Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis (Other Keyword)
301-325 (487 Records)
Traces of veneration are sedimented within the landscape and the collective memory of its occupants, transforming these spaces into places. Such palimpsests become potent, which, in the case of mortuary landscapes, can manifest in increasingly complex burial rituals through time. The 2017 excavations at Colha revealed a series of 9 interments in the main plaza of the 2000 sector, yielding a minimum number of 13 individuals. This mortuary area initially utilized during the Middle Preclassic was...
Mortuary Practice and Placemaking: The Establishment of a Cemetery during the Preceramic-Preclassic Transition at Ceibal, Guatemala (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent investigations in the Amoch Group of Ceibal, a minor ceremonial complex located outside of the site epicenter, have provided new insights into the transition from the Preceramic to the Middle Preclassic periods in the Maya lowlands (ca. 1000 BC). Previous investigations in the civic-ceremonial core of Ceibal revealed an E Group dating to around 950...
Mortuary Practices of Later Stone Age Hunter-Gatherers in Northern Malawi (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Human Origins Migration and Evolution Research Consortium Poster Symposium" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Later Stone Age (LSA) hunter-gatherer mortuary practices are poorly understood in south-central Africa. Tropical climate and acidic soils hinder preservation, bioturbation is prevalent, and research coverage is sparse. The site of Hora 1, in the Mzimba District of Malawi, provides a rare opportunity to examine...
Movement in Moquegua: Detecting Differential Activity Types via the Knee in a Tiwanaku Subgroup (2018)
Previous studies regarding femoral fossa morphology center on risk levels and variables associated with non-contact anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Increased risk of ACL injury is associated with smaller femoral fossa size. While fossa size is influenced by many variables, biologically "plastic" responses to early life experiences, such as traversing local topography or cultural factors, are appearing to emerge as perhaps the most impactful. Due to the crucial nature of the knee, it is...
Moving on up: The Promise of Multiple Data Sources in Reconstructing Early Population History of High Altitude Sites in Nepal (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. Archaeological research in the high elevation regions of Upper Mustang, Nepal, offer insights into population history in this region through multiple data sources including material culture, genomic, isotopic, and bioarchaeological data. Together, these data have enabled us to address questions of migration, patterns of exchange,...
Multi-isotope Evidence for Animal Husbandry, Transhumance, and Human Diet at San Giuliano, Italy (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Etruscan Centralization to Medieval Marginalization: Shifts in Settlement and Mortuary Traditions at San Giuliano, Italy" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project (SGARP) offers an excellent opportunity to investigate potential diachronic changes in human-animal interactions from the Etruscan to Late Medieval periods in central Italy. Here, we report on faunal and human...
Multi-isotopic Paleo-diet Reconstruction in a High Altitude Rockshelter of Southern Peru (2018)
Expanding on a previous report, we expand the results of the analysis of stable carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur isotope analyses from collagen of three Early and two Late-Middle Holocene adult human burials with coeval fauna remains of Cuncaicha rock shelter in the Peruvian Puna. We also reconstruct important aspects of the ecology of the Pucuncho Basin, in which Cuncaicha is located, using new and published isotopic values of archaeological and modern fauna and plants. Sulfur isotope values...
Multilevel Migration and Interpersonal Violence at the Angel Site: Bioarchaeological Investigations of Trauma at a Large Mississippian Period Community in Southwestern Indian (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The connection between migration and violence is complex and occurs in many social spheres within a single community. Data accessible through archaeological excavations, partnered with bioarchaeological analyses, can provide insights that are otherwise invisible regarding these experiences. To this end, my research explores the patterns of interpersonal trauma...
A Multiscalar Approach to Mobility: Interpreting Sulfur Isotope Values within Relative and Absolute Chronological Frameworks (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the past 10 years sulfur isotope analysis (δ34S) has become increasingly employed to investigate the movement and mobility of prehistoric people and animals. While the questions can focus on the same type of “one-off” movements often considered when using strontium and oxygen analyses to study human migrations or pastoral economies, the combination of...
Mummy Bundles Found at Huaca del Loro (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Almost 100 Years since Julio C. Tello: Research at Huaca del Loro, Nasca, Peru" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Huaca de Loro in Nasca is an important Wari colony in the Nasca region. Two recent field seasons at the site revealed new information on the relationship between Nasca and Wari during the Middle Horizon (650–1000 CE), such as a D-shaped temple and an associated compound indicative of Wari presence and...
Neanderthal Communities of Care: How & Why Did Non-modern Hominins Care for Victims of Interpersonal Violence? (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Systems of Care in Times of Violence" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Within the constantly evolving field of human origins, researchers are looking for new methods and theories to infer behavior from the paleoanthropological record. Here, Shanidar 3, a Neanderthal specimen with evidence of partially healed sharp force trauma, is examined using the Bioarchaeology of Care approach. Based on a comparison with...
Neolithic Dietary Practices: Comparison of Stable Isotopes and Dental Microwear (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The aim of the paper is to reconstruct Middle and Late Neolithic dietary practices in Central Europe with the help of complementary evidence of stable isotope and dental microwear analysis. From a total of 171 individuals, carbon and nitrogen isotopic values were measured in bone collagen from 146 humans and 64 animals, and 113 individuals were included in...
New Discovery of Plant Remains in The West of Tibet (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Tangible Things to Intangible Ideas: The Context of Pan-Eurasian Exchange of Crops and Objects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2017, one grain and 24 spikelets of barley and other prestigious burial objects were found in the No. 2 tomb which is located at Gepa Serul cemetery, Zanda, Tibet, Chian (the region of the upper reaches of Indus River). Up to now, Gepa Serul cemetery is the earliest known in western...
