Disability is a contested concept. Definitions of disability vary in different communities, countries, legal systems as well as in individual understanding and self-representation. Within this frame, archaeology can provide key insights into how attitudes to disability vary cross-culturally and through time.

This round table addresses the relation between physical impairment and social ideas about disability in our distant past. It seeks to explore past disability by addressing issues such as marginality and social exclusion; identity, gender and the life-course; the use of bioarchaeology and other science-based methods to investigate past disease and healthcare; and the role of the environment in dynamics affecting disabled individuals in deep history. It also aims to discuss the challenges that researchers face when presenting such a delicate topic to an academic audience and the public.

Further information will follow soon.

This round table is kindly funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences.