bioarchaeology (Other Keyword)
126-150 (296 Records)
Mortuary contexts are archaeologically and anthropologically ambiguous. Moreover, mutilcomponent-use archaeological sites are difficult to interpret as the original purpose of these designated spaces reflects the ever changing living society. The ancient Roman site of Troia is a multicomponent-use site. Originally constructed as a Garum production and distribution center, in fact the largest known in the Western Roman Empire, Troia was also utilized as a cemetery throughout its use from the 1st...
Gentleman Soldiers and Richard Mutton, Two New Exhibits in Jamestown's Archaearium Museum (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Opening the Vault: What Collections Can Say About Jamestown’s Global Trade Network", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Jamestown Rediscovery recently expanded “Gentleman Soldiers,” an original installation in the Voorhees Archaearium archaeology museum. Since the museum’s opening in 2006, the team has recovered scores of personal arms, armor, and accoutrements that belonged to Jamestown’s upper class. These...
Geometric morphometric assessment of cranial shape change in trigonocephaly (2015)
Investigating the only known prehistoric example of trigonocephaly, a condition thought to result from premature sutura frontalis fusion, we address cranial shape changes in this condition that have been previously limited in scope and based on living individuals. The individual derives from a prehistoric context on Santa Rosa Island (CA-SRI-24), dates to 1500-1650 AD, and is housed at the PHMA, UC Berkeley. Ninety-three 3D landmarks were collected from normal skulls for comparison (n=43, range...
A Geospatial Analysis of Landscape Modification in Relation to Burials and Social Control (2015)
This poster examines burial construction in relation to landscape modifications in the Rio Bravo region of northwestern Belize. A geospatial analysis was conducted on burials and surrounding features, such as shrines, to determine the Maya social hierarchical system established during the Middle Preclassic, Late Preclassic, and Late Classic periods. This research addresses the interrelationship between altered landscapes and burial locations, which can yield insight into social control. Poor...
Health and nutritional stress in Pericolonial Ifugao, Philippines (2017)
The Ifugao of the highland Philippines responded to Spanish colonial incursions in adjacent lowland towns in the early 1600s by consolidating their political, social, and economic resources. This period saw the introduction of wet-rice agriculture and subsequent expansion of irrigated terraced agriculture in the region. These social and economic changes suggest an increased reliance on rice and a decreased dependence on a broad-spectrum diet. It is hypothesized that changes in diet and larger...
Historical Craniotomy and Autopsy Practices at the Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds Poor Farm Cemetery (2015)
The Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds Poor Farm Cemetery (MCIG) served as the burial ground for county institutions, including the coroner’s office and the Milwaukee County Hospital. This paper describes craniotomy practices in particular, and autopsy practices more generally, evidenced by the population from the MCIG Cemetery. In addition, this research attempts to distinguish between craniotomies and autopsies carried out by the coroner’s office versus the Milwaukee County Hospital to...
Hohokam Settlement Along the Slopes of the Picacho Mountains, Volume 6: Synthesis and Conclusions (1988)
This is the sixth and final volume in the series presenting the results of archaeological investigations of Hohokam sites along Reaches 1 and 2 of the Tucson Aqueduct, Phase A, Project. The project involved the investigation of two prehistoric platform mound communities in the Picacho Mountains area, which prior to these investigations were virtually unknown. The project focused on the Brady Wash community with lesser efforts in the Picacho community. The research efforts represented by the...
Holocene seasonality, mobility, and diet at Niah Cave (Sarawak, East Malaysia): new isotope results on rainforest foragers and farmers? (2016)
Assessment of fine-grained proxies to infer paleoclimate and paleoecology in tropical Southeast Asia is hampered by the coarseness of the archaeological record. Advances in technology, however, do permit fresh insights into past rainforest ecologies using isotope ratios from tooth enamel, albeit with very real spatial and temporal limitations. This is especially true for isotopic analysis of incremental growth layers in human tooth enamel. In this paper, oxygen and carbon isotope ratios are...
How Far We Have Come: Advances in Bioarchaeology at Historic St. Mary’s City (2020)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "From Maryland’s Ancient [Seat] and Chief of Government: Papers in Honor of Henry M. Miller" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Bioarchaeological research at St. Mary’s City began in the early 1990s with “Project Lead Coffins.” This excavation of three burials from inside the 17th-century Great Brick Chapel – since identified as members of the prominent Calvert family – was followed by osteological analyses of...
