Edinburgh Archaeology

This work was funded as part of @erc.europa.eu project “The Fall of 1200 BC” led by Barry Molloy @ucdarchaeology.bsky.social & an interdisciplinary team from institutions across Europe. Incl. publication co-leads @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social @ucph.bsky.social and the Museum of Vojvodina.

Buried together c. 2,800 years ago, the victims suffered violent deaths, in what researchers say was a planned act of large-scale violence. This was more than a simple ambush & that targeting these people was meant to send a grisly message to their wider community, the researchers argue.

Reconstruction of burial event: Sara Nylund

Women and children were deliberately targeted in one of the largest prehistoric mass killings discovered in Europe. The Gomolava burial sites in northern Serbia uncovered a grave containing the remains of more than 77 individuals, most of them women and children.

A large mass grave from the Early Iron Age indicates selective violence towards women and children in the Carpathian Basin - Nature Human Behaviour In this analysis of biomolecular and archaeological data from a ninth-century BCE mass grave in the Carpathian Basin, Fibiger et al. find evidence for the targeted killing of mostly unrelated women an...

‼️Published Open Access‼️ by joint 1st authors Dr Linda Fibiger @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social & M. Iraeta-Orbegozo in @natureportfolio.nature.com "A large mass grave from the Early Iron Age indicates selective violence towards women and children in the Carpathian Basin" www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵👇

Mass killing uncovered at ancient burial site | News | The University of Edinburgh An Iron Age burial site has revealed evidence of an unusual mass killing event of women and children, and a detailed plan to bury the victims together.

This ERC-funded research is published in Nature Human Behaviour, and was carried out by an international team co-led by the School. Find out more, edin.ac/3OZJHFs #History #Classics #Arcaheology #Edinburgh #Research #Violence @edinburgharchaeo.bsky.social

As a geologist who likes to read about history and archaeology, it's always a pleasure to be able to contribute to research papers on those topics.

Congratulations to our former MSc student Luisa and my amazing colleagues Sophie and @drbutty.bsky.social on a very cool CT method paper with some interesting implications about osteoporosis in medieval Scotland #MedievalSky #edinarch

Figure 6 from the study: Average MCI comparison for the age groups of females and males of the present study (Scottish), Wharram Percy (English) (Mays 1996) and Velia (Roman) (Beauchesne and Agarwal 2014). Under a CC BY 4.0 License.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Assessment of intracortical porosity revealed variance in bone quality that cannot be captured via assessment of MCI alone. This research was funded by the Archaeology Research Support Fund @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social (@edinburgh-uni.bsky.social) 3/3

Fig 7 from the study: Two middle adult females with similar Ct.Po but different MCI and Ct.Ar/Tt.Ar values. Lines show MCI measurement points. This includes a complete spur due to a trabecularised pore in the second tomographic slice. Palmar is up. Scale bar = 5 mm. Under a CC BY 4.0 License.

Figure 1 from the study: (A) Whole bone scan. (B) Diaphyseal volume of interest (VOI) scan of (C) tomographic slices of higher resolution for cross-sectional analysis. Under CC-BY 4.0 License.

🦴 This study introduces an updated protocol to assess the second metacarpal index (MCI) from μ-CT scans. The strong correlation between MCI & cortical area fraction indicates the efficacy of this parameter to assess cortical bone loss #edinarch #osteo onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 2/3

micro-CT scan cross-sections of metacarpals from the study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.70209. Credit: Luisa Less.

📣 Published #OpenAccess in AJBA @bioanth.org 📣 “The Use of Micro-CT Analysis of the Second Metacarpal to Assess Cortical Bone Loss in Archeological Human Skeletal Remains” by Luisa Less, @drbutty.bsky.social & Dr SL Newman onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 🩻 @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social 1/3

Funders: CAHSS CiF
@edinburgh-uni.bsky.social Natural Science Foundation of China (41930323), Bureau of International Cooperation of Department of Science & Technology of China (14814036), Biological Sciences Research Council Institute Strategic Programme grants BBS/E/D/20211553 & BBS/E/D/30002275

By studying populations with detailed knowledge of their habitats & human management, this study offers insight into how new environments influence animal phenotypes. It also suggest potential methods for tracking domestication & historical interactions between 🧍, 🐑🐄🐷 & their environments!

Map of the locations where the Soay sheep studied in this research lived - St Kilda (a remote island off the outer Hebrides in Scotland) and in Newmarket, Woburn and London, England.

🗺️ This research shows how feral Soay sheep translocated from the remote Scottish Island of St Kilda to flat pastures in England exhibit significant changes in bone morphology. Using 3D geometric morphometrics they analyzed 🐑 metacarpal bones & found their feet changed shape with environment! 👣🐾

Two horned adult Soay sheep grazing, with logs in the foreground and fencing behind them. Photo credit: Robin Bendrey.

