Ron Pinhasi received his PhD from the University of Cambridge, England in 2003. He spent two years in a Lise Meitner postdoctoral position at the Natural History museum, Vienna, examining the health status of early medieval Austrian populations. He is currently a lecturer in Archaeology, University College Cork, Ireland. His research focuses on growth and development in past populations, the origin and spread of leprosy in Eurasia, and the origins and spread of farming in the Near East. he carries out fieldwork in Israel and directs prehistoric excavations in Armenia. Key publications include 'Morbidity, rickets, and long bone growth in post-medieval Britain - a cross-population analysis'… (with Shaw, White and Ogden), Annals of Human biology, 2006; 'A cross-population analysis of the growth of long bones and the os coxae of three early medieval Austrian populations' (with Teschler-Nicola, Knaus and Shaw), American Journal of Human biology, 2005; 'Tracing the origin and spread of agriculture in Europe' (with Fort and Ammerman), PLoS Biology, 2005; and 'A regional biological approach to the spread of farming in Europe: Anatolia, the Levant, south-eastern Europe, and the Mediterranean' (with Pluciennik), Current Anthropology, 2004. He is a member of the European Archaeological Association, and the Paleopathology Association.Simon Mays received his PhD from the University of Southampton, England, in 1987. He is currently Human Skeletal Biologist for English Heritage and is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Southampton. His research encompasses most areas of human osteoarchaeology. Key publications include: the Archaeology of Human Bones (Routledge, 1998); Human Osteology in Archaeology and Forensic Science (Greenwich Medical Media, 2000, co-edited with M.Cox); 'Palaeopathological and bimolecular study of tuberculosis in a mediaeval skeletal collection from England (with Taylor, Legge, Shaw & Turner-Walker), American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2001; Skeletal manifestations of rickets in infants and young children in an historic population from England' (with Brickley and Ives), American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2006. He is a member of the managing committee of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO), of the Human Remains Advisory Panel of the UK Governmental Department of Culture, Media and Sport, and is Secretary of the Advisory Panel on the Archaeology of Christian Burials in England.