How to Choose Samples for aDNA: Bioarchaeological Best Practices for Sampling Human Remains (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient DNA in Service of Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent methodological advances have rapidly increased the pace and scale of ancient DNA (aDNA) studies, prompting widespread sampling in museum collections and raising ethical concerns about inter-lab competition, treatment of human remains, and the research questions being addressed. Another key issue is selection of material that will be destroyed...
Infant Health and Burial Practices in Late Prehistoric and Contact Period Kiyyangan, Ifugao (2015)
Infant death in Ifugao villages has only been viewed through a lens of modern ethnography. Recent excavations at the Old Kiyyangan Village site have revealed new information on the resource base, trade networks and impact of outside groups on the prehistoric and early historic Ifugao. This work has produced a small sample (16) of individuals who died at, or around, full term to the age of two years. The age, health, and mortuary profiles of these skeletons will be presented and placed into...
Inter- and intra-individual dietary variation among the agro-pastoralist Sai Island Meroitic population (2017)
We examine inter- and intra-individual variation in diet among high-status individuals from an agro-pastoralist Meroitic burial population interred on Sai Island in modern Sudan. We use stable isotope data (δ13C and δ15N) from dentinal collagen, extracted from serial micro-sections of third molars, to reconstruct the diet of 10 individuals. We employ MixSIAR, a hierarchical Bayesian model for estimating isotopic mixing, along with a previously constructed isotopic food-web to reconstruct human...
The Interior Frontier: Intercultural Exchange in the Formative Period (1000 B.C.-A.D. 400) of Quillagua, Antofagasta Region, northern Chile (2017)
Today the modern village of Quillagua, an oasis in the hyperarid Atacama Desert, is of limited regional economic importance. However, there is strong evidence to support the argument that, in the past, the village was a node of ancient routes linking the populations of the Pampa, the Pacific Coast, the River Loa, and the Salar of Atacama. Documents from the 18th century suggest that Quillagua was, in fact, an "internal frontier" between populations residing to the north and south of the oasis....
An Intersite Comparison of Human Skeletal Trauma in Shang Dynasty China (2017)
Participation in the near-constant military campaigns of the Late Shang dynasty of China may have constituted an important social role for much of the population. Archaeologists have employed mortuary analysis and a close-reading of contemporaneous oracle bone inscriptions to help elucidate the nature of warfare and its participants. A large-scale bioarchaeological analysis of human skeletal remains could not only provide valuable insight on the relationship between weaponry as grave goods and...
Intra-and-inter Regional Variation of Dental Modification and Social Complexity: a Test Case from the Lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca (2015)
Dental modifications are symbolic representations permanently etched into human dentition that can have different cultural interpretations. Often done for aesthetic purposes, these modifications may reflect status, represent social inclusion or exclusion, or display regional variation. Bioarchaeological analysis of skeletons from three sites (Yugüe, Loma Don Genaro, and Río Viejo) from the Lower Río Verde Region of Oaxaca, Mexico (100 CE-800 CE) shows an increase in the frequency of dental...
Investigation of biological relationships at the Late Woodland/ Mississippian transition in the northern Mississippian hinterlands (2015)
The Mississippian period is exceptional for the fast and wide ranging influence it had on the mid-continent. Processes behind the Mississippianization of the Midwest are often derived from explanations of trade or religion as inferred from the presence of material culture and site organization. It is unknown to what level direct contact occurred. Biological distance investigation using odontometrics and dental discrete trait analysis was conducted on individuals from Late Woodland and...
An Investigation of Dietary Histories and Skeletal Health in a Muisca Population (950-1350 AD, Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia) (2015)
Highly stratified societies are characterized by differentiation between groups along various socially defined axes. The Tibanica community (950-1350 AD), part of the Muisca culture from the Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia, is an ideal population to study how social roles and identities are intertwined with human diet and skeletal health. Here we present stable isotope data to investigate the complexity of human diets across the life course by comparing childhood diets to adulthood diets for the same...
