussed and considered in future research.

To download this paper, please click here.Archaeology has always kept an inconsistent relationship with history. For decades, archaeology has either largely rejected what history could offer, such as among certain processual archaeologists, or it has cherry-picked certain elements of historical methods. The closest that archaeologists have ever come to establishing a complete historical method to be applied in archaeology was through the adoption of the idea of the Annales School of history.Part of what made the Annales School so attractive to archaeologists of all backgrounds was that it tackled the past in a way that was very practical and useful for archaeology: it engaged with the past in the form of total histories, which could then be segmented in three separate durations and could be studied in an interdisciplinary manner. Additionally, the way the Annales School envisaged the past allowed for the study of the past in a very scientific way (e.g. quantitative, statistical), but also allowed the qualitative study of mentalities of the past people under analysis. However, one of the greatest problems of the Annales School is that it suppressed the human agent. Whether they were hidden behind structural economic forces or long-term symbolic structures, the individual remained always buried under the large-scale — history, according to annalistes, could not be the result of individual action. This, in turn, is what eventually led to the demise of the Annales School, in favour of the Italian microhistory. Does this mean that the AnnalesSchool of History must be complete scraped? No, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate that archaeology can in fact have a fruitful historical paradigm based on some ideas of the Annales School, and at the same time, some ideas of Italian microhistory. This would require understanding microhistory as the reconstruction of the life of agents, small-scale case-studies that serve as exemplars of large-scale phenomena.

To download this paper, please click here.This paper discusses the impact of ideas about the historical and racial origins of the Holy Family that are captured in the painting Anno Domini or the Flight into Egypt (1883/4) by Edwin Longsden Long. Anno Domini fits into a wider 19th-century popular visual and literary narrative around Egypt and its ancient and biblical past. This general narrative, and its racial constructions, has been explored within reception theory and art history, but often overlooked in histories of archaeology and Egyptology. This paper unpacks how Anno Domini fits into a well-known orientalist way of seeing Egypt but also reflects ideas about race that were prevalent in archaeology and other newly established scientific disciplines at the time. The construction of the Virgin Mary and Christ child as White Europeans in Anno Domini both reflects and had an impact on constructions of race in Britain and on ancient (and modern) peoples in the Holy Land and Egypt in the late nineteenth century.These constructions fed the growing use of scientific terminology to give such racist imagery authority, as found in A. H. Sayce's ‘Sunday school book’ The Races of the Old Testament (1891). Sayce’s popular book used photographs taken by the archaeologist Flinders Petrie in 1887 of different 'racial types' from Egyptian monuments. Anno Domini vividly illustrates the preoccupation with race and identity found in archaeological interpretations of and motivations for recording material culture from ancient Egypt. This paper illustrates how art, archaeology, orientalism and racial theory fused and fed each other.

To download this paper, please click here. Starting with observations on a coffin that was brought from Egypt in 1722 and displayed at the British Museum from the first day of its opening — coffin EA6695 — this paper explores physical engagements with Egyptian mummies in London at the turn of the 19thcentury. It argues that it is through physical engagements — including investigations and destructions — that the Egyptian mummy was used to construct knowledge, not only about ancient Egypt, but about the body, race and the modern world. Using a number of sources from a range of individual reports, this paper sheds light on the cultural practices that surrounded and shaped engagements with Egyptian human remains, and reappraises the value of looking at destructive investigations as cultural interventions that can explain later practices, including the public mummy unrolling.

On behalf of the editorial team we are delighted to introduce volumes 26 & 27 of Papers from the Institute of Archaeology. The contributions in this joint volume were intentionally edited together to encompass the diverse range of research undertaken at UCL Institute of Archaeology. The context to this research environment is provided in the forum covering archaeological and heritage sector implications of Britain’s vote in 2016 to leave the European Union. We also introduce three new projects in this joint volume as a new dynamic to Papers from the Institute of Archaeology. The interview has an audio recording accessible in the online version, the winning poster from our poster competition accompanies this editorial, and the first of a series of ‘Postcards from Qatar’ is also presented.

