This ongoing project explores evidence for violence and trauma in human skeletal remains from archaeological contexts. Far from being an aberration or anomaly, violence is used as a tool of power by governments and rulers across time and space. When we look at violence as an act that makes use of cultural ideas about right and wrong, insiders and outsiders, we can better understand how types and levels of violence are more or less socially acceptable based on factors such as who is involved and when and where the violence takes place.

This project builds on my work that explores human sacrifice in ancient Egypt. I argue that we must be careful not to impose our own modern ideas of what violence means, how it works, and even what violence is, onto cultures of the past.