Dr Paola Ponce
Lecturer in Osteoarchaeology

Profile

Biography

Paola took her BSc in Biological Anthropology at Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Buenos Aires, Argentina) in 2002, then received her MSc in Human Osteology and Palaeopathology at Bradford University in 2004 and her PhD in Palaeopathology at Durham University in 2010 with a Durham Doctoral Fellowship Award.

She worked commercially for Archaeology South-East (University College London) between 2012-2017, carrying out excavation and post-excavation assessment and analysis of human and cremated remains spanning temporally from Neolithic to post-medieval times.

In 2017, she was appointed as an Associate Lecturer in Osteoarchaeology in the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, where she teaches Practical Skills: Human and Animal Bones and contributes to World Archaeology: Settlements and Society, Introduction to Archaeological Sciences, the Archaeology of the Human Skeleton and Skeletal Evidence for Health in the Past.

Research

Overview

My current research interests include the study of health and disease in past populations, particularly British, European, and Amerindians from South America, the history of medicine, and the funerary archaeology of human remains.

Some of the most recent examples include:

• Paget's disease in medieval Lincoln, Lincolnshire
• Biomolecular approach to identify smallpox in the archaeological record
• Cranial trepanations during the Anglo-Saxon period in England
• Historic archaeology: palaeopathology of Quakers from Southern England
• Mercury content in skeletons with syphilis from London
• Isolated and deviant Saxon burials in Southern England
• Palaeopathology of a Saxon population from Soham, Cambridgeshire
• History of medicine: cranial dissections and amputations in post-medieval England
• Hip prosthesis in contemporary skeletal collections from Argentina
• Paediatric palaeopathology: Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease in post-medieval London
• Palaeopathology of Neolithic human remains from southern England
• Activity-related/occupational diseases in native Americans from South America

Available Masters and PhD supervision

I am currently supervising Undergraduate, Masters and PhD dissertations, and I am open to supervising students willing to research any aspect of the above-mentioned topics and other themes related to osteoarchaeology and palaeopathology of past populations.

Grants

• 2023 Society of Antiquaries of London
• 2017 Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology
• 2016 Prehistoric Society's new Collections Study Award
• 2016 ArtFund: The Jonathan Ruffer Curational Grants Programme
• 2015 British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO) Commercial Grant Scheme
• 2015 The City of London Archaeological Trust (CoLAT)
• 2009-2006 Durham Doctoral Fellowship Award. PhD research grant

Supervision

-PhD Thesis Supervised

Aster Wood 2021-2025: Before and after: how the societal transition after the fall of the Roman Empire affected the health of British people

-External PhD Examiner/Panel Member

2026- Ginevra Anna Panzarino: Universidad de Valencia

2024- Alessia Larini: Universidad de Valencia

2023- Llorenç Alapont Martín: Universidad de Valencia

2020- Emma Saunders: Cranfield University

Publications

Selected publications

          SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS

• Frederick R., Ponce P. (2025) Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease: past and present. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 35 (2): 1-17.

• Anastasiadou K. Silva M. Booth T. Speidel L. Audsley T. Barrington C. Buckberry J. Fernandes D. Ford B. Gibson M. Gilardet A. Glocke I. Keefe K. Kelly M. Masters M. McCabe J. McIntyre L. Ponce P. Rowland S. Ruiz Ventura J. Swali P. Tait F. Walker D. Webb H. Williams M. Witkin A. Holst M. Loe L. Armit I. Schulting R. Skoglund P. (2024) Detection of chromosomal aneuploidy in ancient genomes. Communications Biology 4 (14): 1-9.

• Chidimuro B. Doherty S. Finch J. Ponce P. Eggington J. Delaney S. Speller C. Collins M. Holst M. Alexander M. (2023) North and South: Exploring isotopic analysis of bone carbonates and collagen to understand post-medieval diets in London and northern England. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 1-17.

