Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis (Other Keyword)
251-275 (823 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Growing up during periods of chronic warfare can have long-term impacts on health and well-being across the lifecourse. Public health research has demonstrated how early exposure to violence or other physical stressors contributes to increased morbidity and mortality among children and adolescents. Within bioarchaeology, investigating the lived experience...
Doing Context-Specific, Anthropological Bioarchaeology: Hard Times from England to the Andes (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Debra L. Martin" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The concept and approach of "bioarchaeology as anthropology," wherein bioarchaeology is framed as interdisciplinary, hypothesis-driven, biocultural, cross-cultural, and focused on understanding the adaptation and evolution of social systems, was pioneered by George Armelagos and has been progressively strengthened and amplified...
Don’t Throw the Baby out with the Bathwater: New Insights into Palaeodemographic Change with the Intensification of Agriculture in Southeast Asia (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Paradigms Shift: New Interpretations in Mainland Southeast Asian Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. With the accumulation of bioarchaeological research in mainland Southeast Asia we are beginning to assess the impact that agricultural intensification and associated environmental and social changes had on these societies. Recent work is starting to build up a model of demographic change with increasing...
The Down and Dirty: Differential Preservation of Burials from Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Cemeteries on Sint Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean (2021)
This is an abstract from the "NSF REU Site: Exploring Globalization through Archaeology 2019–2020 Session, St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study explores the markedly different preservation of skeletal remains from two historic cemeteries situated within 500 m of each other on the Dutch Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius. The burials of eighteenth-century enslaved Africans are located along the coast and are...
The Dread of Something after Death: Ownership, Excavation and Identification of World War II Axis Combatants in Europe (2018)
Human remains possess an indexical quality that references once-living people. Human bone may also serve as a symbolic representation of larger ideas such as honor, vengeance or injustice. As such, human remains, as evidence of past criminal actions, have the ability to bring communities together, but also to tear them apart. In regard to the remains of soldiers who perished in the European theater during World War II (WWII), the presence of remains may serve to reinforce the perceived moral...
Drought, Diet, Demography, and Diaspora during the Mississippian Period: A View from the Central Illinois River Valley (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Migration and Climate Change: The Spread of Mississippian Culture" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. For decades archaeologists have conjectured about the impacts of climate change on the distribution of Mississippian and related pre-Columbian populations in midcontinental North America. Until recently, climatological reconstructions were coarse grained and lacked the temporal and spatial resolution to link in any...
Dynamic and Diverse Roles and Identities of Women in Ancient Southwest Systems of Violence (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The definition of violence is unique to all societies. Violent behavior is thus recognized in myriad ways and observing it in past societies demands consideration of many forms of evidence. Interpreting individual roles in systems of violence requires that we look beyond weaponry, site destruction, male warrior burials, and lethal injuries. Our perception...
Early Childhood Diet during the Bronze Age Eastern Zhou Dynasty (China): Evidence from Stable Isotope Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Health and Welfare of Children in the Past" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Diet and health are deeply intertwined, and childhood is a critical period where nutrition can have significant short- and long-term effects on the growing individual. Breastfeeding, weaning, and childhood dietary habits are culturally-mediated practices, and how a developing body is fed is a critical cultural experience with biological...
Early Human Biology, Ecology, and Archaeology in the Lowland Tropics of Central America (2018)
Renewed focus on Paleoamerican and archaic peoples across Mesoamerica have broadened our understanding of those time periods. However, few stratified sites have been documented. We present new data from two multi-component rockshelters located in the Bladen Nature Reserve in the Maya Mountains of Belize. We document persistent use of these rockshelters from the late Pleistocene through the Maya collapse and suggest these spaces were used for animal processing, tool reduction, and as...
Eating and Empires: Stable Isotope Analysis to Reconstruct Diet and Foodways in the Wari Heartland (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Seeing Wari through the Lens of the Everyday: Results from the Patipampa Sector of Huari" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dietary patterns within a community can reveal insights into how communities were organized and how social class or gender roles could shape who had access to which foods. In this study, we use stable isotope analysis of archaeological humans and fauna from three Wari sites in the imperial heartland...
Echoes of Paleoindians: Analyzing Faunal Remains from the Jones-Miller site in Wray, Colorado (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Jones Miller site is a Bison antiquus kill site in Northeast Colorado near the town of Wray. The site was discovered by Robert Jones, Jr. in 1972, and excavated by Dennis Stanford at the Smithsonian Museum. The site is a thick, very large (approximately 36m by 40m) bone bed located in a former draw off the Arikaree River basin. The site dates to...
Ecologies of Ancestors: Examining the Intermateriality of Chachapoya Above-Ground Mortuary Architecture through Wood Anatomy, Geochemistry and Local Land-Based Knowledge in the Amazonian Andes of Peru (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Landscapes of Death: Placemaking and Postmortem Agencies" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At the cusp between Andes and Amazon, limestone cliffs cloaked in the mist of tropical montane cloud forest house the remains of Chachapoya ancestors. Given their dramatic placement within a fractured and lush environment, the “chullpa” or above-ground mortuary structures of pre-colonial Chachapoya communities have long evoked...
El formativo medio en la región valles de Jalisco: Resultados preliminares del proyecto “El Campanillo” (2025)
This is an abstract from the "From the Underworld to the Heavens: Expanding the Study of Central Jalisco’s Past" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Durante dos años hemos realizado un proyecto arqueológico con la finalidad de conocer los orígenes de la sociedad compleja en Los Guachimontones. A partir de un recorrido sistemático, excavaciones en áreas determinadas y un análisis del paisaje hemos logrado obtener información variada sobre las...
