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Basic Programme
Thursday 18th September
​9.00 - 16.00: Workshops
University of Leicester Main Campus​
19.00 - 21.30: Conference welcome drinks
Leicester Cathedral
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Friday 19th September
MAIN CONFERENCE
Brookfield Campus
8.00: Registration opens
9.00 - 12.15: Conference talks
12.15 - 13.15: Lunch
13.15 - 17.30: Conference talks
19.00 - 22.00: Conference dinner and BABAO quiz!
City Rooms
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Saturday 20th September
MAIN CONFERENCE
Brookfield Campus
8.00: Registration opens
9.00 - 12.15: Conference talks
12.15 - 13.00: Lunch
13.00 - 14.00: Annual General Meeting
14.00 - 17.30: Conference talks
Parallel Workshops
Thursday 18th September
We are running five workshops aimed at addressing current themes, methods, and issues relevant to the discipline. You can sign up to optional workshops at the end of the registration process. In-person attendance at the workshops is limited, so first-come-first-served!
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Check out the workshop descriptions below!
Please note that the workshops are almost all full. We cannot guarantee you a place, but please indicate your preference at checkout so that we can add you to the waiting list.
WORKSHOP 1: A practical introduction to Transition Analysis 3
9.00 - 16.00
Provided by George Milner and Jesper Boldsen​
In-person and partial online attendance available
Aging is one of the most important steps in developing the biological profile of skeletal remains. Despite this, macroscopic methods often struggle to accurately identify the ages of individuals, particularly those of older age whose changes may be subtle. In the current categorical system, these individuals are classified as one group, allowing for no gradation in later ages. Since the early 2000s, transition analysis, now in its latest iteration: TA3, has aimed to give point age estimates for older individuals. This workshop, hosted by the original authors of the TA3 method, will provide comprehensive training for participants. The workshop will consist of a full day divided into two sections, giving participants maximum exposure to the new method. The workshop will consist of practical and hybrid aspects. A seminar describing the new method and its practicalities will be offered in a hybrid format via Zoom. A practical workshop, involving the analysis of known-age individuals using TA3, will give in-person participants hands-on learning. Participant requirements: •Laptop with downloaded TA3 software (if possible, limited alternative laptops will be provided for in-person attendees) •Pen/pencil
IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE FULL!
WORKSHOP 2: A gentle introduction to R for bioarchaeologists
9.00 - 12.00
Provided by Bjørn Bartholdy​
In-person attendance only
This workshop equips (bio)archaeologists with practical skills in R programming, focusing on importing, cleaning, and visualising data. Through hands-on exercises and real-world case studies, participants will gain the confidence to analyse their archaeological datasets. The workshop covers the basics R, so no prior experience is required, making this workshop accessible to all (bio)archaeologists interested in enhancing their quantitative analysis skills. Participant requirements: •Laptop •Downloaded R and RStudio
FULL!
WORKSHOP 3: Understanding dental data with R
13.00 - 16.00
Provided by Bjørn Bartholdy​
In-person attendance only
This workshop will equip you with the ability to clean, visualise, transform, and model dental data (and understand the data through this iterative process) using the R programming language and RStudio. Participants will get hands-on experience working with real archaeological data, which will be provided for the workshop (you can also bring your own data if you are feeling adventurous). We will cover a variety of data visualisation techniques and basic statistical analysis in R. The basics of R will not be covered, so some prior experience is recommended; but it should still be possible for someone with no prior experience to join, making this course accessible to all osteoarchaeologists interested in enhancing their data analysis skills. Participant requirements: •Laptop •Downloaded R and RStudio
FULL!
WORKSHOP 4: Standardising the diagnosis of chronic maxillary sinusitis: A new approach developed by the Bioarchaeology Respiratory Network
9.00 - 12.00
Provided by Maia Casna and Anna Davies-Barrett
In-person attendance only
The assessment of evidence for maxillary sinusitis in archaeological human remains is becoming a popular topic of publication. Several established criteria are used to score sinusitis in human skeletal remains. However, existing descriptions are often outdated and open to interpretation, raising concerns about the comparability of results across studies. To address this issue, we are developing a new method supported by clearer definitions and stronger clinical foundations. We would love to have the input of the bioarchaeology community in the final developments of this method. This workshop will provide participants with the opportunity to test this new approach and provide feedback. The session will begin with a brief lecture outlining the revised method. Participants will receive an handout before a hands-on practical session, where they will apply the method to assess sinusitis in 10–15 skeletal specimens. At the end of the workshop, we will analyse the results to evaluate interobserver agreement and gather participant feedback through a short questionnaire assessing the clarity and usefulness of the revised descriptions and visual materials. Participant requirements: •None
FULL!
WORKSHOP 5: Bone lives: Interpreting human remains through osteobiographies
13.30 - 16.00
Provided by John Robb and Marianne Hem Eriksen
In-person attendance only
How do bioarchaeologists reach nuanced social interpretations of human remains? For example, how do we start from disconnected facts about a skeleton and build an osteobiography? This is a central practical skill in bioarchaeology. To build biographical knowledge, we have to choose lines of scientific analysis to prioritise and pursue (often making strategic use of limited resources); contextualise bioarchaeological paperwork in deep archaeological and historical context; foresee and confirm possible relations between biographical facts (for instance, age, risk and activity patterns); think about underlying conceptual issues such as the relation of gender and social age to the body; integrate or disconnect aspects of an individual’s experiences such as appearance, illness, foodways, and habitual activities; and, often, liaise with communities outside the academic world. We also have to balance probabilistic inferences and consider different modes of knowledge construction (scientific inference, social interpretation, narrative of various kinds, visual reconstruction) as appropriate for different goals and contexts. Constructing bioarchaeological knowledge of this kind is both deeply theoretical and an exercise in thinking with our hands. In this practical workshop, we invite participants to a serious but also playful exercise in skills building and critical reflection on constructing osteobiographies. Osteobiographies can provide bottom-up histories, where the body is centred as a plastic and emergent outcome of an individual’s experiences, illnesses, foodways, habitual activities and more — and constitutes a locus of social identity, gender ideals, and bodily aesthetics. Osteobiographies can address typical biases stemming from conventional focus on the most richly furnished or textually well-recorded individuals, providing human lives across the social spectrum. However, osteobiographies can also involve questioning tacit assumptions, confronting the limits of interpretation, strategic planning, and ethical implications. In this workshop, participants are given dossiers of bioarchaeological facts and work to develop osteobiographies for different individuals, strategically using research resources to pursue additional data (in a gamified scenario); based on this, we discuss the value and challenges of osteobiographical methods and story-telling through creative and critical reflection. Participant requirements: •We ask participant to the workshop to think about an osteobiography they’ve encountered in a museum exhibition or in research (we’ll circulate a list of some to consider), and think about what makes a successful or effective osteobiography for a particular purpose.