Robert Janaway

Biography

Rob is Lecturer in Archaeological Sciences and has more than 35 years experience of Archaeology in both the field and the laboratory. He originally qualified in Archaeological Conservation and specialised in the relationship between materials degradation and depositional environments. He has worked on a range archaeological sites including, peat bogs, desert sites, and deep stratified urban deposits. He is a specialist on the taphonomy of inhumation burials and has worked on material from cemeteries, crypts and mausoleums. In addition to a traditional archaeological role he acts as a Forensic Archaeologist. He has worked on more than 25 criminal cases for a variety of British police forces in a variety of roles including excavator and taphonomy consultant. He has acted as an expert witness in court.

Research

His early research focussed on the taphonomy of inhumation burials and combined approaches from both archaeological and forensic science. This resulted in the key publication: Boddington, Garland and Janaway eds. (1987) Death, Decay and Reconstruction. This was followed by further consideration of the taphonomy of archaeological burials in Garland and Janaway (1989) The Taphonomy of Inhumation Burials (In Roberts, Lee and Bintliff eds. Burial Archaeology: Current Research, Methods and Developments. Further work was carried out on the 18th/19th century crypt burials including the major Christchurch Spitalfields Project. This refined ideas concerning the decomposition of bodies under different conditions and their effect of textiles and other associated materials buried with it. This led to both site specific reports (e.g. Janaway 1993) and review papers (Janaway 1998). With a growing involvement in Forensic Archaeology, research focussed onto areas that are relevant to both forensic and archaeological research questions. In conjunction with Andrew Wilson there have been extensive field experiments using pig carcasses as human body analogues. These have been used to refine ideas concerning the dynamic environment in the grave during soft tissue decomposition. Recent outputs include (Wilson et al. 2007). He has continued to publish both in the field of forensic taphonomy (Janaway 2002) with a new publication due out later in 2007 (Janaway in press) as well as more general Forensic Archaeology review papers such as (Janaway 2006). He has recently conducted taphonomy field experiments in conjunction with Dr. A Wilson and post-graduate students from Bradford at the Anthropological Research Facility, Knoxville, Tennessee and in the coastal desert of Southern Peru. Recent archaeological work has included the analysis of textiles and clothing from the Wreck of the Mary Rose with a former student (Emma Green) published in: Gardiner, J. and Richards, M. eds. Before the Mast: Life and Death Aboard the Mary Rose. There has also been a consideration of the taphonomy and conservation of material from WWI sites in Flanders and the relationship between soil chemistry, land use and the survival of vulnerable metal artefacts from the medieval battlefield of Bosworth Field.

Professional activities

Publications