New Methods, Old Data: Reanalysis of Diets of the Copán Classic Maya Using Stable Isotope Mixing Models (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Innovations and Transformations in Mesoamerican Research: Recent and Revised Insights of Ancestral Lifeways" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sex and age factor into ancient diets. This poster revisits the largest single Maya polity paleodiet study using approaches that have been developed since the original data were collected, and to incorporate newer knowledge of Maya foodways in developing a better reconstruction of...
No Good Deed: The Recovery of Philadelphia’s First Baptist Church Cemetery (2018)
What to do when one box of bones becomes a whole cemetery? In late 2016, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that human remains were uncovered at a local construction site, 218 Arch Street, formerly a cemetery that closed in 1859, its dead supposedly having been interred elsewhere. Because the site is privately owned and the construction privately funded, no clear legal guidelines exist governing authority over human remains. Seeing a potential research project, the authors contacted the...
No Man Is an Island: Death and Burial on the Island of Haffjarðarey (2018)
During the 13th century Iceland became a major hub of the North Atlantic fishing industry sparking international conflict over fishing rights between mercantile interests from Norway, Denmark, England, the Netherlands and Northern Germany. From ca. 1200 - 1563 the Catholic Church and cemetery on the island of Haffjarðarey served as the burial place for the large geographic region of Eyjahreppur in western Iceland. The church and cemetery were closed during the Lutheran Reformation and the...
Nomadic Identity: The Origins of a Multiethnic Empire in Mongolia. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Cooperative Bodies: Bioarchaeology and Non-ranked Societies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Little is known about the ethnic composition of early nomadic populations in Mongolia. Archaeological and historical research have concentrated on the Xiongnu (209 BC-93 AD) and Mongol (1206-1368) time periods. The period in between is known as the period of disunion, characterized by fragmented states and foreign dynasties....
Non-adult Dis/ability and Care in Early Medieval Britain (2018)
A child who is unwell or physically impaired naturally causes concern and anxiety for his or her parents/carers. For many in today’s modern society, accessible medical care means that the challenges associated with caring for a sick or disabled child can be overcome or, at least, minimized. But how did parents/carers respond and adapt to the demands of ill-health and physical impairment in children during the early medieval period? In seeking to address this question, this paper will explore...
Non-metric Traits and the Influence of Cranial Modifications: A Case Study from the South-Central Andes (2018)
Non-metric cranial traits and craniometric scoring are often used as a quicker and cheaper alternative to genetic markers when analyzing biological distance within and between populations. However, in populations with intentional artificial cranial modifications, the only option is scoring non-metric cranial traits since the craniometrics are too heavily affected by the modifications. Studies have shown that although non-metrics are the best alternative, some traits cause a bias that can differ...
The Not Very Patrilocal European Neolithic (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Two decades of strontium isotope and aDNA research on Central European Neolithic cemetery populations have consistently interpreted patrilocality, which is now a foregone conclusion. This paper questions those interpretations from a social anthropological perspective. Models are presented for interpreting strontium isotope ratios and aDNA that consider the...
A Not-So-Secret Affair: A Case Study of Treponemal Infection from the Bethel Cemetery (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Bethel Cemetery Relocation Project: Historical, Osteological, and Material Culture Analyses of a Nineteenth-Century Indiana Cemetery" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When records and textual evidence from the past are subjective, piecemeal, or absent, bioarchaeological analyses can be indispensable for elucidating otherwise buried histories. The case study of Burial 505 from the Bethel Cemetery highlights an...
Number Games: MNI and Element Representation in the Point San Jose Collection (2018)
The Point San Jose skeletal collection was excavated from a 19th century medical waste deposit. Remains within the deposit were completely commingled and highly fragmented. As re-association was highly unlikely, careful assessment of the commingled nature of the collection was required. To establish the Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) represented in the collection, two approaches were used: Max (L,R) and an age-informed MNI. The maximum count per unique element resulted in an MNI of 22...
Nutritional and Infectious Diseases in the Bronze and Iron Ages of Mongolia: The Archaeological Significance (2021)
This is an abstract from the "New Directions in Mongolian Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The identification of nutritional and infectious diseases in human skeletal assemblages has value for both bioarchaeologists and archaeologists for assessing the impact of particular biosocial and environmental contexts on health. This paper presents skeletal evidence of the nutritional diseases rickets, osteomalacia, and scurvy, and infectious...
Nutritional Stress and the Maternal-Infant Nexus: Insights from Isotopes and Paleopathology in the Ancient Chilean Atacama (ca 9000–1500 BP) (2018)
The Atacama Desert is a remarkably marginal environment. Children are vulnerable individuals and the perinatal and weaning periods are high-risk even under ideal conditions. Investigation of stress during early life is therefore vital to the characterisation of human adaptation in this region. We compared isotopic evidence for infant diet and stress with paleopathological data to assess potential changes in maternal and infant health between the pre-agricultural Archaic Period (9000 – 3500 BP)...
Occupational Stress on Oaxaca’s Pacific Coast: Bioarchaeological Evidence for Specialized Task Activity at Rio Viejo (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper provides a micro-scale consideration of the broader social processes under way during the Early Classic to the Postclassic periods in the Río Verde drainage basin of Oaxaca, Mexico. Through a detailed bioarchaeological analysis, we examine individuals from Río Viejo for evidence of occupational stress, with an emphasis on select individuals who...