🧑‍🔬The authors include Y. Wang (Nanjing University); A.F. Mohaseb @mnhn.fr; T. Marchant & J.J. Schoenebeck @roslininstitute.bsky.social @thedickvet.bsky.social; Z. Timmons & J.S. Herman @ntlmuseumsscot.bsky.social & our very own Professor R. Bendrey @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social 🐏 @soaysheep.bsky.social

Photograph of a Soay Sheep lamb with tags in its ears facing the camera, standing on grass. Source - A New Twist on an Animal Model Reveals Environmental Constraints on Selection. Gross L, PLoS Biology, Vol. 4/7/2006, e236. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0040236, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1479004

‼️Published @royalsociety.org Open Science‼️ "From rugged isles to managed pastures: morphological changes in Soay sheep (Ovis aries) metacarpal bones following anthropogenic translocation" @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social 🐑🐏 doi.org/10.1098/rsos... @soaysheep.bsky.social

Spatial distribution of sites included in the dataset. The size of the circle reflects the number of entries originating from a specific location, while colour intensity reflects their density. The map was created in QGIS 3.34 software using ESRI Terrain basemap.

Nested pie charts of the NEENA data. Distribution of the human and animal stable isotopic measurements in NEENA by isotope type and analysed component. Human data 76% collagen (d13C and d15N data predominantly, 1% d34S), 18% enamel, 6% other. Animal data 57% collagen (27% d13C, 27% d15N, 3% d34S), 41% enamel (19% d13C, 19% d18O), 2% other.

📣 New #OpenAccess Dataset 📣 led by @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social's Vera Haponava (PhD candidate), Prof Catriona Pickard & Ricardo Fernandes "The North-Eastern Europe and Northern Asia isotopic dataset of bioarchaeological samples (NEENA)" 🔗 rdcu.be/e2kNw 🧪 18700+ measurements! #IsoMemo #Pandora #NEENA

I can't wait to present our work on Central Brittany in Edinburgh. Thank you @guillaume-robin.bsky.social for the invitation.

🇫🇷 Thursday’s Research Seminar 12/2/26 @16:15 in the Meadows LT will be given by Dr Florian Cousseau (Durham) “Central #Brittany in the Middle #Neolithic: A Landscape Far from Empty” 🔗https://hca.ed.ac.uk/news-events/events/research-seminars/archaeology-seminars @hcaatedinburgh #edinarch #archaeology

Proud of my colleagues @earlymedieval.bsky.social et al. I saw the years of work that went into this firsthand.

Available NOW, free to read online, completely beautiful and packed with discoveries rewriting the end of Empire in Britain and beyond

☠️ The next Munro Lecture 12/03/26 is by Professor Sabrina C. Agarwal @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social 'Necropolitics in the collection: From colonial legacy to antiracist futures' FREE but booking is essential 🔗 http://hca.ed.ac.uk/updates-events/events/munro-lecture-necropolitics-in-the-collection

🦴 This week's ArchSoc/One Health Archaeology Research Group seminar will be by Simon Mays (Historic England) 'Osteoporosis past and present: Age-related deterioration in the nano-platelets of bone hydroxyapatite'. 🕰️📍 Thurs 5th February, Meadows LT, 16:15pm - all welcome! @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social

Congratulations! 🎉 welcome to the #EdinArch crew!

This Thurs 29 Jan the ArchSoc Archaeology research seminar is by Anna van der Weij PhD candidate @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social "Constructing the Limes: Burial Culture in Roman Period Netherlands" 🇳🇱 🕰️ 4:15pm in the Meadows LT @hcaatedinburgh.bsky.social All welcome! #EdinArch #Roman #archaeology

We meant January sorry everyone! Autocorrect! 😅

This seminar is on TODAY (Thurs 22nd of March) at 4:15pm in the Meadows Lecture Theatre! It’s FREE and open to all to attend!

☠️ This week’s OHA/ArchSoc research seminar is by Dr Jess Thompson (National Museums Scotland) “Curating Scotland’s Archaeological Human Remains: Past, Present & Future” 22/01 @ 16:15 in the Meadows LT 📷 Credit: Neil Hanna https://hca.ed.ac.uk/news-events/events/research-seminars/archaeology-seminars

International Fellowships 2026 The International Fellowships Programme enables researchers to work for two years at a UK institution with the aim of building a globally connected, mobile research and innovation workforce. Funding status Open for applications Career stage Early-career

Please help spread the word on this, especially to those who may be feeling cold winds towards their research.

We’ve opened the call for our International Fellowships, enabling early career researchers to work for two years at a UK research institution
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

Reminder this event is TODAY the 15th of January at 4:15pm GMT - details on our events pages 🔗 hca.ed.ac.uk/news-events/...

☠️ Our seminar 15/01 @ 4:15pm is by Prof @ancientchildren.bsky.social "Forgotten Children: The fetal and infant skeletal remains from the W.D. Trotter Anatomy Museum, New Zealand" @universityofotago.bsky.social NB: this seminar is online only. #edinarch #archaeology #osteology  📷 EDITH LEIGH

Calling all medieval scholars - uncover the gendered, continuous migration that shaped early England! ⚔️🧬

This #OpenAccess study presents the results of a large-scale isotopic meta-analysis of early medieval England which reveals migration patterns from c. AD 400–1100 👇