27-08-25
Joanna Brück
Joanna Brück is Professor of Archaeology at University College Dublin. She has developed novel approaches to understanding the treatment of the human body in Bronze Age mortuary and non-mortuary contexts, and she is currently PI of an ERC-funded project on the social role of animals in Bronze Age Europe. In this talk, she will consider how decolonial and posthumanist theoretical perspectives have the potential to enrich our interpretations of biomolecular data in archaeology.
Decolonizing European prehistory
In our troubled contemporary world, as archaeological sites are deliberately targeted in ongoing conflicts, it is impossible to ignore the link between archaeology and politics. In contrast, European prehistory has for me always seemed like a safe space – a place where we don’t need to worry about the kinds of injustices that Indigenous archaeologists have called out in other parts of the world, and where archaeological science can remain untroubled by the legacies of colonialism. In the past few years, however, I have come to realize that colonial thinking has had a profound impact even in my own specialist area, the Bronze Age of northwest Europe. The categorical distinctions we draw between culture and nature, between subject and object, have had major implications for our interpretations of European prehistory. In this talk, I will explore how this is evident firstly in our approaches to animals (which we tend to frame as food, wealth or symbols) and secondly in our understandings of kinship and the body (in which the social is often seen as secondary to the biological). I will consider how the insights provided by archaeological science can be productively combined with other forms of knowledge, such as Indigenous perspectives on agency, personhood and relatedness, to understand how social relations (including relations with non-human others) were created in prehistory.
Cristina Valdiosera
Dr. Cristina Valdiosera uses a bioarchaeological approach to investigate the human past in Burgos, where she leads the transinstitutional UBU-CENIEH group on Molecular Archaeology. Her particular focus is on her ERC Advanced Grant (AdMEXture) exploring the 500-year historical period shared between Mexico and Spain. In her talk she will share insights into the social and cultural aspects that affect admixture processes.
Biomolecular Echoes: The Unequal Footprint of Human History
Addressing inequalities using ancient biomolecular research provides a crucial window into the past, challenging simplistic narratives of human history. For example, ancient DNA research can illuminate the genetic inequalities of the past and present. This is more than just reading ancient genomes; it is interpreting the echoes of ancient lives, and those echoes carry the weight of social structures, power dynamics, and inequalities. These interpretations are empowered utilising multiple sources of evidence, emphasizing the necessity for multidisciplinary approaches and the alliance of local social and academic expertise. Understanding these ancient inequalities is crucial for contextualizing present-day disparities and fostering more inclusive and responsible scientific practices.
28-08-25
Shinya Shoda
Shinya Shoda is Head of the International Cooperation Section at Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Japan. In 2014-16, he was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship to conduct biomolecular archaeological research in BioArCh, University of York, UK, where he is currently affiliated as an Honorary Visiting Fellow. He studies East and Central Asian archaeology using molecular and isotopic analytical techniques on archaeological findings. His researchg interests include evolution, degeneration, and diversity of food and cooking in human history.
Expanding collaboration and social engagement through biomolecular archaeology
Biomolecular archaeology, which uses cutting-edge science and technology to unravel the mysteries of the past, is also a powerful tool for promoting collaboration among researchers in diverse academic fields and broader social engagement. In this lecture, the speaker will introduce his unique history of collaboration, taking examples of cooperation not only with field archaeologists and laboratory researchers across different countries, but also with non-academic experts such as professional chefs, food industry specialists, and even Japanese armour collectors. Diverse outreach activities for social participation will also be introduced, such as communications with researchers at police forensic institutes and restaurant owners. Based on the speaker’s experience, it is a fact that various issues can arise due to a lack of mutual understanding when collaborating with people from different backgrounds. However, this lecture aims to serve as an opportunity for the audience to rediscover the richness of biomolecular archaeology’s diverse applications and to celebrate its potential.
Enrico Cappellini
Enrico Cappellini is Professor of Palaeoproteomics at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Initially trained in protein biochemistry and molecular biology, during his doctoral internship Enrico started using ancient DNA from archaeological human remains. In the last decade, he has actively led the development of new palaeoproteomic methodologies aiming to push reliable recovery of ancient protein sequences millions of years old, while minimising the amount of starting material. As proteins endure, and remain informative, much longer than DNA, palaeoproteomics is currently the only viable methodology for retrieving the genetic data required to resolve evolutionary relations between vertebrate species that had disappeared millions of years ago. Some limitations though still need to be overcome to exploit the full potential of this approach.
Palaeoproteomics: what’s going on and what’s next
Palaeoproteomics has rapidly matured from a proof-of-concept technique into a cornerstone of biomolecular archaeology. Its established power lies in retrieving deep-time molecular information, often succeeding where ancient DNA fails. Recent applications contributed to: (i) reconstruct the phylogeny and diversity of extinct taxa, (ii) determine the sex of fragmentary fossil remains from tooth enamel peptides, and (iii) push the timeline for the recovery of genetic information beyond ten million years. Looking forward, the next phase of palaeoproteomics promises to move beyond simple protein identification towards more detailed biological narratives. The major frontiers include the systematic analysis of even older material, the recovery of richer proteomes, and the integration of machine learning for more sophisticated data interpretation. As analytical sensitivity improves, palaeoproteomics could address increasingly complex questions about human and animal evolution, human-environment interactions and more.
29-08-25
Judy Sealy
Judy Sealy holds the South African Research Chair in Stable Isotopes in Archaeology and Palaeoenvironmental Studies at the University of Cape Town. Her background as both an archaeologist and an isotope scientist has led her to engage deeply with the challenges of integrating fundamentally different types of evidence to reconstruct the past. Her talk will draw on studies of ancient diets, landscapes and settlement patterns in southern Africa to explore some of these issues, and reflect on changes in this fast-developing field.
A view from the South: Integrating biomolecular and archaeological approaches in South Africa
In southern Africa, biomolecular (mainly stable isotope) work has made a substantial contribution to reconstructing past diets and by extension, landscape use and social organisation. Most work has focussed on the Holocene, but some involves fossil hominins several million years old. This research extends over several decades, and I will offer some comments on how (whether?) our work can be linked to developing theoretical perspectives in archaeology. These impact very differently on different areas of archaeology; at the more recent end of the time scale, they are instrumental in framing research questions. How successful have we been in linking important research questions with appropriate biomolecular tools for answering them? What are the implications of inherent biases in the data we produce? The interplay between biomolecular and archaeological approaches highlights significant strengths and limitations of both.
