Iseabail Wilks
Research project
Identifying complex death rites in the early Neolithic of central Europe, using a novel combination of archaeothanatology and histotaphonomy.
Supervisor: Dr Penny Bickle
Before death was dealt with by medical or funeral specialists, mourners would have closely engaged with dead bodies. Yet, for prehistory, immediate inhumation after death is often assumed, with the grave interpreted as representing a static identity for the dead. Two scientific methodologies, archaeothanatology and bone histology, have the potential to reveal funerary treatment, and suggest more drawn out engagements with the dead. This study will be the first to combine and apply these methods to the earliest farmers of central Europe, revealing new understandings of deathwork during one of the transformative periods in human history.
This project is funded by the AHRC, through WRoCAH: https://wrocah.ac.uk/
