British Osteological Collections

Finding research material is a major component for any PhD. This can often mean extensive online searchers, emails to curators and searching through journal articles for relevant or useful material.

I have created a list of institutions and their skeletal collections I came across during my PhD research. Please note that all of this information is available publicly (through Google searches or institution websites) and only relates to British collections, i.e. archaeological collections excavated in the UK.

Click on the below link for an Excel spreadsheet containing information of skeletal collections. You can access the file contents by clicking ‘Read Only’. It allows you to filter the results by institution or period and provides you with some basic information. Links to the relevant web-pages are also included.

British Osteological Collections_Beauty in the Bones_2017

I know of other institutions that hold human remains but have not advertised them publicly. If the collections above do not fulfill your research needs I would recommend getting in touch with other museums or universities. The Museums Association allows you to search their database for contact details for thousands of museums and many local museums hold some remains.

BUT before you start firing off emails to anyone and everyone I recommend reading my guide for some general guidance of what to expect when visiting a museum for research.

And finally, the list below may provide you with some places to start:

• The Corinium Museum, Cirencester
• Hampshire Cultural Trust
• Lancaster Maritime Museum
• Manchester Museum
• National Museum Wales, Cardiff
• Salisbury Museum
• Sheffield Museum
• The British Museum
• The Novium Museum, Chichester
• The Wilson, Cheltenham
• University of Kent
• University of Southampton
• Wiltshire Museum, Devizes
• York Museum