Mr Robert Hartle

BA (Hons), MA

School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

PhD Student (History) | PhD Student (Archaeology)

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rghartle1@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 2XX XXXX
9 Mappin Street

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Mr Robert Hartle
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
9 Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 4DT
Profile

Thesis title: ‘Protecting the most Pious Mortal’: a historical and archaeological investigation of bodysnatching in London, c. 1740–1832

Supervisors: Professor Elizabeth Craig-Atkins (Primary), Dr James Shaw (Secondary)

History students - periods: 1500-1800 / Post-1800 

Thesis abstract: My research will combine social and medical history with funerary archaeology to study bodysnatching for anatomical dissection in London, c. 1740–1832. It will reassess published reports and extant scholarship and be the first to analyse a substantial body of newly-excavated archaeological evidence of grave protection alongside extensive new documentary research, drawing on popular culture (e.g. newspapers) and community, legislative, and institutional records (e.g. hospital, criminal, municipal, and parochial). A London-focused case study will be generated, contextualised by wider English evidence, to test established narratives, providing important new insights into the demographics of those protected at burial. A far clearer understanding of the dynamics of the practice, its practitioners, and the public responses it evoked will emerge.

Qualifications

Education:
● PhD History, University of Sheffield, 2024–present
● MA Archaeology for Screen Media, University of Bristol, 2005
● BA (Hons) Archaeology, University of Bristol, 2003
Certifications:
● CITB Site Manager Safety Training Scheme - exp 2026
● CSCS (PQP) card – exp 2027

Publications

Books

  • Hartle R, Carty N, Osteologist MH, Knox EL & Walker D (2018) The New Churchyard From Moorfields Marsh to Bethlem Burial Ground, Brokers Row and Liverpool Street.

Journal articles

  • Cubitt R, Marshall M & Hartle R (2022) The Clitherow workshop ‘at the Corner of Old Bethlem gate, next Morefield’: evidence for late 17th- and early 18th-century bone and ivory working from the New Churchyard. Trans London and Middlesex Archaeological Society (LAMAS), 72, 251-300.
  • Hartle R, Jeffries N & Pearce J (2021) Household assemblages discarded by Moorfields brokers: material culture in 18th-century London, EC2. Transactions of the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society, 72, 301-348.
  • Cubitt RS, Hartle R, Marshall M, Richardson B, Allison E, Bankhead G, Bowsher J, Ewens V, Jeffries N, Pipe A , Pritchard F et al (2019) . Post-Medieval Archaeology, 53(2), 225-265.
  • Spyrou MA, Keller M, Tukhbatova RI, Scheib CL, Nelson EA, Andrades Valtueña A, Neumann GU, Walker D, Alterauge A, Carty N , Cessford C et al (2019) . Nature Communications, 10(1), 4470.

Book chapters

  • (2024) In Craig-Atkins E & Harvey K (Ed.) Manchester University Press

Dictionary or encyclopaedia entries

  • Hartle R Oxford University Press.
  • Hartle R Oxford University Press.
  • Hartle R Oxford University Press.
Grants
  • PhD scholarship: 
Professional activities and memberships
  • , July 2024
  • , lecture at the Old Operating Theatre, May 2024
  • , HS2 Workshop, April 2023