bioarchaeology (Other Keyword)
201-225 (309 Records)
Less than half of the current world population is estimated to have adequate vitamin D status and potential consequences are much debated. For those engaged in addressing the challenges that vitamin D deficiency poses, information on past deficiency provides an important time dimension to current debates. Over the last 15 years I have undertaken extensive collaborative work on past deficiency. Investigations at St. Martin’s, a 19th-century UK site, established diagnostic criteria and revealed...
No Better Angels Here: Bioarchaeology of Non-Lethal Head Wounds in the Greater Southwest (AD 900-1350) (2015)
A survey of healed cranial depression fractures from Southwest collections revealed new information on the patterning of head wounds by age and sex. Head wounds demonstrate nuance and a non-linear trend over time. Thus suggests a much more complex picture than has been offered by recent scholarship that examined fracture rates based on published literature for select sites. This analysis is based on new data collected directly from Southwestern skeletal collections representing Ancestral Pueblo...
No Big Dudes Here: Bioarchaeology of Social Control at Aztec Ruins ( (2015)
The discussion of elite leaders in the Greater Southwest has primarily focused on Chaco Canyon. This project extends that discussion to the later site to the north called Aztec Ruins. Because of its size and some architectural similarities to sites in Chaco Canyon, it has also been suggested to be a regional center with considerable political-economic power. Morris recovered a number of human skeletal remains from Aztec Ruins between 1916 and 1922. One burial in particular is of interest...
A Novel Method of Stature Estimation for Fragmentary Femora (2015)
Stature estimation formulae for native populations in North America have historically been problematic, utilizing incorrect reference samples, for example; however recent research has allowed for the creation of more precise formula for evaluation of adult remains. Incomplete bones, however, can hinder stature estimation. There are a number of methods which can provide estimates of the overall length of the bone, or of stature, based on segments of a bone. A method that uses a simple to collect...
Of Mummies and Guinea Pigs: An Analysis of Burial Contexts at Chiribaya Alta (2017)
In the Pre-Incan site of Chiribaya Alta, animals were often included in the graves of the deceased. Cuy, or Guinea pig, are amongst the most common type of animal found in these contexts, signaling the significance of these animals for the Chiribaya peoples in life and in death. Among traditional peoples in the Andes documented ethnohistorically and ethnographically, guinea pigs are consumed as food and are also used for divination and other religious practices. At Chiribaya Alta, a site in...
‘On the Apparitions of Drowned Men’: Unnatural Death, Folklore, and Bioarchaeology at Haffjarðarey, Western Iceland. (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Burial, Space, and Memory of Unusual Death" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The church of Saint Nicholas at Haffjarðarey (1200 to 1563 CE) was active during two outbreaks of bubonic plague, religious transitions, and the establishment of the Icelandic fishing industry. Both the church and cemetery were suddenly closed and abandoned in 1563 after the supposed sudden deaths of the priest and parishioners after...
ON THE TRAIL OF IVORY: MAPPING TRADE IN IRON AGE SOUTHERN AFRICA (2015)
Our current knowledge of the pre-colonial ivory trade in southern Africa consists of evidence from a number of archaeological sites dating from the 7-11th centuries AD, such as Schroda, K2, Ndondonwane, and KwaGandaGanda. These sites have yielded large caches of ivory debris, suggesting that these places were centres for ivory carving/production. However, it is unknown whether raw ivory was obtained locally or brought from further afield, whether there was a standardised mode of production, and...
Once Upon a Höyük (2016)
Oymaağaç Höyűk, the putative Hittite religious center of Nerik, was occupied as early as the second millennium B.C.E. .Nearly three thousand years later, the site was reclaimed as a burial ground for the local populace. Within the upper stratigraphic, tile (tegula) graves and the associated burials, relatively and radiocarbon dated to the Byzantine (i.e., Late Roman) period (A.D. 250-450), provide an informative look into the lives of the rural population. Employing archaeological context in...
