HOT

INSTITUTIONS

 

HOT research is conducted in several locations. Two of them are within the Department of Life Sciences of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra (DLS-FCTUC), in Portugal and are therefore intimately involved with academic teaching.

 

The Research Centre for Anthropology and Health (CIAS) is located at DLS-FCTUC aims to study human health, disease and well-being, in past and living populations, from a biocultural perspective. Therefore, past funerary practices in general, and ancient cremations in particular, are among their research targets. We benefit from the logistics and equipment present at their Laboratory of Paleodemography and Paleopathology.

 

The Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology (LFA) is also located at DLS-FCTUC. A new and under construction forensic collection with identified skeletons from Portuguese individuals from the 21st century is housed here. A collection of partially burned identified skeletons, which as far as we know is the first of its kind globally, is also being built and stems from that collection. This reference collection  allows for much of the research being done at HOT.

 

The Archaeosciences Laboratory, a unit managed by the Direcção Geral do Património Cultural (DGPC) and the Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO) is one of our main connections with the archaeological community. This is where much of the analysis of archaeological cremations takes place benefiting from a multidisciplinary environment that includes experts in zooarchaeology, geoarchaeology, lithic technology and paleobotany.