• Gretzinger J. Sayer D. Justeau P. Altena E. Pala M. Dulias K. Edwards C. Jodoin S. Lacher L. Sabin S. Vågene Å, Haak W. Ebenesersdóttir S. Moore K. Radzeviciute R. Schmidt K. Brace S. Abenhus Bager M. Patterson N. Papac L. Broomandkhoshbacht N. Callan K. Harney É. Iliev L. Lawson A. Michel M. Stewardson K. Zalzala F. Rohland N. Kappelhoff-Beckmann S. Both F. Winger, D. Neumann D. Saalow L. Krabath S. Beckett S. Van Twest M. Faulkner N. Read C. Barton T. Caruth J. Hines J. Krause-Kyora B. Warnke U. Schuenemann V. Barnes I. Dahlström H. Jark Clausen J. Richardson A. Popescu E. Dodwell N. Ladd S. Phillips T. Mortimer R. Sayer F. Swales D. Stewart A. Powlesland D. Kenyon R. Ladle L. Peek C. Grefen-Peters S. Ponce P. Daniels R. Spall C. Woolcock J. Jones A. Roberts A. Symmons R. Rawden A. Cooper A. Bos K. Booth T. Schroeder H. Thomas M. Helgason A. Richards M. Reich D. Krause J. & Schiffels S. (2022) The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool. Nature 1-8.

• Munnery T. Doherty A. Raemen E. Ponce P. Sibun L. Vitolo M. (2023) Bronze Age and early Roman occupation in the High Weald: excavations on land at Ingrams Farm, Ninfield, East Sussex. Sussex Archaeological Collections 161: 31-61.
  

• Ponce P. (2022) Object-based learning in higher education: the case of using human skeletal remains in archaeology at the University of York. York Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Journal 5: 43-52.

• Eggington J. Ponce P. (2022) A study of the relationship between Schmorl’s nodes, body mass, and stature in two archaeological populations. The Post Hole 59: 1-25.

• Molloy T. Bishop B. Hayward K. Seager-Thomas M. Thompson G. Ponce P. Alott L. Vitolo M. Copeland P. (2021) Bronze Age funerary and later prehistoric activity at Badminston Farm, Fawley, Hampshire. Hampshire Studies 76 (1): 1-34.

• Shapland M. Ponce P. Sheehan G. Alexander M. Allot L. Barber L. Baldi E. Benedetti-Whitton I. Doherty A. Hart D. Le Hégarat K. Johnson E. Raemen E. (2021) From Quaker burial ground to WW1 hospital: archaeological investigations at the Corn Exchange, Brighton. Sussex Archaeological Collections 159: 173-193.

• Ramsøe A. van Heekeren V. Ponce P. Fischer R. Barnes I. Speller C. Collins M. (2020) DeamiDATE 1.0: site-specific deamidation as a tool to assess authenticity of members of ancient proteomes. Journal of Archaeological Sciences 115, 105080.

• Murphy P. Marshall P. Hajdas I. Palstra S. Ponce P. Baker P. Kenny J. Lobb M. (2020) New archaeological recording on the beach at Medmerry, near Selsey, West Sussex. Sussex Archaeological Collections 158: 191-213.

• Bleasdale M. Ponce P. Radini A. Wilson A. Doherty S. Brown C. Spindler L. Sibun L. Speller C. Alexander M. (2019) Multidisciplinary investigations of the diets of two post-medieval populations from London using stable isotopes and microdebris analysis. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11: 6161-6181.

• Sygrave J. Allen A. Barber L. Clifford T. Doherty A. Forsyth H. Le Hégarat K. Mooney D. Ponce P. (2016) Whitehawk Camp. The impact of a modern city’s expansion on a Neolithic causeway enclosure, and a reassessment of the site and its surviving archive. Sussex Archaeological Collections 154: 45-66.

• Ponce P. Novellino P. (2014) A palaeopathological example of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease from Argentina. International Journal of Paleopathology 6: 30-33.

• Ponce P. Ogden A. (2013) Ectopic lower third permanent molar within the mandibular condyle: an archaeological example. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 23: 367-369.

• Ortner D. Ponce P. Ogden A. Buckberry J. (2012) Multicentric osteosarcoma associated with DISH in a 19^th Century burial. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 22: 245-252.

