My name is Louise Felding and I am a new postdoc at the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies.

I will be working as co-PI on the project Bodily Biographies from the Nordic Bronze Age (1700 – 500 BCE) that examines fragmented human remains through theoretical engagement and new scientific methods.

Most burials during the later stages of the Nordic Bronze Age are comparatively anonymous due to the limitations of the study of cremated bones. Therefore, the human lives that they represent remain poorly understood and under-explored. By combining archaeological and scientific methods: use-wear, morphometric, osteological and isotopic analyses combined with bayesian modeling—the project aims to reconstruct lacking bodily biographies from fragmentary human remains and artefacts. In this way the project will reveal patterns of age, sex, health, mobility, and object-use, offering new insight into identities and life-stage transitions in the Nordic Bronze Age. BODYBIO is interdisciplinary and theoretically grounded in new materialism and will advance our archaeological understanding of body-material entanglements and gendered performances in the Bronze Age. 

The project is funded by the Augustinus Foundation (Forskning i Kulturarv) and is carried out in partnership between AU and Museum Vest. The project is led by PI Laura Bjørnevad-Ahlqvist, Museum Vest. 

Contact:
Louise Felding
Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies
Moesgård Allé 20, building 4215 - 144A
Mail: lofel@cas.au.dk