Elites, Craftsmen, or . . . Commoners? Ten Years of Bioarchaeological Research at Castillo de Huarmey (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Decade of Multidisciplinary Research at Castillo de Huarmey, Peru" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the last 10 years, the multidisciplinary Polish-Peruvian archaeological project at Castillo de Huarmey brought to light numerous finds. Some of the most significant research consists of wide-scale bioarchaeological analyses of human and animal remains originating from both undisturbed and looted burials. The most...
Elucidating processes of objectification, contestation, and repair for African diasporic burial spaces (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Landscapes of Death: Placemaking and Postmortem Agencies" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human remains occupy a contested status both in bioarchaeology and culturally, wherein the same set of remains can be conceived of as a complex former person or as a disembodied object without depth. This paper explores the contested status of these remains in diasporic contexts by outlining a theoretical model called the “Black...
Embodied Empire: Life and Death of Wari Elites from Castillo de Huarmey (2018)
The discovery of an undisturbed burial context at Castillo de Huarmey, bringing to light remains of Wari immediate elite members, finally embodied long discussed highest social levels of Wari Imperial elites. Until that time they characteristic was derived almost exclusively from indirect sources, mainly material remains of high quality material culture and architecture. Now, there is a chance to get a glimpse on their actual life stories, occupation, and to see their faces. Analysis of the...
Embodied Lives: Bioarchaeology of the Moche Valley Chimú (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the late 1970’s to early 2000’s archaeologists studying the Chimú of the northern coast of Peru created a foundation in the archaeological literature. This research helped us understand Chimú chronology, general functionality of the empire, and technological advancements made by the society. While these contributions to the Chimú literature are...
Embodying the Sun. Pyrotechniques as Part of Human Sacrifice in Ancient Mesoamerica (2018)
In Mesoamerica, sacrificial ceremonies for the sake of religious merit-making tended to bridge polarities between action and symbols. Some of the ritual practices were mediated by mythical narratives surrounding domestic hearths, divine fire, and the sun itself. Among ancient Mesoamericans with their hierophagic cosmic understanding, the fiery protagonists to which sacrifices were destined to were deemed necessary complements of all life and had to be fed. This talk combines graphic and textual...
The Enduring Practice of Dental Modification in the Ecuadorian Past (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dental modification has been well-documented from the coast of Ecuador, with practices including elaborate dental inlays and incisions. However, few examples come from recently excavated or well-provenienced sites, making the antiquity and changing significance of dental modification unclear. Additionally, it is unclear whether this practice originated in...
Engaged Bioarchaeology: Centering Descendant Voices in the Excavations of a Historic Mission Church in Belen, New Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Community Engaged Bioarchaeology: Centering Descendants" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. An engaged bioarchaeological project includes the Indigenous or descendant community from the beginning of the project, centers their questions, and brings forward their knowledge of the past to create more nuanced conversations about their ancestors. Shifting the focus from solely the goals of the anthropologist to a shared vision...
Enhancing Multiscalar Archaeofaunal Research using cyberSW (2025)
This is an abstract from the "Multiscale Data and the History of Human Development in the US Southwest" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Big data projects, like cyberSW, greatly expanded the scope of archaeological research by providing insights into issues of sustainability and resilience through broad reconstructions of past interactions between societies and environments. Similarly, archaeological fauna data provide a window into...
Entering the "Valley of Death": Isotopic Evidence of Vulnerable Survivors at Roman Period Kellis, Egypt (2018)
Breast-fed infants living in communities with adequate food access experience particularly high health risks during complementary feeding between ages 6 to 36 months. The most vulnerable of these die in this period, characterized as the "valley of death," which represents a biocultural reality. The majority of those who survive are "vulnerable survivors." The Kellis 2 cemetery sample (Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, AD 50-450) provides a unique opportunity to analyze effects of biocultural disruptions...
Entheseal Changes in Bronze and Early Iron Age Mongolia (2018)
Extensive bioarchaeological research has addressed questions about stress, pathology, and activity in agricultural and semi-agricultural populations throughout the archaeological record, yet comparable studies pertaining to nomadic pastoral and semi-pastoral groups are relatively rare. During the Bronze Age in the Eurasian Steppes, archaeological evidence suggests a transition of lifeways from semi-sedentary agricultural to nomadic pastoralist. Entheseal analyses in bioarchaeology introduce an...
Establishing a Bioethos in Ancient DNA: Situating Knowledges in Praxis and Engagement (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ancient DNA (aDNA) has evolved into a multidisciplinary endeavor, with geneticists, archaeologists, and social scientists contributing to the compendium of research on degraded biomolecules. Over the past decade, the interplay between these diverse disciplinary perspectives has subsequently placed aDNA in a liminal space, simultaneously enriching and...
Establishing Cultural Affiliation under NAGPRA Using Geographic Origin: A Case Study of Minnesota (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Indigenous perspectives of cultural affiliation center on shared relationships with the land (Bruchac 2005); thus, establishing cultural affiliation under NAGPRA is more meaningful if it can reassociate an ancestor based on their region of origin. Biological relatedness has been used to establish cultural affiliation, but this approach prioritizes a...