• Ponce P. (2010) Biosocial aspects of sexual division of labour among prehistoric Chinchorro people. Society, Biology & Human Affairs 75 (1): 41-65.

• Kothari A. Ponce P. Arriaza B. O’connor-read L. (2009) Osteochondritis dissecans of the knee in a mummy from northern Chile. The Knee 16 (2): 159-160.

• Ponce P. Sardi M. Pucciarelli H. (2001) Análisis funcional en cráneos deformados del noroeste Argentino. Revista Argentina de Antropología Biológica 3 (2): 94-98.

• Pucciarelli H. Sardi M. Luis M. Lustig A. Ponce P. Zanini M. Neves W. (1999) Posición de los Araucanos en un contexto Asiático-Europeo. I Metodología Funcional. Revista Argentina de Antropología Biológica 2 (1): 163-186.
• Luis M. Lustig A. Sardi M. Ponce P. Pucciarelli H. (1999) Posición de los Araucanos en un contexto Asiático-Europeo. II Metodología Howelliana. Revista Argentina de Antropología Biológica 2 (1): 187-200.

          BOOK

• Sibun, L., Ponce P. (2018) In Life and Death. Archaeological Excavations at the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy, London. SpoilHeap Monograph N°17.

          BOOK CHAPTER

• Caffell A. Holst M. Ponce P. (2023) Osteological analysis, Burnby Lane and The Mile. In: Chariots, Swords and Spears: Iron Age Burials at the Foot of the East Yorkshire Wolds. Stephens M. (Ed). Oxbow: 168-191.

• Ponce P. (2011) South America (coordinator). In: The Routledge Handbook of Archaeological Human Remains and Legislation: an International Guide to Laws and Practice in the Excavation and Treatment of Archaeological Human Remains. Márquez-Grant N., Fibiger L. (Eds). Routledge: 575-576.

          MONOGRAPH SECTION

• Dawkes G. Doherty A. Barber L. Butler C. Clifford T. Hinton P. Le Hégarat K. Lyne M. Seager Thomas M. Sibun L. Rudling D. Ponce, P. (2024) Place of the Hawks: Prehistoric, Roman and later activity at Hawkinge, Kent 1993–2006 ASE report N° 2024028.

• Margetts A. Douglas C. Adams S. Barber L. Doherty A. Ponce P. (2023) The Pynde: a Reused Late Iron Age/ Early Romano-British Enclosure at Haywards Heath, West Sussex. In: Out of the Weald, The Secret Weald. Margetts A. Doherty A. Douglas C. Nicholls H. Stevens S. (Eds). SpoilHeap Occasional Paper N°14: 125-139.

• Ponce P. (2019). Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age Skeletal Remains. In: A View from the Edge. Archaeological Investigation on the Manhood Peninsula, Selsey for the Medmerry Managed Realignment Scheme. Stephenson P. Krawiec K. (Eds) SpoilHeap Monograph N°20: 480-482.

          CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

• Ponce P. (2012) A comparative study of markers of occupational stress in coastal fishers and inland agriculturalists from northern Chile. In: Proceedings of the Twelve Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology. Mitchell P. Buckberry J. (Eds) British Archaeological Reports International Series 2380: 71-85. Oxford: Archaeopress.

• Ponce P. Ghidini G. Gonzalez-José R. (2008) External auditory exostosis “at the end of the world”. The southernmost evidence according to the latitudinal hypothesis. In: Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology. Brickley M., Smith M. (Eds). British Archaeological Reports International Series 1743:101-107. Oxford: Archaeopress.

• Arabaolaza I. Ponce P. Boylston A. (2007) Skeletal Analysis. In: Out of Darkness, Cometh Light. Life and Death in 19^th Century Wolverhampton: excavation of the overflow burial ground of St. Peter’s Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton 2001-2002. Adams J., Colls, K. (Eds.) British Archaeological Reports British Series 442: 39-70. Oxford: Archaeopress.

• Arabaolaza I. Ponce P. Boylston A. (2007) Industrial accident or deliberate amputation? Three case studies from a Victorian population in Wolverhampton, West Midlands. In: Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology. Zakrzewski S., Clegg M., White B. (Eds) British Archaeological Reports International Series 1712: 36-42. Oxford: Archaeopress.

