Jacqueline McKinley on unearthing bones and stories at Britain's ancient burial sites

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

How much information can you extract from a burnt fragment of human bone?

Quite a lot, it turns out - not only about the individual, but also their broader lives and communities; and these are the stories unearthed by Jacqueline McKinley, a Principal Osteoarchaeologist with Wessex Archaeology.

During her career, Jackie has analysed thousands of ancient burial sites across the British Isles, bringing to life the old traditions around death via often cremated human remains. She's also assisted criminal investigators with forensic analysis, and contributed to some of the UK's best-loved archaeological TV shows. And one thing she’s absolutely clear about: far from being macabre, osteoarchaeology is more about the living, than the dead...

In conversation with Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Jackie talks about the stories we can derive from skeletal remains, how western attitudes to death have gone through a major recent shift, and why she's kept some of her late father's bones.

Presented by Jim Al-Khalili Produced for BBC Studios by Lucy Taylor

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi Curios, I'm Dara Brien.
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0:46.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. How much information can you extract from a burnt fragment of bone?
0:55.3	The answer might surprise you because today, through a combination of science, technology and detective work,
1:01.3	cremated bone and indeed other remains from ancient burial sites, can tell us a huge amount about their backstories.
1:08.5	This subterranean world where science meets history is where today's
1:12.6	guest digs for answers, quite literally. Jacqueline McKinley is a principal osteo-archologist
1:18.6	with Wessex archaeology and has analysed thousands of burial sites across the British Isles, dating from around
1:25.3	9,000 BC through to the comparatively modern 18th century.
1:30.2	Over her career, Jackie's brought to life ancient societies via burned bone fragments,
	...

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