MEET THE TEAM
THE SPECIALISTS
Amanda James
As a human osteoarchaeologist, I study and analyze human skeletal remains in order to better understand the lives of people both past and present. My specific research interest rests in the intersection between diet and disease, namely how research into the relationship between diet and disease in ancient populations can give insight into potential dietary treatments for the same diseases that have persisted into the modern day and for which testing on living test subjects has proved unethical. Typically, my work combines traditional macroscopic osteological analysis with various analytical chemistry techniques, such as stable isotope analysis, in order to answer these research questions. Since 2013, I have led and co-taught the two-week Human Osteology Bootcamp under the auspices of the Apolline Project, which for the first several years was based at the medieval/early modern site of Pernosano and has now moved to the ancient city of Aeclanum. This intensive course aims to introduce students to the basic techniques used to analyze human skeletal remains as well as to overarching ideas and concepts in bioarchaeology. Please consider joining us!
Lucia Michielin
I am currently finishing my PhD at the Edinburgh University and I have a master in Geo-technologies in archaeology. Together with Joseph, I take care of all the computer related task: from the survey of the structures with the Total Station, the managing of the GIS platform, the Photogrammetry and the 3D reconstructions.
Josef Souček
Modern technology
gives us many new tools to precisely and efficiently document and visualise
everything the digging teams uncover. It is extremely important to keep good
track of "where things are" on any site, but twice as much when we work in area
of a whole Roman town, as in Aeclanum. I am part of the team which is in charge
of mapping the site using specialized tools, such as a total station or GPS, maintaining
and updating the site GIS (geographical information system) and creating
orthophotos and structure-from-motion models of the uncovered situations. Of
course, this is not a small task, so every year we gladly accept a small number
of volunteers from the ranks of participants who are willing to start learning
these tasks and help us. My own speciality apart from the tasks mentioned above
is analysis of architecture and its virtual reconstructions, which help us to
assess what we know about the site and present it to public in easily
understandable way.
