Scotland now has its first curator of osteoarchaeology through a new project aiming to enhance the care of and research into the country\u2019s archaeological human remains.<\/p>\n
Jess Thompson is responsible for the collection, which spans thousands of years, in her role at National Museums Scotland (NMS).<\/p>\n
The collection includes the remains of about 2,500 individuals, dating from about 8,000 years ago to the medieval period.<\/p>\n
Dr Thompson\u2019s role includes enhancing the ethical storage and curation of the remains, making them accessible to researchers, and developing internal guidance for their study and display.<\/p>\n
The post was made possible through the Scotland\u2019s Archaeological Human Remains Collections (SAHRC) initiative, a collaborative project led by NMS with Historic Environment Scotland (HES).<\/p>\n
Dr Thompson, who is based at the NMS Collection Centre in Edinburgh, said the job is an \u201cexciting opportunity\u201d for the collections.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cEven though we\u2019ve always had an archaeological human remains collection within National Museums Scotland, typically there has not been specific osteological expertise for curating and studying these human remains \u2013 they have been studied internally and also by external researchers for the whole time that we\u2019ve curated them, but they haven\u2019t had dedicated attention by somebody with osteological expertise until now.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThousands of years of human history and population and inhabitation of Scotland is represented within our collections.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a growing collection and my job is to ensure that we are curating them to current, updated museum standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things that we are working on currently is improving the storage of the human remains, re-boxing and repacking where necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re also improving and updating our records, with the aim to make the archaeological human remains collections inventory accessible online for future researchers, and this should hopefully then galvanise more future, exciting research on our collections with external collaborators.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Thompson\u2019s interest in the past was sparked in childhood when she was fascinated by ancient Egypt, and she completed an undergraduate degree in archaeology and a PhD in osteoarchaeology.<\/p>\n
She has worked on many research projects and said she feels \u201cextremely lucky\u201d to have taken up the role at NMS.<\/p>\n
The SAHRC project is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (part of UK Research and Innovation), through the Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science programme.<\/p>\n
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