bioarchaeology (Other Keyword)
226-250 (296 Records)
This contribution presents the preliminary results of an osteobiograhical approach to the life conditions of a slave/ex-slave population from Le Morne cemetery (18-19th centuries, Mautiritius Island). We evaluate the incidence of several stress indicators/pathologies on the human remains that are the result of environmental conditions during life. Dental health, infectious diseases and physical activity markers were analyzed to address the daily life of this population. Our results indicate high...
A Prism or a Mirror? Reflections of a Hopewell Man (2017)
Interred within a deep, mounded and relatively elaborate tomb nearly two millennia ago, our Hopewell man lived approximately as many years as we have studied his remains. While his tissues have remained unchanged since excavation, our analytical gaze has witnessed near tectonic shifts in theoretical perspectives. The first interpretations, those of the senior author in zealous pursuit of her doctoral degree, were decidedly processual and lacked reflexivity. She spoke of status, for example,...
"A Proper and Honorable Place of Retreat for the Sick Poor": Bioarchaeology of Philadelphia’s Blockley Almshouse Cemetery (2017)
Philadelphia’s Blockley Almshouse served as one of the primary centers of medical education in nineteenth-century America. Operating between 1835 and 1905, "Old Blockley" was served by some of the era’s most prominent physicians, including the "father of modern medicine" Sir William Osler, and Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. Excavation of one of the almshouse’s two cemeteries in 2001 revealed over 400 graves and thousands of anatomical...
Punishment or surgical procedure?:Intentional amputation in a Late Intermediate Period (1000-1450 AD ) individual from Pica 8 cemetery (Northern Chile) (2016)
Presented here is a case of intentional amputation found in a 30-40 year old male (inventoryNº B0796) from the Pica 8 cemetery in Northern Chile who exhibits an antemortem loss of all his left toes. Whilst Munizaga (1974) suggested that this mutilation was caused by frostbite, our CT scan analysis suggests intentional amputation. While this intentional amputation could be the consequence of a surgical procedure, amputation as a form of punishment presents an interesting possibility to explore...
Quantifying Indianness: Commonsensical practice in U.S. bioarchaeology and skeletal biology (2015)
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, U.S. museums and universities amassed massive stores of the skeletons of Native American people. These collections eventually became the source-base for bioarchaeology, a subfield of both physical anthropology and archaeology that emerged in the 1970’s and continues producing interpretations about past Native American identities from the study of skeletal remains. Over the last few decades, the reburial movement and the passage of NAGPRA has slowed—or...
Re-contextualizing the Dead: A Geospatial Approach to Synthesizing Bioarchaeological Data at Çatalhöyük (2017)
Two decades of excavation at Çatalhöyük have produced a skeletal assemblage of approximately 555 individuals from primary, secondary, and primary-disturbed Neolithic (7100-6000 cal. BCE) deposition contexts. As personnel and digital technology have changed, integration of the large body of legacy bioarchaeological data with current research has posed many challenges. Often, analyses of osteological data patterns have relied on broad comparisons of temporal and spatial categories drawn from...
A reappraisal of cranial shape among prehistoric South Americans and its implications for the peopling of the New World (2016)
Recent studies of South American populations have played an integral role in elucidating the timing, origin and migration routes of the first Americans. Much attention has centered on the cranial shape of these prehistoric populations, which some researchers have described as having two distinct head forms. The cranial shape of early Holocene Paleoamericans has been categorized as dolichocephalic (long-headed), while later populations have been generally described as brachycephalic...
Recent archaeological excavations at the Aklis Site, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands (2015)
The Aklis site (12VAm1-42) is a multicomponent prehistoric conch shell midden containing cemetery and habitation components. Large portions of the site are currently subject to damage from rising sea levels and modern disturbances, including looting. Salvage excavations of two sets of human remains in 2012 led to the development of an archaeological field school in 2014, offered by Mississippi State University and in conjunction with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Survey and excavation...
