Leonie Pathé, MSc

My research interest focuses on reconstructing past lifestyles of former populations. The assessment of physical anthropology includes numerous techniques to gain a biological profile of a deceased person. Hence, collecting these individual profiles creates a full picture of the complete sample size and thus, of past populations.

Two areas of research that I am particularly interested in, include studying the health characteristics and dietary habits of different social groups. By examining the health conditions in human remains, we can gain insights into the living circumstances of past societies. Detecting and recording palaeopathologies supports the assessment of health status, its connection to mortality, and the morbidity rate of a population. In relation to this, nutrition plays another important role in an individual’s health condition and is also directly linked to environmental effects. Therefore, my recent research interest involves incorporating stable isotope analysis to explore their biomolecular potential. Moreover, I aim to investigate how the isotopic values are distributed among vulnerable groups, namely women, elderly people, and non-adult individuals, to analyze any sex- or age-related events.

Since 06/2023: Ph.D. candidate

• Bonn Center for ArchaeoSciences, Institute for Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität Bonn
  Funded by Stiftung zur Förderung der Archäologie im rheinischen Braunkohlenrevier
• Project topic: Leben und Tod im mittelalterlichen Vilvenich - ein anthropologischer und biomolekularer Ansatz

10/2017 – 10/2019: Master of Science

• Archaeological Sciences, Paleoanthropology
• Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
• Thesis “The women of the Saqqara Saite Tombs Project – Egyptian mummy investigation suggest a female tendency”

10/2014 – 09/2017: Bachelor of Arts

• Prehistory, Early History and Medieval Archaeology, Paleoanthropology
• Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
• Thesis “Auf den Spuren zweier Unbekannter aus dem Institut für Evolution und Ökologie der Universität Tübingen. Anthropologische Untersuchungen an montierten Skeletten aus der „Zoologischen Sammlung der vergleichenden Zoologie“

03/2021 – 05/2023:  Data processor

• Excavation documentation
• ArchaeoBW – Archaeological Service Provider in Baden-Württemberg

03/2017 – 06/2017: Student Assistant

• Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, DFG Collabroative Research Center 1070 "RessourceCultures"
• Medieval Archaeology

01/2016 – 12/2017: Student Assistant

• Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, DFG Project 267203378 "Die Entstehung komplexer Siedlungen im nördlichen Inner-Oman im 3. Jahrtausend v. Chr." (PI Dr. Conrad Schmidt)
• Near Eastern Archaeology

This Ph.D. project, funded by “Stiftung zur Förderung der Archäologie im Rheinischen Braunkohlerevier“, aims to reconstruct the living conditions and past lifeways of buried individuals from a medieval cemetery, using anthropological and biomolecular approaches. This study focuses on diseases and dietary habits, which are currently unexplored in rural medieval communities in Germany. Accordingly, this project provides insights into the past population of Vilvenich and further information for this area of the medieval Rhineland by applying these research approaches.

The site of Vilvenich has been excavated as part of a bigger intervention following mining activities in the area. In North Rhine-Westphalia, near Cologne and Aachen, the RWE-Power AG is responsible for the open pit mine in Inden. Located in this mining area, between Pier and Merken, the last standing village Vilvenich needed to move in 2017/2018. As part of the "Pier Project", excavations in and around the Vilvenich chapel and its cemetery happened between July 2016 and January 2018 to document archaeological remains (Timo Bremer 2018). Additionally, Torsten Rünger (2019, 2022) edited two overview papers of the project by focusing on early and high medieval settlements. These data are very important to contextualize the anthropological and biomolecular data with the archaeological context.

The archaeological landscape research project was led by the Department of Prehistoric and Early-Historic Archaeology of the University of Bonn in cooperation with the LVR-ABR (Office for the Preservation of Archaeological Monuments in the Rhineland). Any projects were and are significantly funded by the "Stiftung zur Förderung der Archäologie im Rheinischen Braunkohlerevier".