Current PhD, Masters, and Honours Projects

Christine Cave 
PhD Candidate, Australian National University

Title: Living with one foot in the grave: the elderly in Early Anglo-Saxon England

Supervisor: Prof. Marc Oxenham (ANU)

This is a PhD by Compilation, consisting of five papers. Firstly, Identification of the Archaeological ‘Invisible Elderly’: An approach illustrated with an Anglo-Saxon example (2016) provides a method for identifying very old individuals in cemetery contexts. Out of the cradle and into the grave: the children of Anglo-Saxon Great Chesterford, Essex, England (2017) provides a baseline for the thesis. Insights into the experiences of the elderly in Early Anglo-Saxon England (under review) analyses mortuary treatment for the elderly against other age cohorts. Sex and the Elderly: long-lived women and men in Early Anglo-Saxon England (under review) asks whether men or women were well regarded, and finally, Multiple liminalities in Early Anglo-Saxon England: age, gender and cosmology (under review) is a case study of two elderly individuals.

Salina Hisham 
PhD Candidate, Centre for Forensic Anthropology, University of Western Australia

Title: Malaysian Standards for Forensic Age Estimation: Formulation and Validation based on the analyses of Multi-Detector Computed Tomographic Images
 
Supervisors: A/Prof. Daniel Franklin (UWA), E/Prof. Charles Oxnard (UWA), Dr Nurliza Abdullah (Hospital Kuala Lumpur), Dr Mohamad Helmee Mohamad Noor (Hospital Kuala Lumpur)
 
When a skeletal remain is unknown, a biological profile (age, sex, ancestry, and stature) needs to be developed to narrow searches of known missing persons.  Traditional reference standards based on the skeletal analysis of documented human skeletal collections are generally utilised, however, it has been empirically demonstrated that these standards are population specific. Such standards are currently not available for Malaysians due to a lack of skeletal collections. Therefore, this study aims to establish Malaysian standards for forensic age estimation. Bone data are acquired from computed tomographic scans of individuals, representative of the major ethnic groups, both sexes, and from the age of 5 to 90 years old. Anonymised scans with only sex, age and ancestry data retained are acquired from patients and deceased individuals presenting to government hospitals. Morphological observations and measurements of selected
skeletal landmarks are documented from reconstructed images. Standards are statistically formulated following established forensic methods.

Dominic Esterman
B. Sci. (Adv.) Honours, Department of Anatomy and Histology, University of Sydney

Supervisors: Dr Sarah Croker (USYD) and Dr Denise Donlon (USYD).
 
Forensic anthropology involves identifying skeletal remains. Australian skeletal collections used in forensic anthropological research are limited, yet teaching collections of Indian origin in anatomy departments have research potential if their biological profiles are reconstructed.
Sex assessment is crucial for biological profiling. The morphology of the pelvis is best for indicating sex, however skulls in collections are often isolated. Furthermore, forensically discovered remains may be incomplete due to taphonomic processes. Thus, accurate methods are needed to sex isolated skulls. Such methods must be metrically objective as US/Australian judiciary systems require empirical and statistically supported evidence.
I aim to develop novel metric methods of sexing Indian-Caucasoid skulls. These could be used to sex remains in national skeletal collections and forensic contexts including medico-legal cases, mass disasters and in war-dead identification. These metric techniques must accurately capture the morphological dimorphism of cranial features and be able to be used by international forensic anthropologists without specialist equipment.

Melandri Vlok
PhD Candidate, University of Otago

Supervisor: Prof. Hallie Buckley
​
The proposed research will take a palaeopathological approach through the examination of human skeletal populations from Asia with considerable and complex human mobility patterns, in order to investigate how aspects of human movement impact pathology prevalence. 

Samantha Rowbotham
 PhD Candidate, Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University

Title: The skeletal blunt force trauma resulting from fatal falls: an anthropological analysis of fracture pattern and morphology using postmortem computed tomography
 
Supervisors: Dr Soren Blau (Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine / Monash University) and Dr Jacqueline Hislop-Jambrich (Toshiba Medical)
 
When anthropologists are required to interpret the circumstances of an individual’s death from the blunt force trauma (BFT) to their skeleton, it is difficult to include or exclude a fall as the possible mechanism of trauma because how the skeleton fractures from a fall is poorly understood. To augment this deficit, this research investigates what, if any, are the skeletal fracture patterns and morphologies that result from three of the most common types of fatal falls: low free falls (≤ 3m), high free falls (˃ 3m) and falls involving stairs. Skeletal trauma was analysed using the full-body post-mortem computed tomography scans of individuals who were known to have died from these falls (from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine) and contextualised to the variables known to influence how an individual falls (as recorded in the National Coronial Information System). A number of fracture patterns and morphologies have been found to be associated with these falls. Results will assist anthropologists with their interpretations of the mechanism of BFT in medico-legal contexts. 

Natalie Langowski 
PhD Candidate, University of Melbourne

Title: Tracing Dietary and Migratory Behaviors of Past Human Populations in Greater Mtskheta, Georgia.

Supervisors: Dr. Varsha Pilbrow (UoM), Dr Colin Smith (La Trobe University), Prof Antonio Sagona (UoM).

The region of Greater Mtskheta in the Republic of Georgia exhibits evidence of human occupation for the last 6000 years, and abundant archaeological evidence of culture contact with Greece, Rome and Persia from 400BC. This project is using stable isotope analyses of human and faunal remains to investigate the impact of external culture contact and human mobility on local culture development during the Late Bronze to Early Medieval Periods.
 A comparison of carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios over time will examine if major cultural changes, such as the Roman invasion, coincided with changes in dietary practices and social organisation in Mtskheta between 1500BC-AD600. Strontium isotope analyses will aid in assessing if artificial cranial modification was introduced to Mtskheta via settlement of Eurasian nomadic tribes during the 4th-5th centuries AD, or if the practice was cultural emulated by local inhabitants.

Academics Q and A's

Heather Battles

'Take the time to get to know your fellow grad students – and not just those in your immediate cohort.' (read more...)

​Elizabeth L. Knox

'I am a Human Osteologist/ Osteoarchaeologist with MOLA...' (read more...)

Nick Malone

'Currently I am trying to balance teaching and family life with the realities of fieldwork in primatology.' (read more...)

Damien Huffer

'Be prepared for this flexibility if you decide to continue an academic or museum career path, and be prepared for setbacks (and plenty of excitement!) along the way...' (read more)

Justyna Miszkiewic

'There is no single channel to find “the” job.' (read more...)