Bioanthropology field school on the island of Astypalaia, Greece

The field school takes place on Astypalaia, a small, beautiful island in the Aegean Sea and part of the Dodecanese island group in Greece. It is based on a unique archaeological site – the largest ancient children’s cemetery in the world, with at least 2800 children’s burials. In the field laboratory overlooking the sea, students learn the specialist skills required to excavate, record, identify, conserve, measure and catalogue the tiny bones and teeth of young children. This is one of the few sites in the world where children’s remains are abundant enough to provide such experience. Everyone carries out all the tasks required for each burial and so gains a useful range of experience for work on human remains.