Aging, Health, and Bone Loss in Medieval Italy (Pieve di Pava)
Sabrina Agarwal, Professor
Anthropology
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2025.
Working with human skeletal remains from archaeological sites, bioarchaeologists can help to reconstruct health profiles of past peoples. While there is good deal of historical and archaeological research on the later Middle Ages in Europe and more specifically in Italy, bioarchaeological studies of from Medieval Italy have focused primarily on high status individuals and particularly the ravages of the Black Death. There has been limited study of the biological signatures of growth, aging/disability, and activity patterns in Medieval peasant communities. The study of differential patterns of everyday experience across age, sex and status groups can tell us much about life experience and the formation and variability of social identity Medieval Italy.
This project is part of a larger project looking at bioarchaeological markers of health and disease in skeletal remains excavated from the rural Italian parish cemetery from the site of Pieve di Pava (Siena) dated to the 8th-13th century. This projects examines bone health at the level of bone remodeling and turnover, by looking at patterns of variation in cortical bone remodeling in the rib.
The undergraduate student involved in this project will be trained in histological methods for quantifying cortical bone morphology (called histomorphometry) in the rib from adult skeletons excavated from medieval Pava. Student will help prepare archaeological rib samples for embedding and creation of thin microscopic sections, and introduced how we look at the specimens under the microscope to quantify health differences.
Role: The undergraduate student involved in this project will be provided with a background in the (bio)archaeology of Medieval site of Pieve di Pava where samples are from, as well as skeletal biology topics related to bone remodeling, bone loss and aging, and health at the histological level. The student will be trained in the procedures for preparing skeletal tissues for cortical bone analysis (cutting, resin embedding, slide preparation and mounting) and will be introduced to methods to measure each sample using microscopic and computer-assisted techniques for histomorphometric analysis. This training is valuable for any student interested in a career in anthropology, biology, medicine, biomedical research, forensic anthropology, and human osteology.
Qualifications: To be a good candidate for this job you should be highly detail-oriented, organized, reliable, patient, diligent, and coordinated for delicate hands-on work. Applicants must be willing to work carefully and respectfully with ancient human skeletal materials. Histology is an incredibly detailed, time-consuming process, so applicants who showcase concentration for extended periods of time and patience will be prioritized. Students must be willing to follow proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) protocols and standard operating procedures within
lab. Prerequisites: having taken or current enrollment in
Anth 127A (Skeletal Biology/Bioarchaeology), human anatomy, osteology, or otherwise knowledge of human skeletal system and bone biology.Skills with Excel and any statistical software (SPSS, JMP, R) would also be great. The time commitment for this job is 6-8 hours/week.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Jeffrey Seckinger, Graduate Student
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Social Sciences