Sarah Jolly

Sarah Jolly was an advanced PhD candidate in archaeology at the time of her death in April 2022, from a sudden illness at the age of 30. During her time in the doctoral program, Sarah pursued a core interest in bioarchaeology, mortuary archaeology, and themes of gender and inequality in early Andean societies. In 2019, she directed excavations at the important early site of Waywaka in Andahuaylas, Peru, uncovering a variety of contexts, including several burials and ritual deposits, from Initial Period-Early Horizon (Muyu Moqo) and Early Intermediate to Middle Horizon (Qasawirka) periods. Sarah had completed her excavations and some analysis by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. She wrote up her results while serving as a TA, course instructor, and undergraduate advisor for the Anthropology Department, and had almost completed her dissertation at the time of her death. Primary themes of her dissertation include changing practices of mortuary and domestic ritual and the construction of gender as a form of horizontal social differentiation, as reflected in the mortuary treatment of sexed bodies and gendered human figurines. Afterward, Pitt faculty and friends were able to complete and file Sarah’s dissertation.

 

Sarah was known and loved at Pitt for her fine, inquisitive intellect, her lively sense of humor, and her generous friendship.

 

Publications

2016 (with Danielle Kurin). Surviving Trepanation: Approaching the Relationship of Violence and the Care of War Wounds Through a Case Study From Prehistoric Peru. In: New Developments in the Bioarchaeology of Care: Further Case Studies and Extended Theory, edited by Lorna Tilley and Alecia Schrenk, 175-195. Springer.

Awards

Rust Family Foundation grant
Gutierrez predoctoral fellowship
Andrew Mellon predoctoral fellowship