On-going ph.d.-projects:
The Impact of Migration on the Lives of City Dwellers in the Middle Ages.
Vicky Kristensen, MS in Biological Anthropology.
It is a known fact that humans have migrated for many years. This has been established by looking at developments and influences in culture and artefacts alongside written sources describing migrations. However, migration can be hard to validate on an individual level and therefore the effects on the lives of the migrants can be difficult to study. By applying new methods to skeletal material from a medieval population, it will be possible to identify the migrants. Therefore, some of the effects on the migrating people can be defined. This will be examined through three studies: “Estimating the Patterns of Migration”, “Population Dynamics in Medieval Viborg” and “The Health Consequences of Migration”. All skeletons excavated in and around the area of Viborg will be assessed with the latest methods for age/sex estimations and diseases such as tuberculosis, leprosy and syphilis together with any traumas. The migrants will also be dated to study the changes in demography through the Middle Ages.
These studies will be strengthened by combining the methods and results from three different disciplines: chemistry, archaeology and biological anthropology.
The importance of pharmacological and non-pharmacological factors for development of organ changes and sudden and unexpected death by heart attack on persons with schizophrenia
Anne Bugge, DM, Senior Forensic Pathologist
Finished ph.d.-projects:
Skeletal age estimation: a demographic study of the Ribes population through 1000 years by newly developed methods of age estimation
Peter Tarp, MS in biological anthropology. Peter defended his phd-thesis on 13th October, 2017
Chronic infectious disease epidemiology in a Danish skeletal population, AD 800-1800
Dorthe Dangvard Pedersen, MS in biological antropology. On 19th January, 2017, Dorthe defended her phd-thesis, entitled "The presence of tuberculosis in Danish skeletons AD 800-1800 – from skeletal data to paleoepidemiological analysis."
Pharmacogenetic aspects of death caused by heroin and methadon poisoning
Dorte Christoffersen, MS, senior toxicologist. On 4th December 2015 Dorte defended her phd-thesis entitled "The pharmacogenetics of sudden death in heroin addiction".
Medicolegal aspects in the investigation of victims of rape in Funen
Forensic Pathologist Birgitte Schmidt Astrup, defended on 31. October 2013 her phd-thesis on "The forensic gynacolgical examination - on the way to evidence basing."