          ARCHAEOLOGY DATA SERVICE ARCHIVES

• Ponce P. Holst M. (2022) Osteological Analysis Mile End Pocklington East Riding of Yorkshire [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1095747

          ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA

• Karen Bernofsky, Francisca Alves Cardoso, Charlotte Henderson, Tina Jakob, Kimberly Plomp, Paola Ponce, Charlotte Roberts, Jennifer Sharman and Rosa Spencer, (2012), PALAEOPATHOLOGY: Studying the Origin, Evolution and Frequency of Disease in Human Remains From Archaeological Sites, in Archaeology, [Eds.UNESCO-EOLSS Joint Commitee], in: Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the Auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Oxford, UK [http://www.eolss.net]

          NEWSLETTER

• Cansfield D. Maxted A. Ponce P. (2017) The Brighton & Hove Prehistoric Peoples Research Project. The Newsletter of the Prehistoric Society N° 86: 7-9.

Teaching

Undergraduate

Undergraduate Year 2

• Practical Skills: Human and Animal Bones (Module leader)
• World Archaeology: Settlements and Society (Contributor)

Undergraduate Year 1

• Introduction to Archaeological Sciences (Contributor)

Postgraduate

• The Archaeology of the Human Skeleton (Contributor)
• Skeletal Evidence for Health in the Past (Contributor)

External activities

Memberships

Member of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO)

Member of the Paleopathology Association (PPA)

Editorial duties

2026-today: Editorial Board Member for Archaeological Studies

Reviewer of manuscripts for several academic journals:

• International Journal of Paleopathology
• International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
• Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
• Anthropological Science
• Nature Communications
• Archaeometry
• PLOS ONE
• Chungará
• Revista Argentina de Antropología Biológica
• Runa

Invited talks and conferences

Outreach activities and public talks

• 2025: The palaeopathology of the early Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Fordham Road, Soham, Cambridgeshire. Talk given to CIfA Human Osteoarchaeology SIG.
• 2022: The Anglo-Saxon Way of Death, Mourning, and Grief. Talk given at York's Good Dead Festival.
• 2021: First insights into the population and their health at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at the Lincoln Bypass. Talk given to the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology.
• 2020: The human skeleton and the evidence of disease, surgery, vanity, and fatal trauma. Talk given at The Novium Museum.
• 2018: An Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Fordham Road, Soham: preliminary results on the human skeletal remains. Talk given to the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.
• 2017: Family Archaeology Day. Displaying human remains at Brighton Museum.
• 2017: The application of scientific techniques in commercial archaeology. Talk given to the Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society.
• 2016: The value of human remains in archaeology. Talk given at Brighton Museum.
• 2015: The autopsy of the skeleton. Talk given to the Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society.
• 2015: Whitehawk Camp. Displaying Neolithic human remains at the Brighton Museum. Talk given at Brighton Museum.
• 2014: The Autopsy of bones: sex and dissection. Talk given at The Novium Museum.
• 2013: Scientific techniques and the study of human remains. Talk given to the Surrey Archaeological Society.
• 2013: The autopsy of the skeleton. Talk given to the Novium Museum.
• 2008: The Victorian way of life: a palaeopathological perspective. Talk given to the Bradford Language Centre.

Museum engagement 

2017-2018 collaboration with the Museum of Brighton (East Sussex) in relation to the launch of the Archaeology Gallery at the end of 2018 and the analysis and display of 5 skeletons representing the early inhabitants of the city from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Romano-British and Saxon periods.

Media coverage

Newspaper

• 2018 Article: Reburial of the human remains belonging to the Quakers from Brighton, East Sussex
• 2017 Article 1: Human remains from Ramsgate, Kent
• 2017 Article 2: Human remains from Ramsgate, Kent

Web

• 2023 Brighton and Hove Museums: Bishopstone Anglo-Saxon cemetery publication
• 2017 Interview: Quaker burial ground in the Corn Exchange, Brighton Dome
• 2017 Museumcrush.org Presentation: Iron Age skeleton curated at the Brighton Museum