Bioarchaeology of the Arabian Bronze Age: Humeral Entheseal Changes and Burial Patterns at Tell Abraq

Summary

Tell Abraq is an archaeological site from the Arabian Bronze Age, located near the Persian Gulf Coast of the modern-day country of the United Arab Emirates. A sealed, two-chamber mud-brick tomb on site, in use from approximately 2200 – 2000 BC, yielded a 1.4-meter-thick matrix of commingled human remains, soil, and artifacts, representing a MNI of 403 individuals, of which nearly three quarters are adults. Although the remains are fragmentary, they still offer rich insights into the biocultural interactions of Bronze Age society in this population. This aim of this study was to categorize entheseal changes at the sites of major muscle attachments on the humerus, and to look for intersections of musculoskeletal stress marker category, biological sex, and burial location within the tomb at Tell Abraq. The presence or absence of specific patterns in these intersections helps to shed light on the degree or social stratification represented in the bodies of those buried in the tomb, and possibly on Bronze Age formulations of gender at this site.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage