SGA/SSA: Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Anthropologie
The 2023 Annual Meeting of the Swiss Society for Anthropologie (SGA/SSA) took place at the Irchel Campus of University of Zurich and was kindly hosted by Dr. Martin Häusler and his team.
On Friday, the 24th of November we started with the workshop titled "Ancient DNA Research in Bioarchaeology" organized by the SGA/SSA board. The event commenced with an initial gathering, followed by an opening presentation from the new director of the IPNA Basel, Prof. Verena Schünemann, delving into the fundamentals of aDNA research. This introduction set the stage for an engaging discussion panel focused on aDNA, featuring Prof. Albert Zink from the EURAC in Bolzano, Italy and Prof. Verena Schünemann as experts, moderated by Dr. Marcel Keller from University of Bern. At the previous workshop registration, participants could pose specific questions regarding aDNA, which we addressed and discussed during the symposium. In the early evening, Prof. Verena Schünemann delivered the first keynote speech of our annual event, titled "Past Pandemics and One Health: How ancient DNA can contribute to understanding the evolution of pathogens." In the evening, we had the opportunity to continue the enriching discussion with our keynotes at a delicious dinner in "Il Postino" restaurant.
Moving to Saturday, November 25th, the day began with the general assembly of the SGA/SSA members lead by Dr. Sandra Lösch. In this context, Dr. Christine Cooper was elected as the new Vice-President of the SGA/SSA, and David Roth assumed the role of secretary on the board. Following the assembly, attendees gathered for a brief coffee break. Subsequently, Prof. Albert Zink presented the narrative and the latest findings on the renowned ice mummy in his keynote speech entitled "Ötzi, the Iceman – new insights into his ancestry and phenotype."
After a "Pizza-Plausch" lunch, the day continued with eleven scientific presentations encompassing a wide range of topics. These presentations covered discussions on ongoing Swiss excavations, funeral treatments, tooth modifications, isotopic and genetic analyses, as well as forensic anthropology.
Overall, around 40 participants joined the two-day event in Zurich full of interesting discussions, talks and networking. We are looking forward to our next assembly, which will take place in November 2024 in Geneva, on the topic of „Studies of Dental Calculus“ (Workshop) und „Interdisciplinarity in Paleodiet Research” (Symposium).
Project Rübel foundation:
We requested partial funding for a research project following the Platform Biology call about the distribution of funds from the Eduard A. Rübel foundation for plant biogeography. The project titled "Monitoring soil fungal community changes for postmortem interval estimation" received a grant of CHF 7'950. Within this interdisciplinary project, geneticists and physical anthropologists from the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Bern explore changes in the soil mycobiome of a Swiss forest, which are triggered by the decomposition process of large mammals. The investigations base on samples from a preceding experimental study on taphonomy within the Department of Physical Anthropology, University of Bern. Temporal changes in soil fungal communities assessed by DNA metabarcoding could serve as possible indicators for an estimation of the postmortem interval, one of the major challenges in forensic casework. The received funding covered sequencing costs for 70 soil samples in duplicate. Currently, sequence data analysis is under way and publication of the results is planned for the end of 2024, beginning of 2025.
Originalarbeit / Original article
PATRICK EPPENBERGER, ABAGAIL BREIDENSTEIN, ROGER SEILER, SABRINA MEYER, NAKITA FRATER, IWONA KOZIERADZKAOGUNMAKIN, JOHN VERRALL, ANDREA LOPRIENO-GNIRS, SUSANNE BICKEL, MYRIAM SECO ALVAREZ, PEARCE PAUL CREASMAN, FRANK RÜHLI. Prevalence of the supratrochlear aperture in selected populations from the ancient Nile Valley. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019: vol 25, nr 2.
ANTOINETTE GOUJON, ROUVEN TURCK, MANUEL JANOSA, URS LEO GANTENBEIN, MARTIN HAEUSLER. Hutten or not? A re-examination of two late medieval skeletons from the island of Ufenau SZ. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019 : vol 25, nr 2.