Isotopes and Environments: Exploring Palaeoenvironmental Change during the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic in the Cantabrian Region, Northern Spain (2016)
The Cantabrian region Northern Spain was an archaeologically important region throughout the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, and was home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals in Europe, and during the Last Glacial Maximum the region acted as a refugium for plants, animals and humans. Changes in the environment are thought to have been driving factors behind the extinction of the Neanderthals, the rise of Anatomically Modern Humans (AMHs), and later the development of the rich cave art...
Isotopic Evidence for the Presence of Immigrants at Casas Grandes (2016)
Casas Grandes is widely recognized as having cultural characteristics of both Mesoamerica and the American Southwest. Although the presence of objects and ideas from surrounding areas clearly demonstrates some degree of regional interaction, the nature and extent of Casas Grandes’ relationship with neighbouring communities is largely unresolved. In particular, one of the key issues in Chihuahuan archaeology is whether Medio period complexity arose from internal developments or external stimuli,...
Isotopic examination of human remains associated with the Korell-Bordeaux site (48GO54), Goshen County, Wyoming: δ13C and δ18O from bone and enamel apatite (2015)
Bone and enamel apatite from human remains (N=17) recovered at the Korell-Bordeaux (48GO54) site in Goshen County, Wyoming during the 1980 and 2009 field seasons was analyzed using stable carbon and oxygen isotope methods. Patterns related to the geographic mobility and overall sustenance sourcing of the members of the population during their first and final decades of life are detailed. Remains stained with degraded copper alloys were examined through the same procedural methods and differences...
"I’m not Black, I’m Dominican": Diaspora and bioarchaeology from a descendant’s perspective (2023)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Global Archaeologies and Latin American Voices: Dialogues Transcending Colonizing Archaeologies", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Growing up, my father taught me to say, “I’m not Black, I’m Dominican.” But I eventually realized I am indeed also Black. I do not speak Spanish, and my Latinx heritage is recognizable only in certain spaces. I noticed the conflation of racial constructs and ethnic backgrounds...
Kiva B Internments at the Mine Canyon Site, New Mexico: a bioarchaeology and ancient DNA approach (2016)
Excavations at the Mine Canyon site, a PIII Chaco outlier near Farmington, New Mexico, revealed a cluster of thirteen individuals interred within Kiva B. Ancient DNA analysis of the individuals from the site demonstrated that six of the Kiva B internments belonged to the same derived form of Haplogroup A, suggesting a matrilineal relationship. Recent analysis of their burial positions suggests the Kiva B individuals are distinct from others at the site, further supported by a lack of grave...
Kneeling difficulty and osteoarthritis: what data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative can tell us about prehistoric Californians (2015)
An essential part of California hunter-gatherer diet was ground foods, such as acorns. Grinding food with the use of mortars and pestles likely required extensive kneeling. Most of the food grinding among prehistoric Californians was likely accomplished by females. In Ryan’s Mound (CA-Ala-329; N = 284), for instance, 33% of females were buried with mortars or pestles whereas 14% of males were buried with mortars or pestles (Chi-square = 10.48, P < 0.001). A rich literature on kneeling effects on...
La Cueva de la Colmena: bioarchaeological analysis of a funerary context from the Sonora – Sinaloa Project / R. A. Pailes 1967. (2015)
In the past six years the Centro INAH Sonora has turned its gaze to the Archaeological Collections under its charge, keeping priority to conservation, research, documentation and registration of such collections. Key member of this acquis is the collection product of the archaeological research conducted by Dr. Richard Allen Pailes in the year 1967 as part of the Sonora-Sinaloa Project. The main goal of the project was the recognition of different surface locations in the basin of the Mayo and...
Laboring in Tiwanaku's Moquegua Colony: A Bioarchaeological Activity Indicator Comparison Using Population-Based and Life Course Approaches (2015)
Diverse, lower elevation areas were home to producers and procurers of goods not easily grown or obtainable in the South Central Andean heartland of the Tiwanaku state. Various Tiwanaku colonial settlement clusters, near present-day Moquegua, Peru, comprised one such region. Tiwanaku colonists in this area participated in activities that included farming of corn and coca, as well as transportation of goods between the heartland and colony. For example, Omo-style (Omo M16D and Rio Muerto M70...