SEXWARC

A new look at prostitution in medieval Europe: Exploring the potential of ancient pathogen genomics with individuals buried in red light districts

01.04.2025 bis 31.03.2027

SEXWARC contributes to a paradigm shift in the archaeology of prostitution. The discipline has thus far mainly been limited to a description of the structural features of which brothels are constituted, but struggles to make meaningful observations when it comes to the people who have worked in these environments. This project aims to put female sex workers back at the centre of our scientific work, by focussing on human remains as a new source of information for the study of past sex work. The main objective is to get a grip on the health and living conditions of these women in the Middle Ages. I will do this by combining – for the very first time – recent advances in ancient DNA research of pathogens with some unique skeletal populations excavated in
identified red light districts of medieval cities in the County of Flanders. As a crossover between the archaeology of sex work and ancient pathogen genomics, I will integrate both the Division of Medieval Archaeology and the Archaeo- and Paleogenetics group at the University of Tübingen. Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Natascha Mehler and mentoring of Prof. Dr. Cosimo Posth, globally acknowledged as experts in their respective domains, this Action will allow to establish myself as an independent scholar with a highly strategic profile and as a future leader of an interdisciplinary research group in historical archaeology.