Reconstructing Violence: A Multiscalar Approach to Cranial Trauma

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Continued Advances in Method and Theory for Commingled Remains" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

When analyzing traumatic injury in highly commingled and fragmentary collections, interpreting violence can be particularly challenging as reconstructing the full extent of fractures in an individual is not possible, and not all traumatic injuries are indicative of violence. In these cases, cranial trauma can be the most suggestive of interpersonal violence in the past; however, highly fragmented skeletal remains can be difficult to incorporate into statistical analyses. This paper proposes a multi-scalar analysis using a zonal approach to examine complete crania, complete cranial elements, and specific zones per cranial element to understand trends in the location of trauma to the skull while maximizing sample sizes for statistical analyses. While contributing methodologically to the study of commingled/fragmentary skeletons, multi-scalar analyses are also appropriate as they recognize the multiple intersecting identities, both individual and communal, that make up intentionally commingled skeletons. At the Early Bronze Age site of Bab adh-Dhra’, this approach was used to better understand patterns of interpersonal violence from the A22 charnel house during the occupation of a densely populated, walled town. Results show that each line of evidence can contribute novel findings for interpreting violence, making their incorporation important for robust understandings of the past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Continued Advances in Method and Theory for Commingled Remains

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38907.0