Dr Brenna Ryan Hassett is a bioarchaeologist whose career has taken her around the globe, researching the past using the clues left behind in human remains. She has a PhD from University College London, gained from looking very intently at the 500 year old teeth of London children; she has excavated at the Pyramids in Giza and the much smaller shell mounds of Malibu. As a scientist, she has years of research expertise in child health, and specialises in identifying the microscopic growth patterns that are locked into the tooth enamel of growing children. She has worked at London’s Natural History Museum and at University College London, unraveling the mystery of 5,000 year old death pits and how best to get two-inch thorns out of army boots.
She is 1/4 of the team behind TrowelBlazers, a wide ranging project that does everything in its power, from designing dolls to creating art exhibits shown in the Houses of Parliament, to bring the lost stories of women in the digging sciences back to light.
Her first book with Bloomsbury Sigma – Built on Bones: 15,000 Years of Urban Life and Death – was well received by critics at the LA Times, the Guardian, and the Times (UK), which named it one of the top 10 science books of 2018. The book has so far been translated into both German and Chinese with the vast majority of Monty Python jokes intact.