The Burgstraat is an archaeological site which is located within the high-medieval part of the town of Ghent. Excavations conducted by BAAC Vlaanderen in 2011 revealed numerous structures, artefacts and ecofacts at the site - some of which date to the 12th century. This paper focuses on SP141, a 13th century waste deposit. The contents of SP141 are mostly zooarchaeological remains. The investigated sample consists of 2652 animal bone fragments, which predominantly represent domestic cattle (Bos p.f. Taurus). Interestingly, this large concentration of cattle remains consists primarily of cranial fragments. At the Burgstraat, mandibles and maxillae appear to have been divided in a systematic manner of butchery. The function of the processing of the cranial parts presents part of an economic chain where animals are brought into the urban economic system for their meat, horn, hide and bone. This paper explores the role of the cattle remains from SP141, and presents the results of preliminary analyses at the site, including age and demographic data.

In academia, funding for conference attendance is limited, and both students and early-career researchers are therefore only able to attend a limited number of conferences. This means that, typically, researchers need to choose between attending multiple local and, at times, more affordable conferences, or one or two large, expensive, international conferences. Local and less expensive conferences may be research-specific but will have a smaller audience and lower networking potential. In biological anthropology and bioarchaeology, the majority of these larger annual conferences are held in North America and Western Europe where travel and accommodation costs can be very high for those outside of these regions. These costs, in addition to visa restrictions, reduce the diversity of participants at academic conferences, skewing attendance to students and researchers from the host countries. Not only does this disadvantage individuals outside of the typical host-countries, but it also limits the breadth of academic dialogue, with inclusion in academic conferences determined all too often by financial resources rather than academic value. This paper discusses the demographics and lack of diversity at some of these large conferences and the factors that are known to limit international conference travel. It then presents the benefits of digital presentation methods using Digital Dilemma 2018 as a case study for how digital presentation methods can be combined with physical presentations at minimal cost and time. We hope that this will encourage more conferences to offer a digital presentation option in the future.

To download this paper, please click here.This short report details a sub-project of ‘Stories through Skeletons’ an interdisciplinary venture undertaken by the Osteoarchaeology and Bioengineering departments at the University of Southampton. As part of this project, the team has been exploring the potential of using 3D printing technology to improve accessibility of palaeopathological data to a wider audience, through the production of tactile aids. To test this idea, models were created of Langer type mesomelic dwarfism exhibited in a skeleton from the Romano-British cemetery site of Alington Avenue, Dorset, UK. The 3D models were used as props during osteoarchaeology conference presentations and have proved useful to visually impaired and non-disabled audiences alike. Methods used to create the 3D models and the feedback received from the preliminary showing of the models at conferences are outlined, including the development of the idea of the 3D models as ‘diagrams’. This highlights the creation of accessibility tools as another potential use of 3D technology in the field of osteoarchaeology and in so doing, adds the issue of accessibility to the ethical debates surrounding the use of 3D modelling technology in physical anthropology more broadly.

It was 25 years ago that Papers from the Institute of Archaeology (PIA) was launched by postgraduates at the Institute of Archaeology. In the introduction to the first issue David Harris, then Director of the Institute, described the role postgraduates played in creating the journal: ‘I am therefore delighted that several of our current research students have taken the initiative – and put in the necessary sustained effort – to launch Papers from the Institute of Archaeology (PIA). The appearance of this first issue of PIA is the result of much hard work by a dedicated group of postgraduates who not only assumed responsibility for the practicalities of production but also for extracting the contributions from their colleagues and editing them to a high standard! The result is a substantive contribution to archaeological scholarship…’ David Harris (1990) That opening shows a glimpse of the different roles that PhD students play in archaeology: contributors to archaeological scholarship, managers of journals, editors, and much more. It was the role of PhD students in archaeology that I was asked to write about as the opening for this, the 25th anniversary PIA lead article.

Accordia is an independent research institute that operates in association with the UCL Institute of Archaeology and with the Institute of Classical Studies, the School of Advanced Study, and the University of London. It is dedicated to the promotion and co-ordination of research in all aspects of Italy, from the earliest settlements to the recent past.Accordia organises lectures, research seminars, conferences and exhibitions on aspects of Italian archaeology and history, and publishes a journal, Accordia Research Papers, as well as research publications including specialist volumes, conference papers and excavation reports. A subscription is charged for those who want the journal, but all Accordia events are free and open to the public (for more information see the Accordia website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/accordia/index.htm).The annual lecture series, now in its 27th year, is a regular feature of the academic calendar. Seven lectures take place between October and May, each held at either the UCL Institute of Archaeology or the Institute of Classical Studies (Senate House). The lecturers include both early career and established scholars, and their topics range widely across Italian archaeology, history and art history. The lectures are aimed at both Italian specialists and the general public.This paper offers a review of the 2014–2015 Accordia Lectures. The series was particularly interesting, and covered a wide range of topics related to the archaeology and history of Italy, from prehistoric settlements to the reception of the Etruscan world.

This paper examines the osteological evidence for decapitation from 30 skeletal assemblages dated to the medieval period (6th to 16th century) from Ireland. This is the first time that these data have been examined in a comparative manner and across the population of medieval Ireland. Decapitation is traditionally presented and interpreted in the literature on a case study basis with decapitations being attributed to an action that was carried out as a direct result of warfare or as judicial practice. This paper aims to use the osteological data to examine these interpretations in terms of the Irish data and to use these data along with historical and literary sources to try to gain a fuller understanding of decapitation in medieval Ireland.

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The archaeology of smell is a burgeoning field in recent scholarship. This paper adds to existing literature by investigating the function of smell in relation to relic sales and veneration in medieval Europe, a hitherto understudied area of research. Collating historical texts concerning the translatio of saintly relics in Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire with archaeological sources associated with relic veneration and religious worship (including ampullae, unguentaria, sarcophagi, holy oils, pillow graves, and silk), this paper suggests that (1) smell was used in the medieval world as a means to challenge or confirm a relic’s authenticity, and (2) olfactory liquids that imbued or permeated material objects in the context of worship functioned as a means of focusing attention on relic veneration and were an essential part of the cult and/or pilgrimage experience.

This paper presents the results of an analysis of motifs identified on six carved wooden Romanesque portal panels from the Norwegian county of Telemark. The findings suggest that animal motifs in the Late Viking style survived long into the Late Medieval period and were reused on these medieval portals. Stylistically, late expressions of Viking animal art do not differ a great deal from those of the subsequent Romanesque style. However, their symbolical differences are considered to be significant. The motifs themselves, and the issue of whether the Romanesque style adopted motifs from pre-Christian art, have attracted less attention. The motif portraying Sigurd slaying the dragon is considered in depth. It will be suggested that Sigurd, serving as a mediator between the old and the new beliefs when he appeared in late Viking contexts, was given a new role when portrayed in Christian art. Metaphor and liminality are a central part of this paper, and the theories of Alfred Gell and Margrete Andås suggest that the portal itself affects those who pass through it, and that the iconography is meaningful from a liminal perspective.

This paper is a response to the Brexit, Heritage and Archaeology workshop, run at UCL in May 2017 and focuses on one of the areas where Brexit will affect heritage research and archaeology in practical terms – immigration. Discussing the potential consequences of implementing a points-based system for EU immigration to the UK, something which as a foreign national, the author has experienced.

This paper looks at the display of conserved fragmentary in situ archaeological remains in London and Athens. It examines such sites, conserved both indoors and outdoors, using a value-based approach, concentrating on public use values and academic values. These values are defined and then the paper explores, using sites from London and Athens, what effect the dominance of one set of values over the other during the decision making process may have in how these sites are displayed for the public and in how these sites are being sustained.

