I am a biological anthropologist interested in human evolution, and in the ways humans adapt, biologically and culturally, to their environment. I am passionate about all things relating to the last Ice Age and have published on the behavior and lives of modern humans and Neandertals during that fascinating time period. One of my research interests has been on the relationship between physical activity and postcranial skeletal robusticity as a means of inferring behavior in past populations. Some of my research has focused on the link between lower limb bone strength and long-distance mobility in Upper Paleolithic populations from Europe. More recently, I have, along with colleagues in the USA and Europe collected postcranial robusticity data on over 2000 human skeletons from Upper Paleolithic to the present. This data has revealed how changes in physical activity across major socio-economic transitions such as hunter-gathering to agriculture, the rise of social inequalities and the Industrial Revolution has affected limb robusticity patterns in men and women.to agriculture, the rise of social inequalities and the Industrial Revolution has affected limb robusticity patterns in men and women. The San Paragorio (Noli) Project We now have in the lab a large collection of Medieval skeletons from the town of Noli (Italy) . The collection, from the necropolis of San Paragorio, dated from the 10th to 15th century AD and located in Noli (Savona, Italy), comprises approximately 160 males and females of all ages, making it an ideal sample to study important aspects of the lives of the Noli population in Medieval times. In particular, while a relatively large number of non-coastal, urban and rural Italian Medieval populations have been studied, few large and well-represented coastal Medieval populations are known. The small coastal village of Noli has been known for its reliance on marine activities, in particular offshore fishing, since Roman time. It is therefore likely that the vast majority of Noli’s population was directly or indirectly involved in fishing or curing. The San Paragorio sample provides a unique opportunity to evaluate how life in a coastal environment affected issues such as growth, health, activity, and diet, all factors that were strongly impacted by the hardships of Medieval times. A number of studies have shown that urban Medieval populations were short, experienced substantial age-related bone loss, and often suffered infections. The San Paragorio collection will allow us to test a number of hypotheses regarding health, diet and physical activities. Eight undergraduate students have been working with the collection in my lab for the past nine months. One senior thesis was just completed. Preliminary work suggests stature of the children is short, which would corroborate my recent work on the stature in Italian populations since Medieval times.  Two on going projects this year: 1) are the Noli children stunted? 2) Do upper limb bone robusticity patterns in Noli adults reflect the use of fishing nets? If you are interested in working in the lab with the Noli Medieval collection, please contact me. There is plenty of work to do! The Tsimane Project The Tsimane Project aims to link bone robusticity patterns with observed physical activity in a living population (a group of foragers/horticulturalists in Bolivia called the Tsimane). The study has four main aims:

1. Imaging and measurement of upper and lower limb bone structure (i.e. indicators of strength, shape and lateral symmetry)
2. Measurement of activity profiles (e.g. overall and task-specific physical activity levels or PAL) to examine effects of PAL on bone structure
3. Examine moderators of the relationship between activity profiles and bone structure including individual-level (energetic, demographic, epidemiological), family-level (history of fracture, household wealth) and village-level factors (degree of “modernization”)
4. Document prevalence and structural correlates of low bone mass

This project has received three years of funding from the National Science Foundation (https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1748282&HistoricalAwards=false), with research and funding opportunities for graduate and undergraduate  students. My co-PI, Jonathan Stieglitz (University of Toulouse, https://sites.google.com/site/jonathanstieglitz/), and I are looking for students who have strong experience in database management. In addition, if you speak Spanish well and are interested in spending some time in tropical lowland Bolivia,  I encourage students with these skills to contact me.