We are still accepting students wishing to gain hands-on experience in excavating and curating human skeletal remains for the 22^nd Field School in Mortuary Archaeology which will be held in Ryczyn, Poland, in the summer of 2020. We would be grateful if you could spread this information through your LISTSERV or during a class.  A poster is also attached for you to hang in your Department if you wish.

You can get more info about this project by visiting our webpage: www.slavia.org, following us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FieldSchoolinMortuaryArchaeology or by contacting me directly at fieldwork@slavia.org.  

The inhumation cemetery in Ryczyn dating to the beginning of the 11th century AD provides a unique opportunity for students to practise bioarchaeology  through learning archaeological fieldwork techniques and working with human osteological remains. Students will engage directly in supervised on-site excavation, getting hands-on experience in the disinterment of human burials from their discovery to final removal. The field school is part of an international research project carried out by scholars from the Ohio State University,  Adam Mickiewicz University, and the Slavia Foundation. English is the official language of the project. 9 academic credits (ECTS) are offered upon a successful completion of the course. 

Excavations have revealed 45+ burials to-date including adults and many children. The human remains feature very good preservation and include skeletons of both sexes and all age categories including newborns. Most burials have a variety of mortuary artefacts typical for western Slavs, and some graves are outstandingly well furnished.  This field school also has a substantial laboratory component. Students have access to a comparative skeletal collection which includes various evidence of traumatic injury, infectious, degenerative and genetic disease, nutritional deficiency, as well as atypical lesions that have yet to be identified.