The Polish Studies Initiative invites you to join us for a guest lecture featuring 2024 and 2025 PSI scholarship recipient Lauren Hayden (Ohio State U.).
Abstract
A thousand years ago, a stronghold in Giecz was one of a series of important centers during the birth of the Polish state and the spread of Christianity. Despite its historical importance, few primary historical sources are available for this study, making it critical to survey archaeological records to better understand how people lived during this time and how political and religious transformations at the beginning of Poland shaped early medieval life. This talk will discuss bioarchaeological evidence from the 11-12th century cemetery of Giecz and present how the study of its skeletal remains can inform about the lives of the individuals who were interred there. Blending history and bioarchaeology, this presentation will demonstrate the importance of Giecz to understand how state formation, political change, and religion shaped society and affected the lived experience of this early medieval Polish population.
Speaker Bio
Lauren Hayden is a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at The Ohio State University specializing in bioarchaeology with a background as a clinical radiographer. Lauren’s dissertation project utilizes an 11 – 12th century skeletal collection in Giecz, Poland to evaluate how early medieval state formation and Christianization in Poland shaped health during this period. She has conducted fieldwork for the past four summers in Poland as an osteoarchaeologist with the Slavia Foundation and collaborates with colleagues from the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica.