Reconciling Disease and the Presence of Infections on Human Skeletal Remains with Emerging Technology in Bioarchaeology (2016)
With advancing technologies in recent years, numerous methodologies are used to identify disease and causes of infection in human skeletal remains. Use of ancient DNA (aDNA) and scanning electron microscopy aid in pinpointing diseases. In particular, ancient tuberculosis and treponemal disease are at the forefront of identification with these new techniques. Recent evaluation shows some of these methods still require refinement, such as the recent discovery of aDNA markers used to identified...
A Reexamination of Human Remains from Late Prehistory in the Alabama River Valley (2015)
The late prehistory of central Alabama in not yet well understood, particularly when compared to contemporaneous occupations elsewhere in the Southeast. Previous excavations of Durant Bend (1Ds1), a late Mississippian/Proto-historic, single mound site in Dallas County on the Alabama River, resulted in a number of artifacts, including lithics, pottery, faunal remains, and human remains that enhance our understanding of late prehistoric and protohistoric occupations in the Alabama River Valley....
REFLEXIONES SOBRE LA NATURALEZA DEL PODER EN UNA POBLACIÓN MUISCA DE LA SABANA DE BOGOTÁ A TRAVÉS DE ESTUDIO DE LA DIETA (2016)
En esta presentación, queremos enfocarnos en la relación entre alimentación y otras dimensiones sociales de la sociedad Muisca asentada en una aldea del sur de la Sabana de Bogotá del periodo muisca tardío, como es el caso de status y género. Tradicionalmente, se ha asumido la existencia de un grupo de élite que tuvo ciertos privilegios y beneficios por encima del resto de individuos; sin embargo, la información de la dieta a través del análisis isotópico de una muestra de 250 individuos...
Regional Diversity and Population Migration of the Classic Maya: Stable Isotope Analysis of Individuals from the Holmul Region, Guatemala (2017)
Stable isotope analysis is a productive tool for understanding the migratory histories of past populations in various regions of the world, including the ancient Maya. This paper presents the strontium and oxygen isotopic ratio values of dental enamel samples as compared to the geographical location of burial to address questions of regional identity, population migration, and social complexity of the Maya at the archaeological site of Holmul and the nearby centers of La Suficaya, K’o, Cival,...
Relatedness and Social Organization at the Ray Site (11BR104): Biological Distance Analysis of a Middle Woodland Ridge Top Cemetery (2015)
A considerable number of biodistance studies have been conducted on archaeological populations from the Lower Illinois Valley. Many of these have included groups of remains dating to the Middle Woodland Period (50BCE to 400CE), a period which has in the past gained attention for the elaboration of burial mound complexes, intensification of horticulture, as well as proliferation of "exotic" and intricately crafted artifacts. In the Lower Illinois Valley, this period is also characterized by the...
The Relationship between Violence and Geographic Origins at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico: Preliminary Results from Strontium Isotope Analyses (2015)
Casas Grandes, also known as Paquimé, was one of the largest and most complex societies in prehistoric northern Mexico, with established trade networks and social influences from Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and western Mexico. Analyses of the human skeletal remains from Casas Grandes have found evidence for interpersonal conflict, human sacrifice, and cannibalism during the Medio period (ca. 1200-1450 AD), which coincides with increasing sociopolitical complexity and emerging social...
Relationships among Foraging Efficiency, Agricultural Investment, and Human Health in Fremont Societies (2016)
Marked variability in subsistence strategies has been noted throughout the Fremont archaeological culture. Previously, we have explored such variability by using data on baseline environmental productivity, zooarchaeological evidence for resource depression, and archaeological measures of the importance of agriculture to test the hypothesis that agricultural investment among the Fremont varied inversely with local environmental productivity. Data from throughout the Fremont region are consistent...
Rethinking Population Dynamics of the Belle Glade Prehistoric Culture (2016)
The Belle Glade prehistoric culture of central peninsular Florida is very poorly known. Through standard osteological analyses of 78 individuals from Belle Glade Mound (8PB41), type site for the culture, estimates for age, sex, and stature were calculated and observations of dental and skeletal pathologies were noted. Sex could be estimated for 26 males and 25 females. Age distributions varied stratigraphically but were dominated by young adults aged 20-35 and middle adults aged 35-50. The age...
