Hannah Jingwen Lee

School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

PhD Student (Archaeology)

hjlee1@sheffield.ac.uk
Profile

Thesis title: (After)Lives: A Multimethod Bioarchaeological Approach to Identity at Corinth, Greece, ca. 1050-300 BCE

Supervisors: 

I studied Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge from 2012-2015, where modules shared with the Classics department sparked my interest in Aegean Prehistory and the archaeology of the wider Eastern Mediterranean. Following my BA, I was selected for the Knossos Curatorial Internship run by the British School at Athens, where I assisted in cataloguing artefacts from the School’s Knossos excavations using Axiell’s EMu software. 

My master’s degree in Human Osteology and Funerary Archaeology from Sheffield helped nurture a long-held fascination with human biology, bioarchaeology and mortuary archaeology. In keeping with the Mediterranean theme, I studied material from Cyprus for my MSc thesis, applying funerary taphonomy methodology to a commingled, multi-stage burial assemblage from a Late Bronze Age chamber tomb. In order to help develop the forensic aspect of these transferable skills, I joined Cranfield University’s Recovery and Identification of Conflict Casualties field team in 2019, and hope to begin embarking on deployments once the global situation allows. 

After a stint in the HE non-profit sector, I was awarded a PhD studentship by the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities (AHRC WRoCAH) and began my PhD studies at Sheffield in 2021. My project takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of identity and personhood through analysis of a Bronze and Early Iron Age sample of human osteological material from Ancient Corinth, Greece. 

Qualifications

2018 – MSc Human Osteology and Funerary Archaeology, the University of Sheffield, UK

Result – Distinction 

Thesis – Parts of a New Whole: First Steps Towards a Bioarchaeological Examination of Late Bronze Age Cypriot Attitudes Towards Death and the Body

2015 – BA Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK

Result – First Class (Hons.)

Research interests

My research interests include: theoretically-informed osteological research, social bioarchaeology, Aegean prehistory, the Mediterranean Early Iron Age, Classical archaeology, osteobiography, funerary taphonomy, forensic anthropology and its application to human rights advocacy, and the excavation and analysis of commingled human skeletal remains.

Grants

2021 - present – White Rose College of Arts and Humanities (WRoCAH) AHRC Studentship, UK

2019 – Sheffield Centre for Aegean Archaeology (SCAA) award for outstanding MSc dissertation

2018 – Petrie Watson Exhibition Prize, the University of Sheffield, UK

2015 – Angela Dunn-Gardiner Scholarship, University of Cambridge, UK

2014 – Mark Gregson Prize, University of Cambridge, UK

2012 - 2015 – Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship

Teaching activities

Spring 2022 – University of Sheffield BMS352 Forensic Anatomy

  • Lab demonstrator (undergraduate)

Spring 2022 – University of Sheffield AAP681 Biological Anthropology II

  • Lab demonstrator (postgraduate)

Spring 2022 – University of Sheffield AAP110 Classical World and its Legacy

  • Module tutor (undergraduate)

Autumn 2021 – University of Sheffield AAP116 Towards Modernity: Anthropology, Archaeology and Colonialism 

  • Module tutor (undergraduate)
Professional activities and memberships

2021-present – Assemblage, a peer reviewed academic journal founded and run by the postgraduate students of Sheffield’s Department of Archaeology

  • Editor, features coordinator

2019-present – Cranfield Recovery and Identification of Conflict Casualties field team, Cranfield University, UK

  • Team member

2019 – Palace of Nestor Excavations, University of Cincinnati, Messenia, Greece

  • Team leader

2017 – Prosilio Excavations, University of Cambridge, Boeotia, Greece

  • Team member

2016 – Aiyos Vasileios Excavations, Ephoreia of Antiquities of Laconia/University of Gröningen, Laconia, Greece

  • Team member

2016 – Chris Butler Archaeological Services Ltd, Polegate, East Sussex

  • Assistant Archaeologist

2015 – Knossos Curatorial Intern, Knossos Curatorial Project, British School at Athens, Knossos, Crete

2014 – Prosilio Excavations, University of Cambridge, Boeotia, Greece

  • Team member
Publications

Books:

Nikita, E., Karligkioti, A., and Lee, H. (2019). Excavation and Study of Commingled Human Skeletal Remains. The Cyprus Institute Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research (STARC), Guide No. 2. 

Conference presentations:

Lee, H., Christofi, P. and Nikita, E. (2020). Tomb 357, Limassol: A Bioarchaeological Investigation of Late Bronze Age Attitudes Towards Death and the Body. Paper presented at the 2020 Postgraduate Cypriot Archaeology Conference (PoCA), 13-15 November 2020.

Lee, H., Christofi, P. and Nikita, E. (2018). Parts of a New Whole: First Steps Towards a Bioarchaeological Investigation of Late Bronze Age Cypriot Attitudes Towards Death and the Body. Poster presented at the 24th meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Barcelona, 5-8 Sep 2018.