The 44th annual North American meeting of the Paleopathology Association (PPA) was held in New Orleans on the 18th–19th of April. The conference included a range of themes including a podium symposium “Vitamin D Deficiency: New Perspectives Under Past Light”. The papers and posters presented at the conference detailed a range of applications of pathological research, methodological considerations and the future of palaeopathological research.

‘Unravelling the Palaeolithic’ brings together research on all aspects of human evolution. This year’s conference was held at the University of Liverpool on the 11th and 12th February 2017, and included a diverse selection of papers on subjects including lithic analysis, Palaeolithic art, taphonomic analysis, and the role of ethnographic data in Palaeolithic studies.

The Society of Archaeological Masters Students Conference is an opportunity for UCL Institute of Archaeology masters students to present their research. This year’s conference included papers from MA Cultural Heritage Studies, MSc Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology, MSc Archaeological Science: Technology and Materials, and MSc Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology students. The event sparked discussion between students from all areas of the department, and showcased the impressive range of research currently undertaken at the Institute of Archaeology.

This paper aims to highlight developments in archaeological knowledge relating to dog remains found in deposits from Late Prehistoric contexts at sites along the Iberian Peninsula. Preliminary results from ongoing osteometric and 2D Geometric Morphometric studies applied to these remains are here presented and discussed to contextualize future studies by the author.

The European Fallow deer (Dama dama dama) became extinct in the British Isles and most of continental Europe at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, with the species becoming restricted to an Anatolian refugium (Masseti et al. 2008). Human-mediated reintroductions resulted in fallow populations in Rhodes, Sicily, Mallorca, Iberia and other parts of western Europe (Sykes et al. 2013). Eventually, the species was brought to Britain by the Romans during the 1st century AD, with a breeding population being established at Fishbourne Roman Palace (Sykes et al. 2011). The human influence on the present-day distribution of the species makes it particularly interesting from a zooarchaeological perspective. This paper describes my MSc research, as part of the AHRC-funded project Dama International: Fallow Deer and European Society 6000 BC–AD 1600, looking at ant- lers from Iron Age and Roman sites in Britain for evidence of trade in body parts and whether this can be elucidated by a parallel stable isotope study of modern fallow antlers of known provenance.

The Corning Archaeological Reference Glasses are widely used as standards in the chemical analysis of archaeological and historical glasses, as their compositions were designed to approximate those of major glass types in antiquity. Since their development in the 1960s, their compositions have been revisited and updated. This paper provides a brief overview of the Corning glasses, and addresses two of the last three elements to be re-evaluated: the recommended values for the concentrations of SO3 and Cl were, until now, based on theoretical values. Data for these elements were collected using electron microprobe, and used together with published data to suggest new values. Finally, a complete list with the most up-to-date compositions for the four Corning glasses is compiled for the benefit of other analysts.

Human populations exploited coastal areas with intensity during the Mesolithic in Atlantic Europe, resulting in the accumulation of large shell middens. Northern Spain is one of the most prolific regions, and especially the so-called Asturian area. Large accumulations of shellfish led some scholars to propose the existence of intensification in the exploitation of coastal resources in the region during the Mesolithic. In this paper, shell remains (molluscs, crustaceans and echinoderms) from stratigraphic units 114 and 115 (dated to the early Mesolithic c. 9 kys cal BP) at El Mazo cave (Asturias, northern Spain) were studied in order to establish resource exploitation patterns and environmental conditions. Species representation showed that limpets, top shells and sea urchins were preferentially exploited. One-millimetre mesh screens were crucial in establishing an accurate minimum number of individuals for sea urchins and to determine their importance in exploitation patterns. Environmental conditions deduced from shell assemblages indicated that temperate conditions prevailed at the time of the occupation and the morphology of the coastline was similar to today (rocky exposed shores). Information recovered relating to species representation, collection areas and shell biometry reflected some evidence of intensification (reduced shell size, collection in lower areas of exposed shores, no size selection in some units and species) in the exploitation of coastal resources through time. However, the results suggested the existence of changes in collection strategies and resource management, and periods of intense shell collection may have alternated with times of shell stock recovery throughout the Mesolithic.

