Projects

I am involved in several projects in Belgium and abroad concerning human remains, burnt and unburnt, looking at several aspects of life in the past.

International collaboration to incorporate CT scanning as standard practice in the analysis of cremation deposits in the Netherlands. 

This project focusses on the study of animal-human relationships in Roman populations from the civitas Menapiorum, Belgium. The study will combine osteological analyses of cremated human and animal remains together with the analysis of strontium isotopes to determine mobility patterns.

This interdisciplinary IRP study investigates the past inhabitants of five Late Medieval cities. The focus within this project is on the deeper interpretation of pathological anomalies in the human skeleton together with the evaluation of diet and mobility.

The Low Countries were the crossroads of Europe from the Neolithic to the Late Medieval period. This iBOF funded project will study the movement of people, materials, and ideas across the Low Countries, fundamentally contributing to the deep history debate.

A commercial project concerning the study of 160 cremation deposits from a Late Bronze Age cemetery in Steenwijk, the Netherlands. The graves will be microCT scanned,  micro-excavated, and osteologically analysed.

Recently, I became part of the International Joint Research Group: From Survey and Excavation to Isotope analyses of skeletal remains from archaeological contexts, working together with the University of Ljubljana on cremated remains from Slovenia.

Within the EoS CRUMBEL project, my expertise in on human remains, whereby I focus on improving sexing and ageing methods to increase the number of correctly sexed and aged individuals. This is needed to enhance our knowledge of past societies that practiced cremation as a burial ritual, but it is also application to forensic cases that involve fire. 

Excavation and analysis of the Iron Age urnfield at Udenhoutseweg, Tilburg, the Netherlands. This research will be undertaken in cooperation with the municipality of Tilburg, Triborgh Gebiedsontwikkeling, Archol B.V., and Restaura.

Development of a database for human remains collections in Flanders, and construction of an ethical framework regarding the treatment and storage of human remains. This project received a grant from Onroerend Erfgoed, Vlaanderen and will be undertaken by the following partners: BAAC Vlaanderen, Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen, KU Leuven, Parcum, UGent, and VUB MARI.

Commercially funded project to study the skeletons from Medieval Nieuwpoort. This also includes a mass grave with 16 individuals. Osteo archaeological analysis will be combined with isotope and DNA analysis to investigate the provenance and diet of in particular these 16 individuals.