LABOH (Laboratory of Biological Anthropology and Human Osteology) began as an academic internship aggregator in the field of biological anthropology within the Department of Anthropology at NOVA FCSH. It served as an introductory platform to the methods and techniques of analysis in human osteology and their subsequent application in reconstructing patterns of disease and behavior in the past, as well as in forensic anthropology. Four years later, it moved into a new facility and set its sights on new goals. LABOH is currently in the early stages of implementation and aims to be an experimental and innovative laboratory in its approach to the study of the human being, seeking to integrate methods and techniques from various fields (e.g., digital, artistic, technological, and other sciences).

LABOH’S main objectives are:

• The study of human beings and groups from an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating biological data with environmental, cultural, and social factors;
• The introduction of innovative approaches to promote the development of anthropology in Portugal, particularly biological anthropology.

Currently, the research projects underway at LABOH focus on the study of human skeletal remains, with an emphasis on:

• Ethical and legal issues associated with the use of human osteological material—recovered in archaeological and forensic contexts, or associated with identified collections—in teaching and research;
• The interpretation of the past based on the paleobiological analysis of bone and fossil material, drawing on various disciplines and/or fields of study: paleopathology, paleodemography, human variability, paleoanthropology, and primatology (on a comparative basis);
• A discussion of the methods and techniques used to infer biological profiles (i.e., age at death and sex) and categorize individuals;
• Issues related to bone tissue biology, incorporating biomolecular and histological data, and their connections to health and disease in the past and present;
• The exploration of ethnographic and archival data as complements to osteological analysis for the reconstruction of behavioral and health patterns in the past.