Staff

Dr Becky Gowland

Contact (email at rebecca.gowland@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

I studied for my undergraduate degree at this very Department and it was during this time that I first developed an interest in studying human bones. On completing my degree, I spent a year working for various archaeological units; excavating sites of all periods and types from settlements to cemeteries. This work gave me the opportunity to excavate and analyse human skeletal remains from a number of different archaeological contexts. Having enjoyed this experience immensely, I subsequently undertook the MSc in Osteology, Palaeopathology and Funerary Archaeology taught jointly between the Universities of Sheffield and Bradford. It was during this time that I began to specialise in skeletal ageing techniques and age as an aspect of social identity, and I returned to the Durham University to pursue this subject at doctoral level. During the course of my PhD I also became interested in the divide between science and social theory in archaeology and the implications of this for human skeletal analysis and funerary archaeology. This became the subject of a book that I recently co-edited with Dr Chris Knüsel (University of Bradford).

After completing my PhD, I took up the post of Postdoctoral Research Assistant back at the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, where I worked on a project examining skeletal indicators of age-at-death and the palaeodemography of both catastrophic and attritional skeletal assemblages. On completing this post I was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at St John’s College, University of Cambridge, which I began in February 2003. Whilst at Cambridge I began to collaborate with several members of the Classics Faculty on projects involving human skeletal remains from Rome and this collaboration continues today.

In October 2006 I was appointed as Lecturer in Bioarchaeology at the University of Durham. I am very happy to be teaching human bones in the department where I first became fascinated by them myself

Research Groups

• Bioarchaeology

Research Projects

• Life, death and society in Ancient Rome through palaeoanthropology and archaeology
• Littleport Anglo-Saxon Cemetery

Research Interests

• Health and demography in the Roman world
• Skeletal ageing and age as an aspect of social identity
• Social perceptions, care and treatment of the physically impaired in early medieval England
• The inter-relationship between the physical body and social identity
• The skeletal markers of elder abuse

Indicators of Esteem

• 2006: Treasurer of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology:
• 2006: Treasurer of the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past (SSCIP):
• 2005: Invited keynote speaker at the ‘The Archaeology of Infancy and Childhood’ conference, University of Kent:
• 2003: Co-organiser of the session ‘The social archaeology of funerary remains’ at the European Archaeological Association, Lyon:

Publications

Books: edited

• Gowland, R. & Knusel, C. 2006. Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains. Oxford: Oxbow. (Additional information)

Books: reviews

• Gowland, R.L. 2004. Review of 'Burial in early medieval England and Wales', edited by Sam Lucy and Andrew Reynolds. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 14(2): 145-147. (Additional information) (View publication online)

Books: sections

• Gowland, R. 2006. Age as an aspect of social identity: the archaeological funerary evidence. In Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains. Gowland, R. & Knusel, C. Oxford: Oxbow. 143-154.
• Gowland, R. L. & Knusel, C. J. 2006. Introduction. In Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains. Gowland, R. L. & Knusel, C. J. Oxford: Oxbow. ix-xiv.

Conference contributions

• Gowland, R. L. & Chamberlain, A.T. 2005, Estimating age-at-death from the pubic symphysis: past, present and future, BAR: International Series 1383: British Association of Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology 2003. Southampton, Archaeopress, Oxford, 123-131. (Additional information)
• Gowland, R.L. 2004, The social identity of health in late Roman Britain, in Croxford, B., Eckardt, H., Meade, J. & Weekes, J. eds, TRAC Thirteenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. Leicester, Oxbow, Oxford, 135-146. (Additional information)
• Millard, A. & Gowland, R. 2003, A Bayesian approach to the estimation of age-at-death from tooth development and wear in humans, 13: 197-210.
• Gowland, R. L. & Chamberlain, A.T. 2003, A new method for estimating gestational age from skeletal long bone length, in Robson-Brown, K. eds, BAR: International Series 1111: Archaeological Sciences 1999. Bristol, Archaeopress, Oxford, 42-58.
• Gowland, R. 2001, Playing dead: implications of mortuary evidence for the social construction of childhood in Roman Britain, in Davies, G., Gardner, A. & Lockyear, K. eds, TRAC Tenth Annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference. London, Oxbow, Oxford, 152-168. (Additional information)

Conference proceedings

• Lewis, M. E. & Gowland, R. L. (2009). Infantile cortical hyperostosis: cases, causes and contradictions. Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology, University of Reading, Archaeopress. (Additional information)

Journal papers: academic

• Gowland, R. 2007. Age, ageism and osteological bias: the evidence from late Roman Britain. Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplementary Series 65: 153-169. (Additional information) (View publication online)
• Gowland, R. 2007. Beyond ethnicity: symbols of identity in fourth to sixth century AD England. Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 14: 56-65. (Additional information) (View publication online)
• Lewis, M. E. & Gowland, R. L. 2007. Brief and precarious lives: infant mortality in contrasting sites from medieval and post-medieval England (AD 850-1859). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 134(1): 117-129. (Additional information) (View publication online)
• Samworth, R. & Gowland, R. 2007. Estimation of adult skeletal age-at-death: statistical assumptions and applications. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 17(2): 174-188. (Additional information) (View publication online)
• Gowland, R. & Chamberlain, A.T. 2005. Detecting plague: palaeodemographic characterisation of a catastrophic death assemblage. Antiquity 79(303): 146-157. (Additional information) (View publication online)
• Gowland, R. L. & Chamberlain, A.T. 2002. A Bayesian Approach to Ageing Perinatal Skeletal Material from Archaeological Sites: Implications for the Evidence for Infanticide in Roman-Britain. Journal of Archaeological Science 29(6): 677-685. (Additional information) (View publication online)