MA Student

My research focuses on an Epipaleolithic burial site in Northern Jordan: ‘Uyun al-Hammam. This site
is one of the oldest cemeteries with multiple individuals buried over a long period of time, and is
important for reconstructing behavioural patterns and mortuary practices in pre-agricultural societies
in the Levant. I am also interested in how physical places became more important to
hunter-gatherers in the Epipaleolithic prior to extensive land use and modification from agricultural
practices. Sedentism was a gradual process in the Levant and looking at the mortuary practices from
‘Uyun al-Hammam can provide insight to what those practices were and how place became an
important aspect for mortuary behaviours. I aim to analyse the taphonomic processes that have
affected the skeletal material from the site and interpret behavioural patterns and changes based on
these processes, and I hope this analysis will provide a different perspective on changing mortuary
practices during this time period and in this region.

In the past I have participated as a research assistant for the Mummies as Microcosms project run
by Dr. Andrew Nelson at Western University, in which I used photoshop to digitally stitch x-ray scans
of Peruvian mummy fardos and interpreted artifacts within fardos from CT scan images and photos
from the Rinconada Alta site in Peru.