Stories from the Skeleton: Masculinity, Old Age and Disability in Ancient Bahrain

Join us for the latest School of Human Evolution and Social Change colloquium, featuring associate professor Alexis Boutin, Sonoma State University.

Since 2008, the Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project has been studying and publishing the materials from Peter B. Cornwall's 1940-1941 expedition to Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia, which now reside in the Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Our multi-disciplinary team is adding to anthropologists' understanding of how life was experienced and death commemorated in ancient Dilmun (ca. 2050-1800 BCE). In this talk, Boutin explores how human skeletal remains and associated grave goods can reveal transformations in identity (e.g., gender, age and physical ability) across the life course. She will also explain how experimenting with alternative modes of interpretation can improve bioarchaeological praxis and communicate effectively and accessibly with diverse audiences.

Boutin's bioarchaeological fieldwork and collections research focuses on ancient Near Eastern, Gulf and eastern Mediterranean societies. Her publications use human skeletal remains, archaeological contexts and ancient texts to tell stories about embodied personhood.