A Computational Approach to Bone Histology Analysis in Archaeology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Early Bronze Age in Transylvania exhibits two different mortuary traditions, one associated with the Yamnaya migration in the lowlands and the other associated with the local Transylvanian groups in the highlands. A key question for archaeologists has been how these traditions differ in respect to primary and secondary inhumation. The tempo of funerary rituals, including immediate internment or excarnation, reveals meaningful data about the social experience of individuals and communal ideas about living and dying. Microbial activity that helps with body decomposition often results in damage to bone histology. However, more rapid removal of flesh, such as through excarnation, can preserve bone histological structures. While microscopic analyses are becoming more common in bioarchaeology, existing methods are often qualitative assessments and do not quantify histological preservation. This poster presents the application of a new method to quantify bone degradation and automate the determination of fleshed or defleshed bone samples. This new method is applied to samples from several Early Bronze Age cemeteries in Alba County, Romania. These results demonstrate the utility of formalizing these microscopic observations to yield insights into the performance of mortuary practices and cultural difference.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36605.0