NICOLE NICKLISCH, KURT W. ALT, SVEA BETTINGER, JULIA DEUTSCHMANN, MARKUS ZEILINGER, HARALD MELLER, SANDRA PICHLER. Polydaktylie und Syndaktylie . Review mit mittelalterlicher Fallbeschreibung. [Polydactyly and syndactyly. A review with a medieval case description]. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019 : vol 25, nr 2.
DAVID ROTH, CHRISTINA SCHMIDT, VERENA FIEBIG-EBNETER, MARIE-LOUISE GAMMA, DIANAGYSIN, ODETTE HAAS, FRITZ HÄSLER, LUDWIG HUBER, ANDREAS KETTNER, RENÉ LORENCEAU, BEAT MEYER, MARKUS SCHMID, HOLGER WITTIG, MARINA ZULAUFSEMMLER, GERHARD HOTZ. Babette Saxer : der erste dokumentierte Kaiserschnitt (1865) im Bürgerspital Basel. Schicksal einer kleinwüchsigen Frau im frühindustriellen Basel [Babette Saxer. the first documented Caesarean Section (1865) in Basel City Hospital. The fate of a woman of short stature in early industrial Basel]. Bulletin de la Société Suisse d'Anthropologie 2019 : vol 25, nr 2.
Zusammenfassungen von Vorträgen an der SGA-Jahrestagung 2023 / Titles of presentations at the SGA annual meeting 2023 – The corresponding abstracts will be published in the next Bulletin de la Société Suisse d’Anthropologie.
Timea Remsey (Kantonsarchäologie Zürich): A former 19th Century Hospital Cemetery in Zürich – An Insight into the ongoing Excavation at the University Hospital Zürich.
Sophie Thorimbert (Archeodunum Investigations Archéologiques SA): Post-mortem and funeral treatments of corpses at the beginning of the 19th century in Lausanne.
Armin Kaiser (University of Tuebingen): TCS – Tooth Cementum Striations (so far known as TCA, tooth cement annulation) New points of view on layer development, formation dependencies and influencing factors.
Sandra Braun (Department of Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern): Dry bone and virtual modality interchangeability for the estimation of sex on the human pelvis and skull.
Cordelia Schuler (University of Bern): PMI Estimation Using Graft- Fixation Devices in ACL Reconstruction.
Barbara Teßmann (Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte Berlin, SMPK): Zahnmanipulationen an westafrikanischen Schädeln - Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer ethnischen Klassifizierung.
Zita Laffranchi (Department of Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern): "Celts" down the Alps. New multi-isotopic data on territorial mobility in pre-Roman Verona (Seminario Vescovile, NE Italy, 3rd -1st c. BCE).
Stefania Zingale (Institute for Mummy Studies, Eurac Research): “Celts Up & Down the Alps”: Tracing the Genetic History of Late Iron Age Human Groups from North and South of the Alps (4th – 1st century BCE).
Megan Malherbe (University of Zurich): Exploring palaeoenvironments at the Cradle of Humankind through functional morphology.
Cédric Cordey (Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zürich): The variation of maternal and fetal energy requirements and their role in birth timing.
Lara Indra (Department of Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern): Evaluation of porcine decomposition as a foundation for forensic practice in Switzerland.
The 2023 Annual Meeting of the Swiss Society for Anthropologie (SGA/SSA) took place at the Irchel Campus of University of Zurich and was kindly hosted by Dr. Martin Häusler and his team. On Friday, the 24th of November we organized a workshop titled "Ancient DNA Research in Bioarchaeology". On Saturday, the 25th of November we began with our general assembly and continued with scientific presentations.
We awarded two grants to young researchers from the Universities of Bern and Zurich.
One of the grants was awarded to Lara Indra, a PhD student at the University of Bern, who presented a poster at the annual meeting of the AAFS (American Association of Forensic Sciences) in Orlando, Florida, from February 13 to 18, 2023. The grant of 1500 CHF covered part of her travel expenses.
The other grant was awarded to Cédric Corday, a PhD student at the University of Zurich. He gave a talk at the annual meeting of the SGA/SSA in Zurich on November 24-25, 2023. Cédric Cordays presented his thesis in progress entitled "The variation of maternal and fetal energy requirements and their role in birth timing". The SGA/SSA Board awarded him the prize for the best young researcher presentation. The award of CHF 200 was used to cover some of the costs of his attendance.