Samantha Purchase

I am a University Teaching Associate at the University of Sheffield, UK, where I teach bioarchaeology and anatomy. I am an academic and an experienced archaeological technician, and I am fascinated by the relationships between human lifeways, the environment, and human health.

 

I recently graduated with my PhD in archaeology. For my dissertation, I developed a novel methodology for imaging the mastoid air cells using a hand-held X-ray system to diagnose lesions indicative of residual childhood mastoiditis and chronic adult mastoiditis in human skeletal remains while exploring respiratory-related disease in late Anglo-Saxon and Industrial Era populations from England's North-East.

 

Previously, I completed my Master's at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, as a member of the Baikal-Hokkaido Archaeology Project, researching non-specific indicators of physiological stress in hunter-fisher-gatherers from the middle Holocene Cis-Baikal, Siberia. 

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I am a founding member of the Bioarchaeology of Urbanization Research Group (BURG), a member of the Bioarchaeology Respiratory Network (BRN), the Midlands Bioarchaeology and Osteology Network (M-BONE), and the Northern Biosciences Teachers’ Network (NBTN), and I am the communications lead for the EDI sub-group of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO).