International Journal of Osteoarchaeology最新文献

This paper explores the implications of the conformation of formal burial areas in the southernmost limit of agricultural dispersion in South America. Previous research proposed the development of cemeteries or formal burial areas due to specialization in using specific habitats and the development of territorial ownership. From a paleoecological background, we hypothesize that hunter-gatherers intensified resource exploitation and develop territoriality in population growth and pressure over resources. The expectation is that formal burial areas emerged in this context to legitimize the ties with the territory and ensure exclusive access to the land and its resources. To evaluate this hypothesis, we analyzed a mortuary context from southern Mendoza (Central Western Argentina), named Ojo de Agua, by describing the site's characteristics, burial modality, presence of grave goods, age at death profile, and evidence of violence. This site has two main conditions for handling our hypothesis: (1) the chronology and spatial localization coincide with the temporal and geographic dispersion of pre-Hispanic cultigens; (2) systematic procedures during fieldwork led us to access a significant amount of information not available in other mortuary contexts of the area. Our results point to Ojo de Agua as a cemetery that emerged in the frame of increasing territoriality and conflict with neighboring groups and permitted us to improve our knowledge about the dynamic relationship between human population, environment, and cultural responses in the context of intensification and contact with food production. These results deepen recent studies in the same line but with a greater resolution.

At the beginning of the Portuguese maritime expansion (15th century), ships loaded with various goods, including sub-Saharan enslaved individuals, began to arrive in Portugal. In 2009, osteoarchaeological remains of these individuals were recovered for the first time in Valle da Gafaria, Lagos. Attending to their African origin and given that several studies have shown that the human body generally conforms to Bergmann's and Allen's rules, in this study, the physique of 63 adult individuals from the Valle da Gafaria site is tested against ecogeographical predictions. For that purpose, body shape (assessed by the femoral head diameter to femoral length index) and intralimb proportions (brachial and crural indices) were compared with those of 200 identified Portuguese skeletons. Results showed that the Lagos females' body shape and intralimb proportions differed significantly from those of the Portuguese, being more ‘tropically adapted’ (i.e., more ‘linear’ body shape with elongated distal limb segments). For the Lagos' males, the reduced sample size advises caution in the interpretation of the results. Although the specific origin of the Lagos individuals is not yet known, and different individuals may have come from relatively different regions of sub-Saharan Africa, with specific climatic adaptations, the results generally agree with the ecogeographical expectations. This study not only allows for the first glimpse into the body shape and limb proportions of enslaved Africans arriving in Portugal but also confirms that morphometric analyses of the long bones may be a valuable complement to investigate the latitude origin of an osteoarchaeological assemblage.

The analysis of familial relationships among individuals co-buried in a shared tomb is crucial for understanding burial practices and the underlying social organization of ancient human society. However, archaeological interpretation of these relationships has traditionally relied on conjecture and circumstantial evidence. The development of next-generation sequencing technologies makes it possible to obtain genomic data from ancient individuals and thus can further estimate the genetic relatedness among these individuals in an accurate manner. In this study, we obtained the genomes of four individuals excavated from a single tomb in northern China. We found that three out of the four individuals were from a nuclear family, including the parents and their son, while the remaining female individual was genetically unrelated to the others. Our study not only shows that the burial custom was organized based on both biological relatedness and social kinship ties but also suggests the presence of likely female exogamy in ancient China. Finally, we find the genetic profile of these individuals carried a majority ancestry from the sedentary agriculturalists from the Central Plains of China and subtle ancestry that derived a gene pool associated with nomadic pastoralism, implying a long-standing genetic continuity among ancient populations in northern China, but with genetic and cultural connections with nomadic groups during the 11th to 13th centuries.

During research conducted in 2019 regarding pelvic shape in population groups and its effects on successful delivery, one of the individuals studied was a Late Dynastic/Coptic Egyptian female mummy approximately 14–17 years old (USNM catalogue number 258601). She had an associated fetus that was wrapped and placed between her legs during mummification (USNM 258602). In 1908, the mother and child were excavated and autopsied for analysis. Field notes from 1908 said she had died from obstetric complications. For our 2019 study, the mummy was CT scanned to acquire the measurements of her pelvis and determine if cephalopelvic disproportion played a role in her death. While examining the CT images, elements of what was believed to be the fetus were identified in the mother. However, there were repetitions of elements, and a second fetus was discovered in the chest cavity of the mummy. The mother was carrying twins. For this study, re-scanning by CT and plain film radiography of the torso were performed on the mother as well as plain film radiography on the external fetus. Additionally, records and photographs from the 1908 expedition were reviewed to gather additional information on the mummy. Results note this mummy was pregnant with twins and in the middle of the birthing process at the time of her death.

The analysis of entheseal changes requires knowing the biological profile of the sample analyzed, given that, mainly, the sex and age of the individuals influence the prevalence and degrees of the entheseal features. However, the bioarcheological record of several past populations presents isolated and commingled human bone remains, which constrains the estimation of such data. In this work, we propose to analyze the entheseal changes with the Coimbra method in a sample composed mainly of commingled human bone remains and, to a lesser extent, of semi-complete individuals. For this purpose, we analyzed 312 bone elements from the upper and lower limbs of Late Mesolithic (Muge complex) and Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic archeological sites from Portugal. The results support previous information that individuals older than 40 present higher entheseal changes. In addition, body size has a low effect on entheseal changes and bone's biomechanical properties are positively correlated with some entheseal features. Some entheseal traits show higher prevalence during the Mesolithic, but there is mainly an increase in entheseal changes during the Neolithic. Although these differences could be due to different biological profiles between both samples, differences in lifestyle may also have contributed to the results.

Atlantoaxial abnormalities are rarely documented among wild animals. Many defects of segmentation in the spine are hereditary in domestic species and humans. Here, we present a block vertebra in an eastern wapiti (Cervus canadensis canadensis) from the Angel Site (12Vg1) in southern Indiana (USA) dating to 1000–1400 CE. Diagnosis used macroscopic and radiographic examination. Evidence of inflammatory response and eburnation point to functional compromise. Recorded pathologies of this nature are underrepresented in the past and present. We suggest this specimen from an adult wapiti species represents a female as this condition would have been more debilitating in an antlered stag limiting the possibility of living well into adulthood.

Sometimes the archaeological record preserves deposits representing time-averaged, successive episodes of activity, such as cumulative palimpsests, and sometimes, it captures a temporally discrete moment or event (Bailey, 2007). In this issue, Wouters et al. (2023) present a fascinating zooarchaeological example of the latter from an early modern urban context in Antwerp, Belgium.

A monumental refortification of Antwerp, including rampart construction between AD 1542 and 1553, at one location directly overlay and preserved a shallow depression containing thousands of complete fish. The depression containing the fish remains was relatively small, probably measuring little more than 1 m in length and breadth, with the layer containing most of the fish being only 2 cm thick. That these bones were found in anatomical alignment indicates relatively minimal post-depositional disturbance.

Wouters and colleagues explore demographic, taphonomic and contextual evidence to tease out the likely origin of this deposit. As they demonstrate, the zooarchaeological assemblage contains material that arrived via different taphonomic pathways. While a minority of the material can be considered to be human food waste, the majority of the material represents freshwater fish still in anatomical connection, sometimes with skin and scales visible. Most of the approximately 3500 individuals (>95%) are from the cyprinid family, with white bream and roach being the most common taxa. It is also notable that most of the fish are small individuals—their size indicates ages at the end of the first growth season, with deaths occurring during winter. The authors argue that this is a natural death assemblage, one representing ‘catastrophic’ mortality of a local population. With catastrophic mortality being used to describe the simultaneous deaths of all living individuals in a local population, therefore capturing a ‘snapshot’ of that population (Gifford-Gonzalez, 2018; Lyman, 1994).

Of the different scenarios considered by the authors, they favour a natural rather than an anthropogenic cause. The find context sits some 7.2 m above sea level, and the authors hypothesize that a massive flooding event would likely explain how the fish ended up at this high level. Indeed, historical sources attest to the occurrence of such winter floods occurring occasionally in the period just prior to the construction of the city walls. Wouters and colleagues propose that following the flooding event, the waterbody that broke into the inner city would have gradually shrunk, leaving a concentration of fish and eventually causing mortality due to lack of oxygen or the low winter temperatures. Both in its context and its population, these fish represent an unusual assemblage. The archaeological record is rich in animal bone assemblages representing discarded food waste; it is much rarer to find such direct snapshots of natural

Several recent studies have demonstrated the complexity of funerary practices in megalithic burials. Mortuary taphonomy has proposed models to explain these practices, in which different actions, such as the generation of primary and secondary deposits, the selection and manipulation of bone remains, the extraction of materials from the grave, and so forth, can be identified. However, in the northern sub-plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, the interpretation of funerary gestures related to megalithic tombs has not been systematically studied from the perspective of taphonomy. In this paper, we study two sites, Los Zumacales and La Lora, dated to the fourth millennium B.C. The analysis considers all the burial practices linked with megalithic tombs, with a focus on the social and natural processes involved in the formation of these complex mortuary deposits. In both examples, direct evidence of perimortem manipulation of human remains is documented by the presence of fresh fractures and cut marks in different long bones. As suggested in the discussion, this evidence may be related to secondary reduction practices following the initial deposition of the bodies.

This article aims to estimate the prevalence of rickets and its development during the Industrial Revolution in southeastern France through the study of a large skeletal collection from two recently excavated sites in La Ciotat and Marseille. In total, 790 individuals were selected based on their state of preservation: 556 adults and 234 nonadults. All individuals were systematically examined for macroscopic paleopathological evidence of rickets, based on 13 features indicative of vitamin D deficiency. Rickets was rare in our population, with only 3% of the sample showing signs of the disease. Individuals who died during childhood were more likely to present lesions associated with rickets: 7.7% of the nonadult population show signs of rickets against 1.1% of the adult one (Fisher's exact test: p < 0.001). Moreover, these lesions generally indicated early stages with mechanical bowing of long bones being particularly rare, unlike metaphyseal deformities. Far from the expected increase described by medico-historical literature, incidence was low and showed no change from the 16th to the 20th century. Furthermore, an increase in residual cases in adults results suggest better survival of vitamin D deficiency, which could reflect better handling of the disease. This is the first study dealing with rickets during the Industrial Revolution in France, and based on osteological material, forthcoming analyses should now focus on the incorporation of radiographic and microscopic criteria to further validate our cases and working hypotheses. Additionally, future research could benefit from the inclusion of a broader sample of individuals from early and late modern contexts, but also from the consideration of local medieval contexts providing a detailed overview that could highlight secular changes over a long period.

This paper examines the human osteological remains unearthed from six Late Helladic (LH IIIA2-IIIB2) (1390/70–1200/1190 BCE) tombs at Socha in the Peloponnese. It seeks to investigate the character of a Mycenaean community that though organically integrated into and highly dependent on the palatial system, manifested Mycenaean burial practices with a distinctly local character, namely, through the use of built cist-tombs. Our analysis investigates further the identity of this community and explores whether these people had also adopted a different way of life, diet and mortuary behavior toward specific groups. The results show that the demographic composition, diet, and health characteristics of the deceased of Socha were analogous to most Mycenaean sites: (a) equal representation of males and females, (b) burial exclusion of infants and young children, and (c) homogenous C₃ terrestrial diet. In addition, a tendency for a more frequent inclusion of middle-aged females with subadults in the same tomb suggests gender and age differentiation are in play. On the other hand, even though the burials of Socha practiced collectivity, an emphasis on individuality through a less variable post-mortem manipulation of the deceased is also in evidence and is characterized by single secondary deposits within the original grave, no evidence for commingling, and no evidence for removal nor selection of bones in secondary deposits. These characteristics demonstrate the differentiation of the group of Socha during a period of intensive movement and the creation of new settlements in South Kynouria.