An evaluation of preservation, sex, and age using cremains weight and volume from a Bronze Age cemetery in Hungary

Summary

In well-preserved osteoarchaeological samples, numerous anthropological methods are employed to determine age at death, biological sex, diet, and pathologies. However, with cremated human bone (cremains), determining demographic information is complicated by fragmentation and post-depositional damage. A simple way to assess variability in demographics, taphonomy, and burial treatment in cremains is to measure total bone weight and volume, which can then be examined in light of sex, age-at-death, and preservation. In this study, we present results from the analysis of cremains weight and volume from the Békés 103 cemetery. Békés 103 is a Bronze Age cemetery and settlement in Eastern Hungary; 68 burials have been excavated, a majority of which are cremations interred in urns. As predicted, well- preserved burials have higher cremains weights and volumes (with a notable exception), and young subadults (0 – 6 years) had lower weights than adults. Interestingly, females had variation in weight and volume, while the few confirmed males clustered together and did not necessarily have a higher weight or volume. This technique has potential for identifying anomalous individuals with respect to taphonomy, sex, and age.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Learning about the Past with Fragments from the Fire: Student Research on an NSF-REU Field School

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15503