Primary Supervisor: Dr Melandri Vlok
Location: Orange
Keywords: biochemistry, demography, mortality, bioarchaeology, proteomics
Project availability: Semester 60, 2026, Semester 30, 2027
Synopsis:
Southeast Asian prehistoric archaeological human skeletal assemblages typically have excellent infant preservation. Biological sex is well known to factor into infant mortality with males presenting a higher risk of death in early life. Traditional osteological techniques, however, cannot determine the biological sex of archaeological infants as the methods rely on the development of secondary sex characteristics that emerge during puberty. This project applies the use of proteomic methods on determining sex from an early agricultural site in mainland Southeast Asia to assess whether this sex bias in mortality is represented in ancient cemetery populations.
Interested? Start the conversation here by contacting Dr Melandri Vlok mvlok@csu.edu.au