Graduate Student, Archaeology
Thesis Title: Health in the Medieval World: Regionality and the Bioarchaeology of Ireland and Britain
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Dr Barra Ó Donnabháin
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About
Thesis Description:
This study will provide the first assessment of the impact of regionality on the health of populations in late medieval Ireland and Britain using bioarchaeological methods to explore differences within and between the islands. Bioarchaeology, the contextualised study of archaeologically-retrieved human skeletal remains, is a relatively novel addition to the means by which archaeologists reconstruct the dynamics of past societies. Despite nearly two decades of bioarchaeological research in Ireland and Britain, little attention has been paid to regionality, even though the study of regions – which are defined and shaped by contact, trade, terrain, and disputes among people – has revealed that cultural, environmental and geographical differences impact health. Previous studies in health trends of late medieval Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales have pooled data to discuss “British” health, despite the fact that regional work in historical studies has provided evidence of distinct regional identities within Ireland and Britain, produced by the very different histories of the two islands. My research will for the first time test the validity of the assumption that skeletal remains from the two islands can be incorporated into one large data sample for health trends.
To achieve this, I will analyse and compare a number of markers of physiological stress across a range of archaeologically-retrieved skeletal collections from late medieval Ireland and England, Scotland and Wales. Research from tropical, sub-tropical, and temperate climates has shown that climate has no affect on overall health (Steckel & Rose 2002:567). In fact, climate was the only variable tested which showed no relevance, while all others appeared to have some involvement, including the size of the community, urban vs rural, diet (hunter/gatherers vs farmers), elevation, and terrain (Steckel & Rose 2002:563-579). My study will therefore proceed from the basis that any differences in biological responses relate to variations in the cultural environment. I will carry out inter-regional comparisons of Irish, English, Scottish, and Welsh collections. Once differences within the islands are quantified, a comparison between the islands will be carried out. Due to my project’s novelty, the study will form a baseline for any future comparisons both within and between the islands and will allow for a more truly contextualised study of health within and between the islands.
