The CRUMBEL project studies the collections of cremated bone found in Belgium dating from the Neolithic to the Early-Medieval period using state of the art analytical and geochemical analyses. Recording the Belgian collections in a database including as much osteoarchaeological information represents a crucial part of this project. Until now the dominance of cremation as funeral practice between 3000 BC and 700 AD in Northern Europe led to limited information on migrations and living conditions. The CRUMBEL project will greatly improve our current understanding of how people lived in Belgium, and is funded by the Excellence of Science (EOS) framework supported by the FWO and the F.R.S.-FNRS, which promotes joint research projects between Flemish and French-Speaking Universities of Belgium.

MEMOR will create an open access database that provides information on the availability and location of all human skeletal collections (burnt and unburnt) in Flanders to facilitate future research. Initially, the database will contain information on human remains only, but eventually can be expanded with more categories, including zooarchaeological remains and grave goods. The second aspect of MEMOR concerns with the ethical issues that occur when working with human remains. MEMOR will be working together with several other parties, such as religious organisations, to develop an ethical framework that will aid decisions that need to be made when handling, analysing, storing and possibly reburying human remains.

Funded by the Flemish Heritage Agency, the ALIMENT project aims to track changes in animal breeding practices and its relationship with urban food provisioning during the modern period. Using 17^th to 19^th century faunal remains this project explores innovations and transformations in the agricultural economy of Flanders, within a historical context of demographic growth and increasing demand for food products. Particular attention is paid to critically assessing the timing and nature of the so called “agricultural revolution”.