Jacqueline McKinley

I have worked in archaeology since 1977 joining Wessex Archaeology in 1993 as a field archaeologist and osteoarchaeologist. Now Principal Osteoarchaeologist, I have, throughout my career, been involved in general developments in osteoarchaeology/burial archaeology including legal procedures, guidances on the excavation and post-excavation treatment of mortuary deposits and interpretation of formation processes/mortuary rites. I have written extensively on cremation, including methodologies and studies on aspects of pyre technology and cremation ritual.

I am a founder member of British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO), contributor and co-editor of BABAO/IFA Standards for Recording of Human Remains and am a member of the Advisory Panel on the Archaeology of Burials in England (APABE). I am also a regular visiting lecturer at various universities, at national and international conferences and local societies, and was a regular contributor to Time Team and other television documentaries.

My fascination with human remains –the most intimate of archaeological signatures – commenced at university where I began my study of cremated remains and the (then largely ignored and often misunderstood) mortuary rite of cremation. The joy of working in the commercial world is the great range of material that you can encounter, from Mesolithic to post-medieval and all between,  and the variety of mortuary rites reflected (e.g. cremation, exposure, human and animal manipulation, curation). There is always something new to learn, always a ‘plus’ to even the least appealing assemblage.