Hi, I’m Sammy. As you may have noticed I have an interest in all things bony, particularly the skeleton. This started at university where I studied Biological Anthropology (the study of the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their related non-human primates and their extinct hominin ancestors).
I’m now completing a PhD at the University of Southampton in archaeology and anthropology. My project aims to reassess the use of dental wear to estimate age at death of human remains, with a focus on British archaeological collection. I was lucky enough to be awarded a CDP, a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which means that a higher education institution (i.e. Southampton University) and an institute from the heritage sector (in my case Historic England) came together to propose a research project. This award has allowed me to gain knowledge and insight into both the academic and heritage sectors, which will undoubtedly provide me with some amazing opportunities for my future career.
Previous to starting my PhD I have carried out various volunteering roles, which included conducting inventories on multiple skeletal collections at the Royal College of Surgeons, England. I really enjoyed working here and hope to return again some day! You can see what I did at the College on my ‘What I’ve Been Up To‘ page, or simply look through my blog history. I also worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Reading collecting data for a project looking at the evolution of language.
Finally, you can follow me on twitter, check out my CV or get in touch using the form below.
Beauty in the Bones 
Sounds great, looking forward to new posts!
LikeLike
Hi Sammy! Thank you for following my blog “History Undusted” – I hope you enjoy it! Your work sounds amazing! I would LOVE to volunteer at an archaeological dig in the UK, perhaps next summer; I’d be great in the research or cataloging, though I don’t think my back would cooperate with field work… Research into language is especially my cup of tea as I am a writer and hobby etymologist / linguist. 🙂
LikeLike
Hi Stephine, thanks for the compliment – your blog(s) look awesome too. I was just looking at some of the things you have written – really very cool! There are plenty of digs to volunteer on if you’re ever interested in the UK, I think you would just need to search for them – it is pretty physical though! One of the reasons I didn’t go down that route as a career. I’m finding the research on language really interesting and have learnt a lot in my short time at Reading University. Hope you enjoy what I write about – I certainly look forward to yours! 🙂
LikeLike
Sammy, I truly enjoy following your blog. And thank you again for taking part in my little project here: http://nothingofthekind.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/my-best-compliments/ and contributing a compliment! Now I’ve talked to my mentor about the article that I’m intending to write and she said the compliments would need a more personal touch in the form of the submitters’ first names and home countries. The newspaper I’m writing for is this one: http://www.insuedthueringen.de/, a small German local newspaper. I would be very grateful if you could give your first name and country for me to accompany your compliment in the paper. You can post it here as a reply or as another comment on my original post. There is no more specific information needed.
All the best to you!
Anna
LikeLike
Hi Anna,
Sure that’s fine. You can put my first name as Sammy and I’m from the UK.
I’m glad that your project is going well and I wish you all the best for the future!
Sammy
LikeLike