Osteoarchaeology is one of the special profile disciplines at the department, where students receive specialized training in the handling of skeletal archaeological finds. Teaching at the laboratory is broad-based and encompasses both human and animal osteology. The discipline lies on the borderland between science and the arts, since osteological data form the basis for interpretations of cultural history. Both basic research and more specialized research is conducted at the laboratory, concerning topics such as human living conditions and the subsistence economy during the Stone Age, Iron Age and Medieval Period (animal husbandry, fishing, hunting) and the faunal history of Scandinavia. Newer areas of research include paleopathology in animals, palaeohistopathology and oral histopathology.