Catrin Fear

Thesis title:

The impact of lead in Medieval Britain

A multi-disciplinary study of the impact of lead in Medieval Britain (c.1100-1500AD) including human osteology, palaeopathology, artefacts and archival research. This thesis will explore how lead is mined, used and the impact it had on a society’s health through examining various Medieval towns with differing proximity to lead sources. It will also explore the various uses of lead from tiles to wine and whether lead’s poisonous qualities were known. A significant element to the thesis is the study of skeletal remains through identification of palaeopathological diseases that could be used to identify lead poisoning, which will be tested using lead concentration samples.

Research Area

Archaeology

Publications

In work: Fear, C. and O'Regan, H. The archaeology and human remains from Frank i' th' Rocks Cave, Derbyshire: a reassessment of the evidence. Cave and Karst Science

Conferences

Speaker at University of Nottingham Classics and Archaeology PGR Conference (May 2019)
Poster presentation at M4C Research Festival, Birmingham (May 2019)
Invited speaker at BCRA Cave Science Symposium, Nottingham (19^th October 2019)

Public Engagement & Impact

Assisted teaching first year undergraduate practical archaeology module.
PubPhD: 30 minute presentation and Q and A about my PhD research (18^th September 2019).
Helped organise University of Nottingham Classics and Archaeology PGR Conference
Helped organise the M4C Research Festival.

Other Research Interests

Human Osteology
Biological Anthropology
Palaeopathology
Palaeoanthropology/ Human Evolution
Cave archaeology

Memberships

BABAO