Dr Heather Bonney
Principal CiC, Vertebrates and Anthropology
Division: ES Vertebrates and Anthropology Palaeobiology
Summary
I'm the Principal Curator in Charge of the Fossil Vertebrates & Anthropology collections and lead a team of 12 curators in the division.
I'm also the Principal Curator of Anthropology, responsible for collections including human remains (comprised of approximately 25,000 individuals), Palaeoanthropology, Artefact and Fossil primates.
I'm a practicing Forensic Anthropologist, specialising in the identification and analysis of human remains in criminal and civil cases.
My research interests lie in the field of Forensic Anthropology, particularly in the analysis of trauma, morphology of tool marks and mechanical properties of human bone. I'm also interested in the history of human remains in museums, and historical collections/collecting practices relating to ethics in curation and research. I am a former member of the Steering Committee for the British Association for Forensic Anthropology and the Board of Trustees of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteology.
Qualifications
- BSc(hons) Forensic Science, University of Lincoln, United Kingdom
- MSc Human Osteology & Funerary Archaeology, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
- PhD Forensic Science, University of Lincoln, United Kingdom
Degrees
Employment history
- Honorary Senior Lecturer, William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Cameron Forensic Sciences, United Kingdom, 2019 - ongoing
- Principal Curator in Charge, Fossil Vertebrates & Anthropology, Natural History Museum, United Kingdom, 2021 - ongoing
- Principal Curator of Anthropology, Natural History Museum, London, UK, 2017 - ongoing
- Senior Curator in Charge, Anthropology & Human Remains, Natural History Museum, London, UK, 2017 - ongoing
- Honorary Lecturer, University College London, Institute of Archaeology, United Kingdom, 2017 - 2022
- Collections Manager, Human Remains and Repatriation, Natural History Museum, London, UK, 2015 - 2017
- Human Remains Data Collection Project Manager, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom, 2008 - 2014
- Lecturer/Research Assistant, University of Lincoln, Department of Forensic and Biomedical Sciences, United Kingdom, 2005 - 2008
Academic
External Positions
Honorary Senior Lecturer, Honorary position Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom, 2019 - on going.
Honorary Lecturer, Institute of Archaeology, UCL, Honorary position University College London, London, London, United Kingdom, 2017 - on going.
Trustee - British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteology, Trustee 2016 - 2019.
Committees
Member, British Association for Forensic Anthropology Steering Committee, 2014 - 2018.
Publications
Bonney H, Goodman A (2021) Validity of the use of porcine bone in forensic cut mark studies. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 66 (1) : 278 - 284. doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.14599
Bonney H, Bekvalac J, Phillips C (2019) Human Remains in Museum Collections in the United Kingdom, In: Ethical Approaches to Human Remains, Springer International Publishing : 211 - 237.
Odes EJ, Parkinson AH, Randolph-Quinney PS, Zipfel B, Jakata K, Bonney H, Berger LR (null) Osteopathology and insect traces in the Australopithecus africanus skeleton StW 431. South African Journal of Science, 113 (1/2) : 7 - 7. doi: 10.17159/sajs.2017/20160143
Bonney HE (2014) Richard III: skeletal evidence of perimortem trauma. The Lancet, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61253-8
Bonney H (2014) An investigation of the use of discriminant analysis for the classification of blade edge type from cut marks made by metal and bamboo blades. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 154 (4) : 575 - 584. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.22558
Redfern R, Bonney H (2014) Headhunting and amphitheatre combat in Roman London, England: new evidence from the Walbrook Valley. Journal of Archaeological Science, 43 : 214 - 226. doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2013.12.013
Bonney H (2014) The validity of Sus scrofa as a model for human cadavers in experimental trauma studies: regional variation in the mechanical properties of porcine long bones and classification of cut mark profile morphology. PhD Thesis.
Bonney H (2013) Sorcery and shipwrecks: Headhunting in the Torres Strait Islands, In: The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict, Knüsel C, Smith M (Eds). Routledge : London.
Bonney H, Clegg M (2011) The Collection and Use of Skulls in the Torres Strait Islands, In: The Bioarchaeology of the Human Head: Decapitation, Decoration and Deformation, Bonogofsky M (Eds). University Press of Florida : Gainsville, Florida. 51 - 66.
Bonney H, Colston BJ, Goodman AM (2011) Regional variation in the mechanical properties of cortical bone from the porcine femur. Medical Engineering & Physics, 33 (4) : 513 - 520. doi: 10.1016/j.medengphy.2010.12.002
BONNEY H, CLEGG M (2009) Friend or foe: Heads as memorials and status symbols in the Torres Strait Islands. Program of the Seventy-Eighth Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 138 (Issue S48) :
Supervision
Doctorate (PhD) Lead supervisor to Arthur N
Co supervisor(s): Bonney H
Archaeological Human Remains from the River Thames and its London Deposits
University College London, London, London, United Kingdom
Funding: NERC London DTP
2017 - on going.
Media
Broadcasts
Saturday Live, BBC Radio 4, 2013.
When Rome Ruled: Doomsday Pompeii, National Geographic, 2011.
Museum of Life, BBC 2, 2010.