See the full programme here.
This two-part workshop series hosted by the British School at Rome (BSR) and Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI) aims to create a platform for sustained and critical discussion on bioarchaeological approaches to mobility and their potential to address archaeological questions. The spring workshop at the BSR on 2 April 2025 will focus on the methodologies used to investigate human and animal mobility. A second autumn workshop at the DAI on 13 November 2025 will explore key case studies.
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Mobility has emerged as a central theme in contemporary archaeological research, driven by both current events and the development and diffusion of scientific techniques that enable use to ask new questions of old materials. Advances in bulk and high-resolution multi-isotope analysis, trace element analysis, ancient DNA, dental histomorphometry, and isoscape mapping have enhanced our understanding of human and animal mobility across diverse contexts and spatio-temporal scales, with studies now able to provide detailed reconstructions of life histories and genealogies. However, at the same time, there is growing recognition of the complex relationship between archaeology and bioarchaeology, as well as the potential limitations of current methodologies and interpretive frameworks in addressing complex questions of human life in the past.
The contributions to this spring workshop explore methodological advances in and challenges to reconstructing mobility across analytical approaches and archaeo-historical contexts, from the intricacies of isoscaping and kinship relationships, to culturally oriented questions on the definition of ‘non-local’ and ‘local’. The event aims to strengthen collaboration between the UK, Germany, and Italy in the field of archaeological science, and to engage university students and a broader audience in debates at the intersection of cutting-edge science and human questions of how we identify and interpret mobility in the past. Students and early career researchers are especially welcome.
Confirmed speakers
Robert Anczkiewicz (Polish Academy of Sciences), Luca Bondioli (University of Padua and Polish Academy of Sciences), Carmen Esposito (University of Bologna), Francesco Fontani (University of Bologna), Federico Lugli (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), Alessia Nava (Sapienza University of Rome), Richard Madgwick (University of Cardiff), Wolfgang Müller (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt), Christophe Snoeck (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Angela Trentacoste (BSR), Alessandro Vanzetti (Sapienza University of Rome)
Public keynote lecture – 18.00 at the BSR
The People Have Moved On, But So Has the Discipline – by Luca Bondioli (University of Padua and Polish Academy of Sciences)
Human mobility and other forms of interaction have always been central themes in archaeological research. The movement of artefacts and the diffusion of peculiar funerary rituals have often been related to possible movements of people, but human mobility has long been sidelined due to the difficulty in recognising it in the (bio)archaeological record. Thanks to what is now recognised as the ‘third scientific revolution in archaeology’ (Kristiansen, 2014), mobility has returned to the forefront of scholarly attention through scientific analyses of ancient DNA and by means of isotopic ratios (e.g. δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr, δ34S) analyses on bone and dental mineralized tissues and collagen. This research advancements have made it possible to answer old research questions about specific forms of human mobility in the past. This contribution summarises the advantages and criticalities about the use of isotopic analyses and ancient DNA to answer archaeological questions related to mobility phenomena and human behaviour.
Luca Bondioli is a biological anthropologist and palaeoanthropologist, Adjunct Professor of Bioarchaeology and Prehistory at the University of Padua and NAWA ULAM Fellow at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow. For more than 30 years he directed the Bioarchaeology Service of the Museum of Civilization in Rome. His main interests are advanced methods in skeletal biology and the application of histology, geochemistry and statistical methods in archaeology and anthropology. His current research focuses on the reconstruction of individual biological life histories in an evolutionary perspective.