Review of Skeletal Biology in the Great Plains: Migration Warfare, Health, and Subsistence (1995)
Review of Skeletal Biology in the Great Plains: Migration Warfare, Health, and Subsistence
Ridges, Valleys, Mountains, and Plateaus: The Topographic Context of Late Mississippian Diversity in East Tennessee (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Living and Dying in Mountain and Highland Landscapes" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Topographical constraints played a role in shaping the social trajectory of the Southern Appalachian region. The Ridge and Valley physiographic province of East Tennessee includes the Tennessee River and is characterized by linear ridges and parallel valleys, with the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Appalachian Plateau...
Ritual for the Ancestors or Acts of Violence: Biocultural assessment of culturally modified human remains (2016)
A number of culturally modified human remains from three sites in Utah were reanalyzed with a biocultural approach that considered the poetics of violence and the role bodies play in cultural memory. The remains analyzed consisted of twenty-two individuals affiliated with the Fremont and Northern San Juan Puebloan cultures. The focus of this study was to transcend the surficial evidence of dismemberment and mutilation, and to view these bodies as cultural artifacts that could provide deeper...
The Role of Offerings in Interpreting Maya Mortuary Ritual: Bioarchaeological Analysis at Xultún (2017)
Bioarchaeological analyses in the past have worked to investigate and contextualize human remains in the broader realm of ancient Maya mortuary practices. Offerings are a common component of Maya ritual; however, the role of human offerings is still not understood in its entirety. In the 2014 field season at Xultún, Petén, Guatemala, three sets of human remains were excavated within the Los Arboles structure, a pyramid complex to the north of the site. In this paper, I discuss the results of...
Scales of Analysis and Modes of Interpretation in Osteobiography: An Example from the Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project (2017)
Bioarchaeologists have traditionally prioritized statistically significant patterns in large skeletal assemblages to document major biocultural trends in human populations. But in the last 15-20 years, the osteobiography approach has returned to favor, encouraging bioarchaeologists to focus on the specifics of the human scale, reconstruct an experiential prehistory, and restore an identity to those "genderless, faceless blobs" (Tringham 1991: 97) who people so many traditional interpretations of...
Sex differences in pre- vs. post-Black Death trends in developmental stress markers (2017)
Previous research revealed trends in periosteal new bone formation in medieval London that are consistent with improvements in health following the Black Death (c. 1347-1351). However, periosteal lesions can occur in response to a wide variety of factors at any age, so it remains unclear how the epidemic affected patterns of physiological stress specifically among subadults. To further our understanding of changes in physiological stress before and after the Black Death, this study examines...
Sex-Related Differences in Dental Caries Prevalence in the Prehistoric American Southwest (2017)
This research comprises a comprehensive study of oral health from three Prehistoric Southwest sites in order to identify sexual differences in the prevalence of dental disease after the onset of agriculture. Dental pathologies, such as dental caries and antemortem tooth loss (AMTL), directly relate to an individual’s diet, therefore indicate disparities in subsistence and dietary patterns. Previous studies have found that females exhibit higher rates of caries compared to males. These...
Sexual dimorphism and morphological variability with regard to the socio-economic structure of the Early Medieval European Population (6th – 9th century). (2015)
The socio-economic conditions of past societies can be studied with the help of the biological characteristics of human skeletons. We intend to focus on the early medieval Central and West European populations. The subject of our contribution is a study of the sexual dimorphism and biological diversity on the basis of non-metric and metric traits in relation to socio-economic conditions. We focused primarily on the traits associated with the locomotor apparatus. The aims were to establish :...
The Sinagua and the Western Pueblo Tradition: Perspectives from Bioarchaeology (2015)
Genetic and cultural relationships among ancient and historic populations in the American Southwest have long been of interest to archaeologists, and more recently to descendant communities. Documentation of more than 1500 human remains and 4000 associated funerary objects from US Forest Service land in anticipation of repatriation under NAGPRA provides abundant new information to address this topic. This poster discusses research using metric and nonmetric skeletal data and discrete skeletal...