Mathilde van den Berg

Doctoral student

Biography

• MA Art, History and Archaeology (specialization in Arctic Archaeology), University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
• BA Archaeology (minored in Language and Cognition and Arctic Studies), University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

I am a PhD student in the project Domestication in Action and my my focal points of interest are reindeer domestication, human-reindeer relationships, Arctic anthropology, and indigenous archaeology. I research the interaction between humans and reindeer of the past and present employing ethnoarchaeological, biological, archaeological, and cultural anthropological methods and approaches.

Research interests

• Human-reindeer relationships
• Zooarchaeology
• Arctic anthropology
• Reindeer domestication
• Indigenous archaeology
• Osteometry
• Development of research methods

Current research

In my current PhD research I define the osteological manifestations of castration in semi-domestic reindeer bones, apply this archaeologically to trace reindeer domestication in Fennoscandia, and investigate the cultural and practical significance of castrated reindeer among Sami and other indigenous communities.