The Origins and Identities of the Colha Skull Pit Skeletal Remains (2016)
The lithics production center of Colha in northern Belize provides skeletal evidence relevant to ongoing debates about the role of violence among the Maya of Central America. The Colha Skull Pit (Op. 2011) dates to the Terminal Classic period and consists of thirty individuals, represented only by cranial remains. The skeletal remains include both males and females and range in age from children to old adults. Cranial and dental modifications are prevalent in this feature and many of the skulls...
Origins of the Templo Mayor Skull Masks (2015)
The offerings of human remains made at the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlán include decapitated skulls, some of them reused as masks or headdresses. It is generally accepted that the sacrificial offerings of the Templo Mayor were obtained through warfare. To test this, we used bioarchaeological analyses to determine where the skull masks came from geographically, and whether the skull masks meet the biological profile of elite warriors. We recorded sex, age, and indicators of disease and nutritional...
Osteoarthritis in Hands, Feet, Spine, and Temporomandibular Joint from Individuals Buried at Tiwanaku Sites in Moquegua, Peru (2017)
This study evaluated evidence of osteoarthritis in the multiple joints of the wrist and hand (ulnae, radii, carpals, and metacarpals, finger phalanges), ankle and feet (tibia, tarsals, metatarsals, foot phalanges), spine (cervical, thoracic, lumbar vertebrae), and temporomandibular joint from human skeletal remains previously excavated from Tiwanaku sites within the Moquegua Valley of Peru (AD 500-1000). Osteoarthritis, a type of degenerative joint disease with a complex etiology, has been shown...
Osteoarthritis in the elbow and knee from a modern documented cemetery collection in Cyprus: Using "new" bones to understand "old" ones (2015)
Osteoarthritis is one of the more ubiquitous and abundant forms of pathology seen on ancient material. Osteoarthritis (OA) has a complex etiology with variable clinical characteristics. Documenting it is important because it may shed light on aspects of lifestyle (e.g. occupational), and social and cultural habits. Osteopathology studies conducted on modern, documented skeletal collections can add an important dimension. The aim of this paper is to present patterns of OA in the elbow and knee...
Osteobiographies of British Prisoners from the Old Convict Burial Ground on Watford Island, Bermuda (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The unexpected discovery of human remains from an unmarked cemetery for convicts located on Watford Island, Bermuda provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct the lives of these forgotten builders of the British Royal Naval Dockyard, now a major tourist destination. Buried in the early 1850s, the remains of at least seven men represent more than 9,000 British and Irish prisoners...
Osteobiographies of Mrs. Ann (née Crusoe) and Reverend Stephen H. Gloucester, Abolitionists of Philadelphia (2022)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "“We the People”: Historical Cemetery Archaeology in Philadelphia" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Not all figures who sustain social or political movements are obvious or celebrated. For instance, in 1923 Rosetta Douglass Sprague published a short biography of her mother Anna Murray-Douglass, the first wife of Frederick Douglass. No such biography of Ann (Crusoe) Gloucester exists despite her husband...
Osteobiographies of two peculiar women from early medieval Poland (2015)
The aim of this paper is to analyse the biographies of two peculiar women from early medieval Poland, one from Ostrow Lednicki and the other from Kaldus sites, both of which were the capitals of the Polish state. This paper presents the most representative and interesting biographies of the ill and the disabled from these sites. The very best sample for such a study is the giant woman whose skeleton was discovered in the cemetery on the Ostrow Lednicki. Her height was 215,5 cm. Osteoma of skull...
The Osteobiography of Philadelphia’s Forgotten Abolitionist: Reverend Stephen H. Gloucester (1802-1850) (2018)
Bioarchaeology often provides a pathway back to public recognition for forgotten historical figures. This presentation provides an osteobiography of Reverend Stephen H. Gloucester, a once nationally prominent and now virtually forgotten African-American abolitionist, educator, and community leader. Born enslaved in Tennessee, by the 1830s Gloucester was a vocal participant in the American Anti-Slavery Society, a founder of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and one of the primary...
