Evaluating the Applicability of the Coimbra Method on an Archaeological Sample from Sint Eustatius

Summary

This is an abstract from the "NSF REU Site: Exploring Globalization through Archaeology 2019–2020 Session, St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

To uncover details of past people’s day to day life, bioarchaeologists have attempted to reconstruct possible activity patterns by examining changes that occur at musculoskeletal markers, called entheseal sites (ES). While there is general agreement about the overall effect of confounding variables on entheses, there are discrepancies regarding the degree to which these variables affect entheseal change (EC) and the true association between activity level and EC. The objectives of this study include (1) analyzing the presence and severity of entheseal changes in the upper limbs of individuals excavated from an unmarked, presumably slave cemetery from the eighteenth century on the coastline of Sint Eustatius; (2) evaluating the applicability of the Coimbra Method (Henderson et al. 2013, 2016) to a small archaeological sample; and (3) assessing the possible scoring error of this EC method. This study found that the majority of recorded EC occurred on M. biceps brachii and that males are more likely to exhibit EC. The results of this study also suggest that this method faces challenges in repeatability, archaeological applicability, and inexperienced observer use.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• NSF REU Site: Exploring Globalization through Archaeology 2019–2020 Session, St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32207