MEMBER INFORMATION
Matthew graduated with a BSc in human genetics (2007) and an MRes in bioinformatics (2008) from Newcastle University. He then moved to Trinity College Dublin to complete a PhD in genetics (2013) as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie initial training network LeCHE, specialising in the analysis of ancient DNA. He then conducted further postdoctoral research in archaeogenetics at Trinity College Dublin as part of the ERC funded CodeX project. He then completed a 2-year Marie Skłodowska-Curie research fellowship at the university of York. In 2019 Matthew joined the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research as a research associate as part of the Beasts to Craft project.
ABM MEMBER EVENTS
PUBLICATIONS + PROJECTS
Sarah Fiddyment, Matthew D. Teasdale, Jiří Vnouček, Élodie Lévêque, Annelise Binois & Matthew J. Collins
So you want to do biocodicology? A field guide to the biological analysis of parchment
Biocodicology, the study of the biological information stored in manuscripts, ofers the possibility of interrogating manuscripts in novel ways. Exploring the biological data associated to parchment documents will add a deeper level of understanding and interpretation to these invaluable objects, revealing information about book production, livestock economies, handling, conservation and the historic use of the object. As biotechnological methods continue to improve we hope that biocodicology will become a highly relevant discipline in manuscript studies, contributing an additional perspective to the current scholarship. We hope that this review will act as a catalyst enabling further interactions between the heritage science community, manuscript scholars, curators and conservators.