Brussels Bioarchaeology Lab

Celebrating the start of the academic year with our @amgc-flux-team.bsky.social friends 🥼😎🎓🔥☀️

@amgc-vub.bsky.social

🗣️ New paper! 🗣️

The mobility patterns of the population of Gallo-Roman Tienen (Belgium) are keeping you up at night? Wondering if there is more than mobility reflected in these 87Sr/86Sr results? This is very relatable, and conveniently, I have the right paper for you! It's accessible right there 👇

We are on our way to @isba11.bsky.social 🚅 Ready for a week of archaeology and science
🏺🦴🦷🧪⚛️🥼🍝🍕

Our bioavailable strontium baseline for Corsica is out! ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ranges from 0.7075 to 0.7169 and was established from 245 plant & soil leachate samples from 125 sites.

Check out the article here lnkd.in/e6pDJFCY
and the dataset can be downloaded from the IsoArcH database here lnkd.in/eFNS5Xbw

Congratulations #TEFRA team for this accomplishment and thank you, Sevi Triantaphyllou for inviting us to form part of this!

Ευχαριστώ ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Finally, @christophe-fire.bsky.social extinguished the fire with a Keynote presentation 🔥🧯

@elliestam.bsky.social talked about how seasonality affects the cremation environment ❄️🌸☀️🍁, and what happens when bone reaches extremely high temperatures 🌡️🔥🦴

Yannis Chatzikonstantinou presented his work on cremations from Crete and results of experimental work 🏺🔥

Paula Becerra talked about her research on chalcolithic cremations of Los Milanes (Spain), presenting results about analytical and experimental approaches 🧪🦴🪵🔥

Vasso Papathanasiou showed us how people cremated their death in Macedonian Iron Age at the sites of Polichni and Nea Philadelphia 🔥🪵

Guy de Mulder and @orianachiappa.bsky.social presented their most recent research on the lime burials of the Balearic Islands 🏝️⛰️🔥

This weekend our team traveled to Thessaloniki to celebrate the end of the #TEFRA project with two days of exciting conferences! 🔥🔥

Prepping for the Phytolith Morphometry Workshop at #IMPR2025 in Barcelona this July!

We’ll dive into the some hands-on 3D modelling of phytoliths.

👉 For scholars attending the IMPR, please feel free to attend the workshop by registering before May 31!

Group of researchers sitting around table with laptops smiling at the camera.

📣 Data, data, data 📣

The BBLAB crew spent the day compiling our isotope data in the @isoarch.bsky.social version 3.0 database! Thanks @isotopistrachel.bsky.social & @tloeffelmann.bsky.social for teaching us the ropes 🧗🏻‍♀️
#openaccessdata #archaeology #fairandcare

🔷 Join us on Friday (online)! 🔷

@brusselsbioarch.bsky.social
@amgc-vub.bsky.social
@open-phytoliths.bsky.social

Reconstructing Life Histories: New Insights Into Cremation Practices, Mobility, and Food Consumption Patterns Through Isotope and Infrared Analyses of Petrous Parts and Teeth This graph shows the strontium results of the individuals from Herstal, Belgium.

📢 New paper alert! 📢

I’m really happy to share our latest publication in AJBA! We explore how sampling cremated petrous parts & teeth helps reconstruct life histories and cremation practices 🔥. You can find our paper through this link: doi.org/10.1002/ajpa... (1/6)

Paper Alert 🔥
Want to learn more about Roman cremations?
Can’t sleep because you keep thinking about how the Romans burned their dead?
Then don't miss our latest paper & download it for free here: kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

🌿 I’m excited to be speaking at the upcoming Open Research Meeting.

Join us to discuss how we can share phytolith images more openly within the community.

🗓️ 9 May, 16:00–17:00 UTC+1
💻 Online
🔗 Register: turing-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Received a tour at the excavations of the (first) castle of the counts of Flanders in Ypres today! A very exciting find regarding the earliest history of the city, and for my research on the city's earliest city-dwellers... 🏰 @amgc-vub.bsky.social @shoc-vub.bsky.social

The LOCO project is looking for 2 PhDs and 2 Post-docs in (bio-)archaeology, history, geochemistry, and digital humanities. This joint project between VUB, KUL, and UGent looks at the mobility of people, materials, and ideas in the Low Countries. Apply before 30 April 2025 😀

Join us in Belgium! Two PhD and two postdocs are available on the LOCO project. Its a great opportunity to work with a large interdisciplinary team examining the mobility of people, materials and ideas 💡

Last Friday I had the pleasure to give a talk at the @ulbruxelles.bsky.social on radiocarbon dating in archaeology.

Thanks to Alicia Van Ham-Meert, Yaël Antonaros and Kristin Bartik for the invitation! Lovely to catch up with you all, @christophe-fire.bsky.social, & @brusselsbioarch.bsky.social 🙏💙

Next time you feel the sharp sting of a nettle (Urtica), think of its fascinating stinging microhairs - here around 150–200 µm in length - with irritating chemicals stored in their bulbous heads. The study study investigates plant silica bodies (phytoliths), including these microhairs and other morphotypes, of extant dicotyledons prevalent in North-Western Europe, establishing a baseline for botanical, archaeobotanical, and palaeoecological research.

🎉 Good news! The paper ‘Phytoliths in dicotyledons occurring in Northwest Europe: establishing a baseline’ by R. Hermans et al. is now #free for a limited time 1/7

👉 doi.org/pdrp

@rosaliehermans.bsky.social
@christophe-fire.bsky.social
@caestromberg.bsky.social
@tloeffelmann.bsky.social

Phytoliths in dicotyledons occurring in Northwest Europe: establishing a baseline AbstractBackground and Aims. The absence of a modern plant-based ‘dicotyledon’ phytolith reference baseline impedes the accurate interpretation of fossil p

🌿🏺This study lays the foundation for refining NW Europe's phytolith reference database. With more data, we can better reconstruct ancient environments and human-plant interactions. (7/7)

👉 doi.org/pdrp

@brusselsbioarch.bsky.social
@stromberglab.bsky.social
@amgc-vub.bsky.social

#AoBpapers

It was hard work…what can I say…..🤣

Can't wait to see what you find! 🤩

Follow @osteolady.bsky.social @charlottevanriet.bsky.social for more updates on this cool project!! 🏺🤩

📞 Ypres calling! Special delivery📦🚚

Barbara, Martijn, and Charlotte visited the BAAC depot last Friday and collected the first batch of skeletons from the Sint-Maarten parish in Ypres🦴

But who were these medieval city-dwellers, and where did they come from..?🧪💀

Like for part 2?🤔

#Sr&O #osteology

Great work by @rosaliehermans.bsky.social and team on developing an expanded baseline for NW Europe 🌱🔬🔥

Phytoliths in dicotyledons occurring in Northwest Europe: establishing a baseline AbstractBackground and Aims. The absence of a modern plant-based ‘dicotyledon’ phytolith reference baseline impedes the accurate interpretation of fossil p

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨
(1/5) Excited to share that our latest paper on dicotyledon phytoliths in NW Europe can now be found here! 🌱🔬 This study fills a gap by documenting and analyzing phytoliths from 74 dicot species.

If you want a free access link to the paper, contact us! 📩