CURRENT TEAM
Dr. Kori Lea Filipek
University of Derby, UK
E-mail Kori
Kori Lea Filipek is a trained field archaeologist with active interests in bioarchaeology, palaeopathology, forensic anthropology and archaeology, and isotope analyses. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Biomedical and Forensic Science at the University of Derby. She holds an AA in Liberal Arts, a BA in Anthropology, a BA in Classics, an MA in Anthropology and Archaeology from California State University, an MSc in Palaeopathology from Durham University, a PhD in Human Bioarchaeology and Palaeopathology from Durham University, and a Fellowship with the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), and is an accredited member of the Chartered Society of Forensic Science (MCSFS).
Her wide-ranging experience with the analysis of skeletal remains includes sites in Crete, Mycenae, El Salvador, Guatemala, California, and Romania, and led her to serve as a research associate for repatriation of NAGPRA collections in Southern California. She has lectured on human osteology and archaeology at a number of institutions, including California State University – Long Beach, the Transylvanian Museum of National History, and the Institute for Archaeology and Art History (Cluj-Napoca). She was the Principle Investigator for the Health and Migration in the Kingdom of the Gepids (Transylvania) project and sits on the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO) EDI subcommittee, and the steering committee for the Wolfson Institute for Health and Wellbeing. She also serves as a global expert in forensic isotopes for the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC).
Her research interests include infectious disease; multi-isotope analyses; medicohistorical narratives; the bioarchaeology of care; mental illness in the past; mobilities of infection; non-adult palaeopathology; Roma archaeology; and bioarchaeological ethics.
She currently serves as the Program and Research Coordinator for Transylvania Bioarchaeology and is one of the Principle Investigators for the Jucu Necropolis Project (skeletal analysis).
Dr. Katie Tucker
German Archaeology Institute, Berlin
E-mail Katie
Katie Tucker is a human osteologist and field archaeologist, with many years of experience in commercial and research archaeology. As a field archaeologist, she has worked on a wide variety of rural and urban sites in the UK and her osteological work has included the analysis of inhumations, cremations and commingled remains from all periods from the Mesolithic to the post-medieval, and from single burials to large cemetery sites.
She holds an undergraduate degree in Archaeology, an MSc in Human Osteology and Palaeopathology and a PhD on the Archaeology and Osteology of Decapitation in Britain, with a focus on the evidence for peri-mortem trauma. Since completing her PhD, she has been the osteologist for the Magdalen Hill Archaeology Research Project (MHARP) under Dr. Simon Roffey and Dr. Phil Marter at the University of Winchester where she is also a post-doctoral researcher. Her latest body of work, looking at the burials from the Saxo-Norman leprosy hospital has brought about a number of co-authored academic papers on the site and skeletons, including publications in Science, PLoS ONE, and The International Journal of Paleopathology. She is also the osteologist and lead archaeologist for a project in Ethiopia, focusing on medieval cemeteries and cave burials, under Dr. Tania Tribe at SOAS, University of London; and is working on Bronze Age collective burials from Jordan in collaboration with the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, and medieval hospital burials from Berlin in collaboration with the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte.
Katie is currently a Principle Investigator for the Jucu Necropolis Project (excavations).
Megan Oliverson
Durham University
Megan is a bioarchaeologist who specializes in human osteology, paleopathology, and teeth. Megan first discovered her passion for bioarchaeology as a student with the Transylvania Bioarchaeology field school, and has earned a place as a permanent member of staff and a core member of our family. She received her BA in Anthropology from Utah State University and her MSc in Paleopathology from Durham University. She is currently an allied health professional assisting in the diagnosis of bone and joint disorders.
Megan currently serves as an Assistant Director and Lab Supervisor for the Jucu Necropolis Project (Skeletal Analyses).
Dr. Tessi Loeffelmann
Durham University/Vrije University Brussels
Tessi Loeffelmann is a bioarchaeologist and field archaeologist with extensive experience, both in commercial and research capacities. Tessi holds a First Class MA Joint Honours degree in Archaeology and History from Glasgow University, and an MSc in Palaeopathology from Durham University.She is currently a postgraduate researcher at Durham University concentrating on mobility and burial rites in the early medieval period (c. 300-1000 AD) through the analysis of strontium isotopes from cremated human remains.
Tessi currently serves as an Assistant Director for the Jucu Necropolis project (excavations).
Dr. Matthew Crowther
Teesside University
Matthew Crowther is a trained forensic anthropologist and osteologist. He holds a BTEC in Forensic Science, a BSc in Forensic Anthropology, and an MSc in Osteoarchaeology and Palaeopathology. He currently teaches at Teesside University in Forensic Science, where he also researches aspects of crime scene investigation using hyperspectral imaging and structured light scanning.
Matthew currently serves as the Project Technician and Forensic Anthropology Tutor for the Jucu Necropolis project.
Katie Hunt
Paleo-oncology Research Organization
Katie received her MSc in Paleopathology from Durham University in 2012, specializing in the global history of cancer as evidenced in archaeological skeletal remains. She continues to pursue this research as the co-founder and President of the Paleo-oncology Research Organization (PRO), for which she has been recognized in 2014 as a TED Fellow, one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in the world, and the joint Foreign Policy & U.S. Department of State’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers. Katie has over 7 seasons of field experience at sites in Egypt, Israel, and Romania.
In addition to assisting Transylvania Bioarchaeology’s Jucu Roman - Barbarian Necropolis excavation, she is also the primary osteologist for the Leggio and Tel Megiddo East project’s through the Jezreel Valley Regional Project in Israel, and has served as the assistant osteologist for Pacific Lutheran University’s Valley of the Kings Expedition. Her current research interests lie in the history of human health, the bio-cultural factors leading to the evolution and development of disease, and specifically the study of cancer in ancient societies
Katie formally served as an Assistant PI to Katie Tucker in the Jucu Necropolis Project, and has remains a consultant for the Jucu Project.
Interested in joining our team?