Meet the Team

Malin Holst

Malin Holst founded York Osteoarchaeology in 2003 and is the managing director of a team of osteoarchaeologists, which provides a wide range of burial archaeology services. Malin started to work in field archaeology in 1987 at the Raunds Area Project and has since excavated throughout England and Wales, including at well-known cemeteries, such as the royal Anglo-Saxon burial ground at Sutton Hoo and the mass grave from the Battle of Towton (1461). Malin has almost 30 years of osteoarchaeological experience and has contributed to over 300 reports on skeletal assemblages dating from the Neolithic to the 20th century.

 

Malin is a part-time senior lecturer at the University of York  and has taught osteoarchaeology there since 2003. She undertakes collaborative research with York Osteoarchaeology clients and colleagues at the University of York and other institutions, thus often providing enhanced value for commercial projects and reciprocally supporting cutting-edge research projects for young academics. Malin has written over 50 publications on a range of subjects from Iron Age chariot burials to health in the Industrial period (ORCID ID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4183-7574).

 

  • Director, Federation of Archaeological Managers since 2023
  • Society of Antiquaries Fellow since 2016
  • University of Bradford: MSc in Osteology, Palaeopathology and Funerary Archaeology 1995-1996
  • University of Leicester: BA in Archaeology 1991-1993
  • Bournemouth University: HND in Practical Archaeology 1989-1991

Paola Ponce

Paola has worked as a commercial osteoarchaeologist since 2012 and joined York Osteoarchaeology in 2017. She has conducted fieldwork at a number of archaeological excavations, mostly in the South of England, and carried out the post-excavation assessments and analyses of inhumed and cremated human remains spanning from the Neolithic to the post-medieval periods in England. This extensive experience has led to collaborative work with other archaeologists and specialists from other disciplines to address topics related to diet, exposure to pathogens and environmental pollutants, provenance, legislation on human remains, autopsy, dissection, body attitude and body positioning of individuals in graves. Paola has written numerous commercial archaeological reports and published her research in a number of national and international journals. Paola is also an Lecturer in Osteoarchaeology at the University of York.

 

  • University of Durham: PhD Palaeopathology: 2006-2010
  • University of Bradford: MSc Human Osteology and Palaeopathology: 2003-2004
  • University of La Plata, Buenos Aires (Argentina): BSc in Biological Anthropology: 1999 - 2002

Elina Petersone-Gordina

Elina started to work for York Osteoarchaeology Ltd. in 2018 after completing her PhD at the University of Durham. Her thesis focused on several aspects of health, diet, and individual mobility of people buried in a post-medieval cemetery in Riga, Latvia.

 

At YOA, Elina has had the opportunity to analyse a wide range of inhumation and cremation burials from various periods of time, including a Roman cremation cemetery from Lunt, Warwickshire This site was remarkable because it also comprised an arena for training horses. Elina enjoys both analysing smaller skeletal assemblages individually, and working together with the rest of the YOA team on larger skeletal assemblages.

 

Elina also works as a researcher for the University of Latvia, where her work focuses on health, diet, and mobility of historical and prehistoric Latvian populations, in collaboration with Durham University.

 

  • Durham University: PhD in Palaeopathology 2015-2018
  • Durham University: MSc in Osteology and Palaeopathology 2009-2010
  • Newcastle University: BA Hons in Archaeology and Ancient History 2006-2009

Jordi Ruiz Ventura

Jordi has been working for York Osteoarchaeology Ltd since 2019. Since he completed his MSc, he has been alternating between field and lab work, excavating and analysing human remains from different periods (Upper Palaeolithic to modern)in Spain and Britain. He also taught at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona from 2010 to 2012. He has a special interest in mass graves and skeletal osteobiographies. Jordi has worked for York Osteoarchaeology on several medieval sites showing a rich variety of social and economic aspects at that time.

 

  • University of York: PhD in Palaeopathology and Isotope Analysis: Metabolic Stress in Early Medieval Non-Adults: 2020-Ongoing
  • Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona: MSc in Biological Anthropology 2003-2004
  • Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona: BSc in Biology 1997-2003

Joshua Stead

Joshua joined York Osteoarchaeology Ltd in 2024, following the completion of his master's course in Funerary Archaeology. Joshua has worked in archaeology since 2018 and is particularly interested in the Iron Age to the Anglo-Saxon periods, as well as trauma and surgery. His master's dissertation focused on the in-depth examination of a double tibia amputation from the Romano-British cemetery of Newington Hotel, York, using a range of techniques, including microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and radiography as well as research on Roman surgery techniques.

 

  • University of York: MA in Funerary Archaeology 2022-2023
  • University of York: BA in Archaeology 2019-2022