Dr Jo Appleby

I am an osteoarchaeologist and Bronze Age specialist. I have an MA in Osteoarchaeology from the University of Southampton and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Following my PhD I worked in commercial archaeology before undertaking a Research Fellowship at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge. I joined the University of Leicester in 2012 and have been an Associate Professor since 2017.

My research interests centre on the intersection between the biological and the social as manifested in the human skeleton, with a particular focus on human ageing and on the complex mortuary processes of British prehistory.

My two main research strands are ageing/old age in the past and the investigation of complex mortuary treatments in prehistoric contexts.

Human ageing

I have published extensively on the experience of ageing and old age in the past, often in relation to the European Bronze Age. I use osteological techniques alongside a theoretically informed approach to explore the ageing process. As well as using osteology, I have developed a palaeoepidemiological approach that considers environmental and social contributions to ageing in the past.

Complex mortuary treatments

I investigate the complex mortuary practices of British prehistory, with a particular emphasis on those that include cremation. I lead a European network of researchers who have developed guidelines on best practice for the analysis of burnt and cremated remains from archaeological and forensic contexts.

In addition to my two main research strands, I led the osteological analysis of the remains of Richard III.

Appleby, J. (2023). Ageing and disease risk factors: a new paleoepidemiological methodology for understanding disease in the past. International Journal of Paleopathology, 44. doi:10.1016/j.ijpp.2023.11.004

Appleby, J. (2022). Differential Diagnosis and Rigor in Paleopathology. In The Routledge Handbook of Paleopathology. doi:10.4324/9781003130994

Appleby, J. (2021). History, Archaeology, and Osteology in Conversation. In Early Medieval English Life Courses (pp. 319-324). BRILL. doi:10.1163/9789004501867_014

Lightfoot, E., Caval, S., Calaon, D., Appleby, J., Santana, J., Cianciosi, A., . . . Seetah, K. (2020). Colonialism, Slavery and ‘The Great Experiment’: Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen Isotope Analysis of Le Morne and Bois Marchand Cemeteries, Mauritius. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 31. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102335

Lemmers, S. A. M., Gonçalves, D., Cunha, E., Vassalo, A. R., & Appleby, J. (2020). Burned Fleshed or Dry? The Potential of Bioerosion to Determine the Pre-Burning Condition of Human Remains. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. doi:10.1007/s10816-020-09446-x

Appleby, J. (2019). Osteobiographies: Local Biologies, Embedded Bodies, and Relational Persons. Bioarchaeology International. doi:10.5744/bi.2019.1004

Appleby, J. (2017). Ageing and the Body in Archaeology. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. doi:10.1017/S0959774317000610

Evans, C., Sørensen, M. L. S., Allen, M. J., Appleby, J., Casimiro, T. M., French, C., . . . Scaife, R. (2017). Finding Alcatrazes and early Luso-African settlement on Santiago Island, Cape Verde. Antiquity, 91(358). doi:10.15184/aqy.2017.104

Rissech, C., Appleby, J., Cosso, A., Reina, F., Carrera, A., & Thomas, R. (2017). The influence of bone loss on the three adult age markers of the innominate.. Int J Legal Med. doi:10.1007/s00414-017-1604-8

Brough, A., Morgan, B., Robinson, C., Appleby, J., Buckley, R., & Rutty, G. N. (2016). Biological profiling of Richard III using post-mortem computed tomography scanning. Journal of Forensic Radiology and Imaging. doi:10.1016/j.jofri.2016.01.003

Rabett, R., Ludgate, N., Stimpson, C., Hill, E., Hunt, C., Ceron, J., . . . Tâń, N. C. (2016). Tropical limestone forest resilience and late Pleistocene foraging during MIS-2 in the Tràng An massif, Vietnam. Quaternary International, 448, 62-81. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.06.010

Appleby, J. E. P. (2016). Archaeothanatology in the English-speaking world: the belated spread and potential applications of a methodologically rigorous approach to mortuary analysis. In What Bones Tell Us/El Que Ens Expliquen Els Ossos (pp. 13-24). SERP/University of Barcelona. Retrieved from http://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/universitat/organitzacio/unitats_administratives/p/unitatsP/publicationseditions.html

Crespo, C., Rissech, C., Thomas, R., Juán, A., Appleby, J., & Turbón, D. (2015). Sexual dimorphism of the pelvic girdle from 3D images of a living Spanish sample from Castilla-La Mancha.. Homo, 66(2), 149-157. doi:10.1016/j.jchb.2015.01.001

