Alex Tutwiler receives Archol grant to reveal hidden stories of child labor
PhD candidate Alex Tutwiler, from the Faculty of Archaeology, has received a grant from Archol, via the P.J.R. Modderman Foundation, to investigate how child labor shaped the bones of Dutch children between the 17th and 19th centuries. Using CT scans, she aims to build a more comprehensive picture of how working at a young age affected bone shape and strength.
Industrialisation
Tutwiler’s research focuses on the post-medieval period, roughly 1650–1850, a time when industrialisation started to develop in the Netherlands. ‘Industrialisation here wasn’t as overnight as in the UK,’ she notes. ‘It was a lot more localised. My samples are from 1650–1850, and the children I’m looking at worked either in agriculture or in industrial contexts – for example, on farms or in factories.’
‘The goal is to see how working at a young age affected the shape and strength of bone in the population,’ Tutwiler explains. ‘By using CT scanning, we can get a much more comprehensive picture of something that has not yet been well-understood.’
Three contexts
Tutwiler is examining skeletal remains from three distinct sites:
- Keyserkerk, Middenbeemster: A region still famous for cheese production, where many children historically worked in dairies and on farms.
- Eusebiuskerk, Arnhem: A cemetery containing individuals from lower economic classes, likely children engaged in industrial labor such as textiles and tobacco.
- Nieuwe Kerk, Delft: Excavated in 2021, this collection provides a control group of children buried inside the church, who were probably not engaged in labor.
‘In Middenbeemster, a lot of kids were making cheese and helping with tasks around the farm at that time,’ she says. ‘The industrial kids are from Arnhem, a city with a rich industrial history and decent historical documentation of children in the workforce. The control population comes from the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft. These children were buried within the church itself, so they were likely not working. They serve as a baseline.’
Emotional weight
Preliminary findings suggest that some children showed signs of degenerative joint disease, in some cases more advanced than those found in some adults. ‘They were participating in activities for which their bodies were too small to handle. It’s a part of Dutch history that isn’t well documented, especially for the children who didn’t survive.’
‘Studying the remains of children can be emotionally heavy,’ Tutwiler admits. ‘The way I best manage is curating the playlists I’m listening to, it helps keep the more emotional side of things in check while working with younger individuals. But at the end of the day, I care deeply about the individuals I work with and I am honored to help tell their story through my research.’
CT scans as a window into living bone
The Archol grant helps Tutwiler to book time for a CT scanner in Delft. ‘CT scans are well-suited for cross-sectional geometry, a method that osteologists can use to look at how the shape of long bones changes based on different activity patterns in life.’
‘The cool thing is that CT scans allow us to see the thickness of the bone at different points along the diaphysis, or shaft, of long bones,’ Tutwiler notes. ‘Bone is a living material. We think of it as static, but it responds quite a bit to activity. You produce bone at a rapid rate throughout childhood, so if you’re working overtime your bones will quickly respond to that increased activity and change in shape and structure to accommodate it. It’s a positive feedback loop.’
She compares the phenomenon to the difference between a marathon runner and a couch potato: ‘The cortical structure of a marathon runner is stronger since they’re applying a lot of force to the bones in their legs. By comparing the shape and thickness of certain bones between populations, you can see how these variables vary between individuals with different activity levels. It’s a really useful tool for researchers trying to understand activity in past populations.’
Breaking new ground
What excites Tutwiler most is that this research is largely unprecedented. ‘To my knowledge, this is the first time anyone has looked at excessive activity on the structure of bones in children from an archaeological context,’ she says. ‘That’s what I’m really excited about.’
Collaborating with the Department of Geoscience and Engineering in Delft, she transports the remains in a hardshell suitcase by train for scanning sessions. Tutwiler expects to complete five more scanning sessions by June. ‘It depends on the availability of the equipment in Delft,’ she explains. ‘Hopefully I’ll be done by June, and I’m aiming for two articles that will contribute to my PhD.’
About the Archol Grant
In 2025, the P.J.R Modderman Foundation has added the Archol Grant to its activities. The archaeological research company Archol BV offers the financial backing. Archol is part of Leiden University (within the Libertatis Ergo Holding) and has had very close ties with the Faculty of Archaeology from day one. Faculty researchers are regularly involved in Archol's commercial research projects.
More information on the P.J.R. Modderman Foundation and the Archol Grant.