A Statistical Exploration of Differences in Skeletal Element Prevalence Between Primary and Secondary Burials

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Mortuary processes have tremendous political, cultural, and religious meanings. Understanding whether a skeletal assemblage was found as part of a primary or a secondary burial has a significant impact on the interpretation of a site or collection. This project evaluates the statistical significance of differences in skeletal element prevalence between primary and secondary burials, and explores whether the prevalence of certain skeletal elements are more likely than others to be indicative of primary and secondary burials. The data used for this project is a compilation of inventories in published data for archaeological sites in North America, Europe, and the Mediterranean region. Each site or site feature marked as an estimated primary or secondary burial, with additional notes for sites with other processes involving the removal of skeletal elements. These sites were selected for the relative consistency in inventory methods. This data set was tested for normality and found to be non-parametric, and so was assessed using the Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test and the Kruskal-Wallis Test. Exploratory analysis was also conducted using a correlation matrix and a principal component analysis to gain additional understanding of which skeletal elements, if any, appear to relate to each other or burial type.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33414