LABOH (Laboratory of Biological Anthropology and Osteological Human Remains) is a laboratory of CRIA – Center for Research in Anthropology. It began as an incubator for undergraduate internships in the field of Biological Anthropology, at the Anthropology Department of NOVA FCSH, and CRIA. It served as an introductory platform to methods and techniques used in the analysis of human osteology, and its subsequent applications in the reconstruction of past disease and behavioural social and cultural patterns, and biological profiling of people and populations,and population variability, applying a holistic and biocultural approach to their discussion. These are topics widely explored in Biological Anthropology, Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology.

LABOH welcomed students from Portugal, United Kingdom, Italy, and France, and contributed to the development of Biological Anthropology in Portugal, and internationally, with publications, participation in conferences, and other activities.

In 2020 LABOH acquired a renovated physical space, and aspired to new goals. It is at an early phase of implementation, and hopes to be an experimental and innovative laboratory in the study of humans, aiming to combine methods and techniques used in distinct fields of research (e.g. Digital Sciences, Art Sciences, Technological Sciences, among others), extending collaboration to other national and international laboratories.

LABOH’s main goals are:

• The study of humans and human populations through an interdisciplinary approach, cross-referencing biological data with environmental, cultural and social factors;
• The introduction of innovative approaches promoting the development of Anthropology in Portugal, namely Biological Anthropology;
• To promote and implement an ethical approach to human remains.

Presently, LABOH’s research lines focus on the study of human osteological remains, specifically:

1. Ethical and legal issues related to the use of human osteological remains – retrieved from archaeological and forensic contexts, or associated with identified collections – in teaching and research activities;
2. The interpretation of the past through the paleobiological analysis of human remains and fossil materials, crossing several disciplinary fields on a comparative basis: paleopathology, paleodemography, human variability, paleoanthropology and primatology;
3. The discussion of methods and techniques used in the design of biological profiles (i.e. age at death and sexual diagnosis) and the categorization of individuals;
4. Issues related to the biology of bone tissues, including biomolecular and histological data, and its interconnections with health and disease in the past and in the present;
5. The interpretation of ethnographic and archival data, as a complement to the osteological analysis, for the reconstruction of past behavioral and health patterns.