BWIS Lecture Thursday, 9/21: 'This is Your Life…in a Tooth' with Archeologist Carolyn Freiwald
September 20, 2023
Carolyn Freiwald
Brookhaven Women in Science (BWIS) invites members of the Lab community to join Carolyn Freiwald of the department of sociology and anthropology at the University of Mississippi for a BWIS Lecture on Thursday, Sept. 21, at 4 p.m.
Freiwald’s talk, titled "This is Your Life…in a Tooth," will be held virtually on Zoom and requires registration.
About the Lecture
Archaeology is a sort of time travel where we study ancient cities and the objects people left behind to understand what life was like in the past. Human bodies offer the most direct evidence of an individual’s lived experience. What types of food did people eat in the past, and how healthy were they? Did people stay with their families, or move as much as we do today?
Recent research has shown that all of this information, and more, can be found in human bones and teeth. Human migrations are some of the most compelling stories to emerge from these studies, from the life histories of the first non-indigenous sailors to arrive in the New World to those of ancient kings, queens, and commoners in ancient Mesoamerica. Each of these stories offers a novel perspective on the global movements of people today.
About the Speaker
Freiwald is an archaeologist who studies ancient migration and diet using bone chemistry in Mesoamerica, from Mexico to Honduras. She works at the Maya sites of Xunantunich and Actuncan, among others, in Belize and with the Proyecto Arqueologico Ucanal in Guatemala to reconstruct the past to better understand people today. She earned her B.A., M.S., and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin (UW)–Madison and still works with the UW-Madison Zoological Museum on osteological studies ranging from Galapagos sea turtle pathologies to injuries in Canid populations.
BWIS is one of seven employee resource groups, supporting an inclusive work environment and diverse workforce at Brookhaven Lab.
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