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Marieke Ivarsson-Aalders

About me

I was born and raised in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. At Leiden University I studied Archaeology and specialised in the Aegean Bronze Age. I received my first Master’s degree in 2009 and worked as an archaeologist in the Netherlands during, and after, my studies. At Stockholm University I studied Osteoarchaeology and my Master thesis focussed on the analysis of human skeletal remains from the Royal Swedish man-of-war Kronan. I received my second Master’s degree in 2015 and have since then worked on several projects in Sweden, as both an archaeologist and osteologist. Since the beginning of 2018 I am a PhD at the Osteoarchaeological Research Laboratory at Stockholm University.

Research

The current working title of my PhD project is: “Growing up on Gotland – A Bioarchaeological Approach to Viking Age Childhood”. My research focusses on how children and childhood were perceived during the Viking Age, with a particular geographical interest in Gotland. By combining osteological analyses of skeletal changes with archaeological data much can be learned about the health of children, the health of the community of which they were a part of and about the effect social structures had on the health of past populations. Through the application of a life course approach, the influence of early life stress on later life experiences may be studied through the integration of child skeletal remains with those of adults. The aim of this research is to understand childhood within the cultural understanding of the entire life course.

Keywords:

  • Childhood
  • Social identity
  • Viking Age child health
  • Gender-related processes
  • Osteology of the life course

Publications

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