Sexual dimorphism and morphological variability with regard to the socio-economic structure of the Early Medieval European Population (6th – 9th century).
Author(s): Petr Veleminsky; Jan Dupej; Petra Havelkova; Dominique Castex; Jana Veleminska
Year: 2015
Summary
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 : (1) morphological variability, (2) the sexual differences of trait incidence, and (3) verification of the assumption that sexual dimorphism is more pronounced in groups living in optimal living conditions. We evaluated skeletons from (1) the Great Moravian, and (2) Merovingian burial-grounds. Approximately fifty non-metric and twenty metric traits have been evaluated. Marked differences were found between the medieval populations of Central and West Europe. The least pronounced differences were found among the individuals within the territories. The individuals with a higher social standing are evidently different from other, socially lower groups in the lower incidence of traits associated with physical load. Our conclusions confirms the biological heterogeneity of the early medieval European inhabitation. Supported: GACR 14-22823S, Barrande – Mobility/7AMB13FR012, DKRVO 2014/18, 00023272.
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Cite this Record
Sexual dimorphism and morphological variability with regard to the socio-economic structure of the Early Medieval European Population (6th – 9th century).. Petr Veleminsky, Petra Havelkova, Jan Dupej, Jana Veleminska, Dominique Castex. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 398021)
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Keywords
Geographic Keywords
Europe
Spatial Coverage
min long: -11.074; min lat: 37.44 ; max long: 50.098; max lat: 70.845 ;