A Song of Ice and Fire – but mainly fire…

Categories Research

I presume that I’m not the only one who watched the start of episode 4 of this final season of Game of Thrones, and as the emotional memorial of the dead took place, and we said goodbye to some of our favourite heroes, turned to their partner and said solemnly, “Those are some efficient pyre constructions there”… As we know, I’m a big fan of GoT – I even use it in my teaching and take valuable leadership lessons from it (for example, I am…Continue Reading “A Song of Ice and Fire – but mainly fire…” →

Back of the net!

Categories Learning & Teaching, Outreach

This weekend I was able to head over to the Riverside to watch Boro play QPR. It’s the first time I’ve seen them play as well as they did – looking (mostly) in control and putting together some really nice passing – Barca on the Tees… It’s not the first time I’ve been to the Riverside though, but this time it did jog my memory of something that we tried many years ago which I hadn’t thought about in ages – our attempt to get kids…Continue Reading “Back of the net!” →

veni vidi vici

Categories Outreach, Research

The problem with having friends is that they invariably ask you to do things for them, and you can’t say no. This is one of the reasons why I generally try to avoid social connections – although I undermine my own principle here by being an absolute delight to be around… It was just such a request that took me to the docks in London… I’ve said before how much I enjoy visiting the Museum of London, and more so because I am good friends…Continue Reading “veni vidi vici” →

Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus

Categories Field Work, Research

To my shame, I knew very little about the history of Cyprus before I went there earlier this month. I knew our military went there, and that British youth head there for debauched holidays, but that’s about it. When we got to Cyprus, and after my eyes had adjusted to that unusual bright thing in the sky in January, the first thing that surprised me was how British the place was. Three-pronged plugs, roundabouts, pelican crossings. Naturally our first thought was “Ahh, this is another…Continue Reading “Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus” →

Sibling Rivalry…

Categories PGR, Research

This month saw our PhD student and resident lover-of-puns, Sam Griffiths take his viva. Readers of our old blog will remember that Sam has spent a number of years investigating the effect of submersion of bone in water. It was a complex piece of research which sought to bring together a range of analytical methods. He did experimental work, field work, scanning, all sorts. Wonderfully, he aced his viva, and is now Dr Sam Griffiths! Sam was based primarily at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton,…Continue Reading “Sibling Rivalry…” →

I couldn’t think of a clever title for this post, so my son suggested “Bits and Bones” and actually that’s pretty spot on…

Categories Research

This weekend has seen over 100 osteology nerds descend onto the unsuspecting city of Liverpool for the 3-day British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology 2017 conference! BABAO runs an annual conference in September which roams around the country, settling at host universities too slow to take a step back when volunteers are asked for. This year it was Liverpool John Moores‘ turn. No bad thing, as Liverpool is a lively, fun city to visit and steeped in history. I guess, though, that this is…Continue Reading “I couldn’t think of a clever title for this post, so my son suggested “Bits and Bones” and actually that’s pretty spot on…” →

It’s all SEM-antics, really…

Categories Research

Working with my excellent ex-PhD student, Dr Sarah Ellingham (who, I’m proud and delighted to say, now works for the ICRC), we’ve put out a paper which presents a quick and affordable way of determining whether bone has been burned by using an SEM. One of the problems with the march of science, is that said science can be expensive to do, and therefore limits the countries and contexts in which is can be used. This is something that I’ve discussed before as a limiting…Continue Reading “It’s all SEM-antics, really…” →