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Anna Davies-Barrett

I am an experienced palaeopathologist (someone who studies diseases in past people), with a long history of reasearching respiratory diseases in archaeological populations. 

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My major interests are in discovering how environmental, socio-economic, housing, and working conditions, as well as cultural behaviours, affected how frequently people were suffering from respiratory disease in the past and why.

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I have investigated respiratory disease acros the globe, in archaeological individuals from Sudan, Peru, Britain, and the Netherlands. My most recent research investigates the effect of tobacco on respiratory health in the post-medieval period.

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I am also dedicated to improving the methods we use for detecting respiratory disease in past populations, so that all our results are accurate and comparable.

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I am a founding member of the Bioarchaeology Respiratory Network and hold multiple collaborations with other members of the Network.

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Major respiratory-related research projects:

 

2015-2018 - Respiratory disease in the Middle Nile Valley

UK Arts and Humanities Recearch Council funded collaborative doctoral award

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2019 - Respiratory disease at pre-Columbian Pachacamac, Peru

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2020-Ongoing - Tobacco and its relationship to respiratory health in post-medieval Europe

Research as part of the 'Tobacco, Health & History' Project funded by UK Research and Innovation

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Respiratory-Related Publications

Davies-Barrett, A. M., Casna, M., & Inskip, S. A. (2025). “A custome lothsome”: Investigating the association between tobacco consumption and respiratory inflammation in two post-medieval English populations (c. CE 1500–1855). PLOS ONE, 20(5), e0324045. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324045
Davies-Barrett, A. M., Casna, M., Boyd, D., & Inskip, S. (2024). An analysis of interobserver variability in the recording of maxillary sinusitis in human osteoarchaeological remains. International Journal of Palaeopathology, 34(2): e3293.
https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3293
Davies-Barrett, A. M., Antoine, D., & Roberts, C. (2024). Desert Dust and City Smoke: Investigating the Impact of Urbanization and Aridification on the Prevalence of Pulmonary/Pleural Inflammation in the Middle Nile Valley (2500 B.C. to 1500 A.D.). Bioarchaeology International, 8(3–4), 248–269.
https://doi.org/10.5744/bi.2022.0037 [Open Access]
Casna, M., Davies-Barrett, A. M., Schrader, S. (2024). Exploring the impact of tobacco consumption on the respiratory health of two Dutch skeletal populations (1300–1829 CE). World Archaeology, 1-18.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2024.2425814 
Rajab, T., & Davies-Barrett, A. M. (2022). A bioarchaeological analysis of the prevalence of rhinosinusitis across two Romano-British and early medieval populations. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 143, 193–213. 
Davies-Barrett, A. M., Owens, L. S., & Eeckhout, P. A. (2021). Paleopathology of the Ychsma: Evidence of respiratory disease during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000-1476) at the Central Coastal site of Pachacamac, Peru. International Journal of Paleopathology, 34, 63–75.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2021.06.001 [Open Access]
Davies-Barrett, A. M., Antoine, D., & Roberts, C. A. (2021). Respiratory disease in the Middle Nile Valley: The impact of environment and aridification. In G. Robbins Schug (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Climate and Environmental Change (pp. 122–140). Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351030465
Davies-Barrett, A. M., Roberts, C. A., & Antoine, D. (2021). Time to be nosy: Evaluating the impact of environmental and sociocultural changes on maxillary sinusitis in the Middle Nile Valley (Neolithic to Medieval periods). International Journal of Palaeopathology, 34, 182-196.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2021.07.004 [Open Access]
Davies-Barrett, A. M., Antoine, D., & Roberts, C. A. (2019). Inflammatory periosteal reaction on ribs associated with lower respiratory tract disease: a method for recording prevalence from sites with differing preservation. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 168(3), 530-542.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23769  
Davies-Barrett, A. M., Whiting, R., & Antoine, D. (2018). New insights into disease prevalence in two Medieval cemeteries from the Fourth Cataract. In S. Tipper & G. Tully (Eds.), Current Research in Nubian Archaeology (pp. 129-154). Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. 
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