NVFA Symposium

NVFA (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Fysische Antropologie) organizes their annual Symposium on 20 November. During this year’s NVFA Autumn Symposium, our invited speakers will present on their work within the chain of research on human skeletal collections excavated in the Netherlands in both commercial and academic projects. The Valetta Treaty (European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage) mandates that any developments involving destruction of the subsurface in the Netherlands, and potentially of archaeological remains held within it, must be preceded by archaeological research conducted by certified archaeological contractors. During such research, archaeological human remains are regularly encountered. Our speakers will discuss aspects of the excavation, analysis, curation, and future accessibility of human skeletal collections in the Netherlands. New excavations of large numbers of human remains not only provide valuable information on the life and death of past populations, but also provide important training opportunities for students and researchers in excavation and anthropological analysis. Existing collections, curated at different facilities throughout the Netherlands, offer important opportunities for comparative analysis, thereby augmenting knowledge on the past. Comparative research on collections from different contexts brings specific challenges, including using appropriate methods for comparison of samples of varying size, completeness, and state of preservation. Finally, the long-term curation and ensuring accessibility to students and researchers of collections involves both financial and ethical considerations.