Books by Myra J Giesen
This book offers a systematic overview of the responses made by museums and other repositories in... more This book offers a systematic overview of the responses made by museums and other repositories in the UK to the ownership, care, storage, display and interpretation of human remains. It provides a baseline for understanding the scope and nature of human remains collections and the practices related to their care. International context is provided in an introductory section that explores how human remains are acquired and curated in other countries. A wide range of issues are discussed, making extensive use of case studies to explore the complex problems involved in caring for human remains; each chapter has been written by a leading expert. Topics addressed include: legislation and ethical obligations; issues of long-term and short-term care; perspectives on collections care from different parts of the UK; a comparison of attitudes and approaches adopted by large institutions and small museums; the creative use of redundant churches; and challenges facing research/teaching laboratories and museums when human remains are acquired during archaeological excavations. This book provides practical guidance and theoretical insights and is essential reading for practitioners, academics and undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of archaeology, anthropology, ethnography and museology.
Book Chapters by Myra J Giesen
Open-Air Rock-Art Conservation and Management: State of the Art and Future Perspectives, Jul 1, 2014
Global Ancestors: Understanding the Shared Humanity of our Ancestors, Oct 2013
Curating Human Remains: Caring for the Dead in the United Kingdom, Mar 21, 2013
This chapter will begin with an overview of practice developed by the UK museums’ sector. It then... more This chapter will begin with an overview of practice developed by the UK museums’ sector. It then will touch upon the archaeological sector’s approach to curation of human remains and move on to other interested parties who have developed statements about the care of human remains in the UK. It will then return to the Guidance and the Guidelines documents that cross discipline boundaries and set the stage for current practice.
Curating Human Remains: caring for the Dead in the United Kingdom, Mar 21, 2013
This chapter broadly considers how human remains find their way into collections, especially with... more This chapter broadly considers how human remains find their way into collections, especially within a social and historic context. The chapter will then look at how different organisations and countries manage such collections, including variables that influence care of the remains, and finally discusses international instruments that address their care.
Curating Human Remains: Caring for the Dead in the United Kingdom, Mar 21, 2013
The study of human remains can provide major insights into health, trauma, migration patterns, de... more The study of human remains can provide major insights into health, trauma, migration patterns, demography and many other important lifeways questions. However, answering them often depend upon a combination of excavation records, collection histories and associated funerary objects as well as analysis of human remains themselves. The availability of such evidence is largely dependent upon accurate and accessible collection records and up-to-date curation documents. In this chapter, we will consider associated documents, in general, and then those specifically related to human remains collections in repositories located in England; what influences documentation prioritisation; and how and what information about human remains collections are made publicly available. Two projects are presented to highlight the difficulties in bringing together even basic details needed for human remains research (eg minimum number of individuals, provenance and time period). With this background, we suggest that those responsible for curating human remains (as well as those who research them) can do more to make human remains collections more accessible through the documentation process.
Chapter in Heritage 2010: Heritage and Sustainable Development, Chapter: The resilience and care of ancient stone monuments in changing environments, Editors: R Ameda, S Lira, C Pinheiro, 2010
Chapter in Beyond the Site: Regional Studies in the Aegean Area, Nick Kardulias (ed) , Jan 1, 1994
Chapter in St. Helena Archaeology: New Data, New Interpretations; J&L reprints: Lincoln, NE, USA, 1988
Published Articles by Myra J Giesen
Water, 2019
Globally increasing antibiotic resistance (AR) will only be reversed through a suite of multidisc... more Globally increasing antibiotic resistance (AR) will only be reversed through a suite of multidisciplinary actions (One Health), including more prudent antibiotic use and improved sanitation on international scales. Relative to sanitation, advanced technologies exist that reduce AR in waste releases, but such technologies are expensive, and a strategic approach is needed to prioritize more affordable mitigation options, especially for Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Such an approach is proposed here, which overlays the incremental cost of different sanitation options and their relative benefit in reducing AR, ultimately suggesting the “next-most-economic” options for different locations. When considering AR gene fate versus intervention costs, reducing open defecation (OD) and increasing decentralized secondary wastewater treatment, with condominial sewers, will probably have the greatest impact on reducing AR, for the least expense. However, the best option for a given country depends on the existing sewerage infrastructure. Using Southeast Asia as a case study and World Bank/WHO/UNICEF data, the approach suggests that Cambodia and East Timor should target reducing OD as a national priority. In contrast, increasing decentralized secondary treatment is well suited to Thailand, Vietnam and rural Malaysia. Our approach provides a science-informed starting point for decision-makers, for prioritising AR mitigation interventions; an approach that will evolve and refine as more data become available.
Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, 2018
Crowdsourcing heritage information has enormous potential to help gather data needed to make deci... more Crowdsourcing heritage information has enormous potential to help gather data needed to make decisions over the deployment of resources and heritage conservation funding. Taking advantage of the rapid proliferation of mobile devices, such as phones and tablets, packed with sensors to record data about the real world, and the global growth of mobile app stores, reaching potential crowdsourcing volunteers is easier than ever before. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design of a mobile application known as Rock Art CARE (condition assessment risk evaluation) to crowdsource heritage conservation data, in the context of rock art conservation.
Thousands of Neolithic and Bronze Age open-air rock art panels exist across the countryside in no... more Thousands of Neolithic and Bronze Age open-air rock art panels exist across the countryside in northern England. However, desecration, pollution, and other factors are threatening the survival of these iconic stone monuments. Evidence suggest that rates of panel deterioration may be increasing, although it is not clear whether this is due to local factors or wider environmental influences accelerated by environmental change. To examine this question, 18 rock art panels with varied art motifs were studied at two major panel locations at Lordenshaw and Weetwood Moor in Northumberland. A condition assessment tool was used to first quantify the level of deterioration of each panel (called “staging”). Stage estimates then were compared statistically with 27 geochemical and physical descriptors of local environments, such as soil moisture, salinity, pH, lichen coverage, soil anions and cation levels, and panel orientation, slope, and standing height. In parallel, climate modelling was performed using UKCP09 to assess how projected climatic conditions (to 2099) might affect the environmental descriptors most correlated with elevated stone deterioration. Only two descriptors significantly correlated (P < 0.05) with increased stage: the standing height of the panel and the exchangeable cation content of the local soils, although moisture conditions also were potentially influential at some panels. Climate modelling predicts warming temperatures, more seasonally variable precipitation, and increased wind speeds, which hint stone deterioration could accelerate in the future due to increased physiochemical weathering. We recommend key panels be targeted for immediate management intervention, focusing on reducing wind exposures, improving site drainage, and potentially immobilizing soil salts.
Dam Good Archeology: The Bureau of Reclamation's Cultural Resources Program , 2000
Management of Federal Archaeological Collections, Jan 1, 1999
In the present paper we discuss the demographic features of the Sandusky tradition Pearson Comple... more In the present paper we discuss the demographic features of the Sandusky tradition Pearson Complex. The Pearson Complex consists of three habitation areas and two cemeteries. The habitation areas were used by Eiden, Wolf and Fort Meigs populations, while the cemeteries are samples of the Eiden and Ft. Meigs populations. The latter cemetery is small (N=48 individuals) and not suitable for demographic analysis. However, we present the age-at-death distribution for this sample as well as describe the biocultural features of the burials. We present a paleodemographic analysis of the large (N=475 individuals) Eiden Phase skeletal series. Traditional paleodemographic analysis of this skeletal population results in demographic features of the population which are implausible for human populations (at least historically documented populations). A paleodemographic reconstruction based on uniformitarian human demographic patterns suggests that the Eiden Phase cemetery does not represent the living Eiden Phase population. We propose that the settlement pattern of the Eiden Phase population, in which only about half the year was spent at the village associated with the cemetery, may explain much of the deviation from uniformitarian demographic pattern. We hypothesize that the Eiden Phase cemetery does not represent the living population primarily because not all individuals from the population were buried at the cemetery. We also discuss methods for testing this hypothesis.
and Author (s) Page, Jan 1, 1999
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Books by Myra J Giesen
Book Chapters by Myra J Giesen
Published Articles by Myra J Giesen
Funder: Newcastle University Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Fund
Publication: Dead and Forgotten?: Some Observations on Human Remains Documentation in the UK, co-authored (Kirsty McCarrison and Victoria Park) chapter in Curating Human Remains: Caring for the Dead in the United Kingdom (http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14153)"
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Students will examine human remains with a review of normal and abnormal variations. In the course of this examination, topics covered will include bone biology, growth and development, and anatomy. The student will learn how to record osteological observations and apply this knowledge to make determinations about age, sex, stature, and pathological conditions. In addition, the student will engage in discussions about how these data are used in the interpretation of historic and prehistoric patterns of health, disease, stress, and trauma. Other topics to be conserved are the ethics of human remain retention and research, and career paths that require skills in human osteology."