Valerie Palmowski (Bioarchaeology) is studying the Baltic Sea island of Gotland and it´s key position for pan-European interactions between regions as far apart as modern-day Russia and Newfoundland, Canada, for her PhD. Gotland provides an example of relevance to the DFG network because even though it is a small island, it had very active exchange networks, but did not lose its local identity. Palmowski examines Viking Age graves and skeletal remains to gain insight into past living conditions, including medical procedures, traces of violence, signs of migration, as along with subsistence patterns and social (in)equality, all related to cultural-historical dynamics. By comparing burials from sites with varying topographical situations in Northern Germany, Sweden and Russia, her results so far indicate that locations close to navigable rivers, the coast and on islands reveal differences in subsistence and health patterns, staged burial identities, as well as the willingness to adopt foreign customs and rites.