Appleby, J., Rutty, G. N., Hainsworth, S. V., Woosnam-Savage, R. C., Morgan, B., Brough, A., . . . Buckley, R. (2015). Perimortem trauma in King Richard III: a skeletal analysis. The Lancet, 385(9964), 253-259. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60804-7

King, T. E., Fortes, G. G., Balaresque, P., Thomas, M. G., Balding, D., Maisano Delser, P., . . . Schürer, K. (2014). Identification of the remains of King Richard III.. Nat Commun, 5, 5631. doi:10.1038/ncomms6631

Appleby, J., Thomas, R., & Buikstra, J. (2015). Increasing confidence in paleopathological diagnosis - Application of the Istanbul terminological framework. International Journal of Paleopathology, 8, 19-21. doi:10.1016/j.ijpp.2014.07.003

Lamb, A. L., Evans, J. E., Buckley, R., & Appleby, J. (2014). Multi-isotope analysis demonstrates significant lifestyle changes in King Richard III. Journal of Archaeological Science. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2014.06.021

Appleby, J. E. P., Mitchell, P. D., Robinson, C., Brough, A., Rutty, G., Harris, R., . . . Morgan, B. (2014). The Scoliosis of Richard III, last Plantagenet King of England. Diagnosis and clinical significance.. The Lancet, 383(9932), 1944. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60762-5

Lamb, A., Evans, J. E., Buckley, R., & Appleby, J. E. P. (n.d.). The deleterious effects of Kingship on Richard III. In Antiquity.

Mitchell, P. D., Yeh, H. -Y., Appleby, J., & Buckley, R. (2013). The intestinal parasites of King Richard III.. Lancet, 382(9895), 888. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61757-2

Buckley, R. J., Morris, M., Appleby, J., King, T., O'Sullivan, D. M., & Foxhall, L. (2013). ‘The king in the car park’: new light on the death and burial of Richard III in the Grey Friars church, Leicester, in 1485. Antiquity: a quarterly review of archaeology, 87(336), 519-538.

Appleby, J. E. P. (2013). Temporality and the transition to cremation in the late 3rd millennium to mid 2nd millennium BC in Britain. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 23(1), 83-97. doi:10.1017/S0959774313000061

Appleby, J. E. P., & Miracle, P. T. (2013). Sacred spaces - sacred species: Zooarchaeological Perspectives on Ritual Uses of Caves. In H. Moyes (Ed.), Sacred Darkness: A Global Perspective on the Ritual Uses of Caves. Boulder: University of Colorado.

Appleby, J. E. P., Seetak, T. K., Caloan, D., Caval, S., Pluskowski, A., Lafleur, J. F., . . . Teelock, V. (2012). The non-adult cohort from Le Morne cemetery, Mauritius: a snap shot of early life and death after abolition. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Early View. doi:10.1002/oa.2259

Appleby, J. E. P. (2011). Bodies, burials and ageing: Accessing the temporality of old age in prehistoric societies. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 30(3), 231-246. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0092.2011.00367.x

Rabett, R., Appleby, J. E. P., Blyth, A., Farr, L., Gallou, A., Griffiths, T., . . . Morley, M. (2011). Investigation of a Late- to Early Post-Pleistocene Shell Midden in Tràng An Park, Northern Vietnam. Quaternary International, 239(1-2), 153-169. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2010.01.025

Appleby, J. E. P. (2010). Why we need an archaeology of old age, and a suggested approach. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 43(2), 145-168. doi:10.1080/00293652.2010.531582

Appleby, J. E. P. (2010). Ageing as Fragmentation and disarticulation. In K. Rebay, M. L. S. Sørensen, & J. Hughes (Eds.), Body Parts and Bodies Whole: Changing relations and meanings (pp. 46-53). Oxford: Oxbow. Retrieved from http://www.oxbowbooks.com/bookinfo.cfm/ID/88229//Location/Oxbow

Rabett, R., Barker, G., Hunt, C. O., Naruse, T., Piper, P., Raddatz, E., . . . Wilson, J. (2009). The Tràng An Project: Late-to-Post-Pleistocene Settlement of the Lower Song Hong Valley, North Vietnam. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 19(1), 83-109. doi:10.1017/S1356186308009061