Theory and Practice in the Bioarchaeology of Care

This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to, and explanation of, the theory and practice of the ‘bioarchaeology of care’, an original, fully theorised and contextualised case study-based approach designed to identify and interpret cases of care provision in prehistory. The applied methodology comprises four stages of analysis, each building on the content of the preceding one(s), which provide the framework for this process. Theory and Practice in the Bioarchaeology of Care is the primary source of information on this new approach and serves as a manual for its implementation. It elaborates the foundations on which the bioarchaeology of care is constructed; it leads the reader through the methodology; and it provides three detailed examples of prehistoric caregiving which illustrate how bioarchaeology of care analysis has the capacity to reveal aspects of past group and individual identity and lifeways which might otherwise have remained unknown.

Lorna Tilley is a latecomer to archaeology; she has a degree in psychology and experience in areas of health practice; health status and health outcomes assessment; and health policy development. Having completed a Graduate Diploma in archaeology and bioanthropology at the Australian National University, Canberra, in 2006, she submitted her doctoral dissertation, Towards a Bioarchaeology of Care: A contextualised approach for identifying and interpreting health-related care provision in prehistory, in early 2013.