Abigail Ash, PhD.Candidate

CONTACT DETAILS:

E-mail : borley_rectory [at] hotmail [dot] com

CORK ADDRESS :

Department of Archaeology
Connolly Building,
University College Cork
Cork,
Ireland

DUBLIN ADDRESS :

Molecular Population Genetics
Smurfit Institute of Genetics
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland
Tel : +353-(0)1-896-1265
Fax : +353-(0)1-679-8558

RESEARCH INTEREST:

The palaeopathology of prehistoric Europe.
The prehistory of Europe is dominated in archaeology by two major migrational events: the appearance of anatomically modern humans ca. 40-45 kya and the movement of farming into the hunter-gatherer landscape between 4-10kya. Each of these migrations involved the movement of people and ideas from east to west with possible introgression, but ultimate replacement, of endogenous populations and their cultural practices. The effects of having evolved in disparate landscapes, employing differing subsistence strategies, are expected to be visible in the skeletons of endogenous and immigrant populations, expressed through musculoskeletal stress markers and patterns of disease and trauma prevalence. The measurement of these expressions via the osteological assessment of skeletal operational taxonomic units across the migratory transitions is thus the next step in understanding the mobility and interaction of prehistoric populations.

EDUCATION & QUALIFICATIONS:

2011-present: PhD candidate at University College Cork.

2009-2010: MSc Human Osteology & Palaeopathology at the University of Bradford, UK. Distinction.

2006-2009: BSc Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Liverpool, UK. First Class Honours.

OTHER INFORMATION:

Research is undertaken as part of the ERC funded project "From the earliest modern humans to the onset of farming (45 000-4500 BP): the role of climate, life-style, health, migration and selection in shaping European population history" under the supervision of Dr. Ron Pinhasi.