Osteobiography: A Conceptual Framework (2017)
Osteobiography provides a rich conceptual basis for understanding the past, but its conceptual basis has never been systematically outlined. It both stands in conceptual opposition to a traditional statistical approach to bioarchaeology modelled upon clinical studies in biomedicine, and is interdependent with it. As such, its position mirrors those of clinical case histories as opposed to statistical studies, participant-observation ethnography as opposed to quantitative sociology, and...
Osteogrammetry: The Efficacy of SfM Photogrammetry for Documenting Human Skeletal Remains (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Futures through a Virtual Past" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research refines methods of digitally documenting human remains from archaeological contexts using structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry and confirms the accuracy of employing this method for metric and nonmetric data collection. SfM photogrammetry offers a low-cost and accessible way to create accurate 3D digital models of...
An Overview of the Hoyo Negro Project and Its Findings (2015)
Hoyo Negro is an immense, underwater collapse chamber deep within the Sac Aktun Cave system, Quintana Roo, Mexico. On its floor lie data-rich calcite raft deposits, bat guano piles, scatters of wood and charcoal, skeletons of large animals, and the remains of one teen-age human female. These sediments and fossils lie in total darkness, >40 meters below sea level, creating major technical challenges for their study and recovery. Investigations by a team of divers and scientists from Mexico, the...
Paleogenetic analysis of the Eneolithic (4900 – 2750 calBC) Trypillian Culture from Verteba Cave, Ukraine (2016)
In this presentation, we make use of high-resolution paleogenetic data to better understand the peoples of the agropastoral Tripolye Culture. Verteba Cave is the only known site with associated Trypillian human remains. Here, we explore population origins and the Tripolye people’s relationship with local populations from the greater Carpathian and Dnieper regions, as well as possible connections to peoples from the Near East. Our motivation for this study derives from several unknowns....
Paleogenetic and Paleopathological Studies at Pachacamac: Methodological Issues and Preliminary Results (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis can be a useful tool for sex determination, general mitochondrial lineage (haplogroup), and disease diagnosis in human remains. However, non-endogenous DNA contamination of archaeological material is a recurrent problematic, since excavation, handling, and storage usually don’t fit with the precautions recommended for aDNA...
A paleopathological analysis of skeletal remains uncovered in La Cueva de los Hacheros, Turicato, Michoacán. (2017)
This poster deals with the study of skeletal remains belonging to eighteen individuals deposited within La Cueva de los Hacheros, a site located in the municipality of Turicato, Michoacán. Unfortunately, as a result of looting by landowners, the site has an altered context. Despite that fact, a salvage excavation and a comprehensive analysis of the remains yielded valuable data for interpreting the site and learning more about the individuals buried within. The skeletal analysis made it possible...
Pandemic Parallels: The Black Feminist Necropolitics of Excavating Cholera in the Time of COVID (2021)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Black Studies and Archaeology" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. “The despair and deplorable conditions within which the black community continued into the realm of death and burial.” While Steven J. Richardson offered these words in 1989, their essence still rings true today. Over the past decade, skeletal remains of nearly thirty individuals have been discovered underneath the 3300 Block of Q Street in...
Patterns of cranial trauma in the Late Intermediate Period Colca Valley, Peru (A.D. 1000-1450) (2016)
Cranial trauma studies of Late Intermediate Period populations (LIP, A.D. 1000-1450) suggest that conflict and social stress were endemic across the south-central Andes, although the nature of interpersonal violence was strongly mediated by local political and social structures. This study explores how individuals buried in elaborate cliffside tombs from the Colca valley of southern Peru experienced violence across the 400-year period preceding Inka imperialism. Cranial trauma rates show high...
The Philistine Cemetery at Ashkelon:funerary remains and mortuary practice (2017)
During the 2013-6 seasons, an extramural cemetery was discovered at the coastal site of Ashkelon in Israel. Dated almost entirely to the Iron IIA period, more than 200 sets of remains were exposed and excavated, providing for the first time a secure and sizeable number of burials from which to generate an understanding of Philistine burial practices and mortuary ritual. The majority of bodies were found in primary inhumation with various depositional practices observed, among them simple pit,...