On behalf of the editorial team I am delighted to introduce this 25th anniversary volume of Papers from the Institute of Archaeology. PIA was first published in 1990 by students at the Institute, in order to provide a means for postgraduate students to gain early experience in academic publishing, both as authors and editors. Over the last 25 years academic publishing, the Institute of Archaeology and postgraduate study have all changed greatly, and PIA has evolved alongside them.

This paper describes how palaeopathological or historical data can be used to investigate the comparative importance of internal or external causes of diseases that may affect bone. Two examples of the method are given: osteoarthritis of the costo-vertebral and costo-transverse joints of the spine, and the infectious disease, osteomyelitis. In the former case we suggest that the palaeopathological data support the view that internal factors are much the most important, since the characteristics of the disease are similar in skeletons widely separated in time and space. In the latter case, in which historical medical data have been used, it seems probable that the decrease in the prevalence of the disease in recent times has been due primarlly to external factors, particularly improvements in hygiene and diet. We hope that these findings will stimulate others to apply this methodology to other pathological considtions affecting the skeleton.

Hominin systematics, encompassing both taxonomy and phylogeny (Strait, 2013), has significant implications for how the evolution of species and traits are understood and communicated. Following a recent influx of fossils (e.g., Brown et al., 2004; Lordkipanidze et al., 2013; Villmoare et al., 2015a; Berger et al., 2015) the amount of diversity in fossil morphology has increased correspondingly. As researchers do not yet approach diversity in a uniform manner, the literature has been flooded with conflicting theories and methodologies (Strait, 2013). Particularly volatile has been the study of the origin of the genus Homo and the extent of variation therein: much controversy arises from conflicting views of the number of valid species subsumed within ‘early Homo’ given unspecified definitions of species and genera. Additionally, there is still a lack of understanding of the extent of and mechanism behind variation, especially within Hominina. The first section of the following paper addresses ‘how can species be identified?’ and ‘how should species be classified into higher taxa?’ The second section reviews the prevalent arguments used to systematise fossils frequently classified as ‘early Homo.’ It considers: the validity of Homo rudolfensis; the morphological, spatial & temporal overlap of earlier Homo with Homo ergaster; the systematic significance of the recently discovered LD 350-1; and finally, the appropriateness of ‘early Homo’ as an adaptive grade.

Metal detecting is a unique way of experiencing the historic landscape, allowing many amateurs to access heritage hands-on in a way that would otherwise be impossible, locating and unearthing their own fragment of the archaeological record. With a conservative estimate of 15,000 people currently detecting in the UK, and 1,122,998 objects recorded to date (October 2015) on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database since its inception in 1997, England’s historic places are being walked, searched and mapped by a significantly-sized population whose enthusiasm would be better off integrated into heritage programming, than rebuffed by it and misdirected elsewhere. Achieving this would not only have potential financial benefits for the sector, where cuts are prevalent, but also see the kind of community engagement that is regularly discussed but not often arrived at. Research by the author has shown that the majority of metal detectorists operating in the UK are members of clubs or societies with a local focus; 86% of detectorists (club members, or independent) report that they detect close to home. With a strong attachment to their home area and a good understanding of local history, the conscientious amongst them have been searching the same area for decades, building up a unique resource of artefactual and spatial data that informs a complex milieu of perception. These detectorists generate a unique attachment to the landscape on which they search – producing links between their own experienced version of the landscape and their perceived version of how it was experienced in the past, thus creating a very particular type of place-making. This paper begins by setting out the phenomenological method and the implications of this for studying the perception of landscape, before using qualitative and quantitative data from the author’s research into the attitudes of metal detectorists to consider what this means for metal detecting within a perceived landscape and, by association, how heritage professionals might best approach the issue.