Over the summer, I hosted an osteology intern in our department at the University of Central Lancashire (soon to be University of Lancashire). The intern, Ryver, was tasked with cataloguing part of the Village Farm Spofforth archaeological skeletal collection that we have on indefinite loan from the University of Sheffield, ECUS Ltd and York Museum Trust. This collection is available for research. Please email me if you are a researcher interested in applying for access. Ryver did an excellent job and seemed to enjoy the experience! I asked them to write a short summary of their experience as an intern. Here it is:
Over the summer of 2025 I have been
doing an archaeology internship cataloguing the human skeletal remains from Spofforth
Village Farm at the University of Central Lancashire, under the supervision of Professor
Anna Williams. This Anglo-Saxon cemetery dates to roughly between the mid 7-9th
century, the period often associated with England’s conversion to Christianity.
The site was excavated in 2001 and yielded approximately 250 individuals from
117 grave cuts. My job has included organising parts of the University’s human
remains collection, filling out skeletal recording forms, photographing
individual elements and complete skeletons where appropriate, and creating an
inventory to record the bones and individuals in the collection.
From neonate babies to middle aged
people, the skeletons I looked at encompassed a wide demographic of people. I
observed a number of different standard pathologies like dental calculus and
osteoarthritis; as well as several unique and potentially disabling skeletal
changes such as sacralisation of the L-5 in one individual, fusion of three
thoracic vertebrae in another, and a healed humerus fracture in a third. Many
of the individuals I got the chance to catalogue also had congenital disorders
such as dolichocephaly (an elongated skull length to width) and two had
brachycephaly (a shortened skull length to width ratio), these disorders are
often associated with developmental disabilities. These findings, alongside the
number of healthy skeletons I observed, demonstrate that this cemetery was home
to a wide variety of individuals with a range of different needs and roles
within the community.
This experience has been very fulfilling
and enjoyable for me as a recent graduate, as I have been able to build on the
skills I have developed throughout my undergraduate degree and gain more
practical, hands-on experience. The opportunity to work with human remains on a
more long term and repeated basis has allowed me to enhance my basic knowledge
of the different skeletal elements to now be able to identify specific identifying
features, pathologies and traits across a myriad of different situations and
scenarios. This has resulted in me being able to recognise bones from only
small fragments and clearly detail what they are for the catalogue, which is a
skill that would have been impossible to develop so quickly after finishing my
final year as an undergraduate without this internship. Furthermore, I now have
a much better understanding of the post excavation archaeological processes and
lab work; building on my existing experience, which was previously limited to
the teaching environment, where the amount of time we had to practice
osteological methods was far less than what I have had during the course of
this internship.
In addition to this, the opportunity to
work independently outside of a prescribed teaching environment has allowed me
to develop both my autonomy and my confidence, in both my work and my personal
skillset. As a result of this internship, I now feel much more prepared to go
on to my Masters in Osteoarchaeology, and further, my future career. I am
thankful for this opportunity and all of the skills I have developed over the
course of this 10-week internship and look forward to developing these skills
further over the course of my postgraduate education.
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| Some of the boxes holding the Village Farm Spofforth Anglo-Saxon skeletal collection, with Ryver's excellent labelling |
