Ch 10- Bio Archaeological Approaches to the past Flashcards
Burial “Population”
- One or a few communities that used a discrete area as a burial ground or cemetery
- Individuals who came from a specific area and who died over a relatively short period of time
Grave Goods
Ex. - Lithic tools, stone tools, bone tools, ceramics, beads or jewelry, carved objects, burial wrappings or clothing, food offerings
- Artifacts put on the individual who had passed away
Body Position
- On back, side or front
- Extended, flexed or seated
- Hands crosses, feet crossed
Deviant Burial
- Differs from the norms of that culture
Estimating Sex (5 stage scale)
- Female (F)
- Probable Female (PF)
- Indeterminate (I)
- Probable Male (PM)
- Male (M)
1st and 2nd more reliable features for determining sex of skeleton
1st- Pelvis
2nd- Skull (eye orbits, brow ridges, chin)
Estimating Age at Death
For non Adults <19
- Dental formation and eruption
- Epiphyseal fusion
• Both complete by 20-25 years
Estimating Age at Death
For Adults >20
- Pubic symphysis
- Tooth wear and loss
• Strongly related to diet
Estimating Age at death
- Stating range
• 2 years +/- 1 year = 1-3 years
• 25 years old +/- 5 years = 20-30 years
*Skeletal degeneration stops at 50 years, no way to tell past the age of 50
How does bioarchaeology help us determine how well people lived?
• Can assess types and levels of disease/trauma, types and levels of activity/workload, patterns of growth, aspects of diet, infant mortality
Paleopathology - What is it
“The study of ancient disease, disorder, and trauma”
- Complex interplay of behaviour, environment, and physiology
Paleopathology - Can we be sure which disease they had?
• Can’t identify the specific disease or disorder but can say a period of ill-health occurred
BUT
• Some exceptions including tuberculosis, and syphilis we can tell 99% for sure what the cause was
• Not often the case though
Growth Arrest Features - What are they and what do they do
- Episodes of disease, malnutrition or trauma can stop a child from growing until they are resolved
- If this happens for a week or longer it can get recorded in the bones and teeth
- Can cause the child to stop growing
Determining Stature
- Can measure the length of a single bone and use regression equations so make an estimate
- Different populations would have had different statures- Can’t compare statures of different populations
Osteoartiritis
- Loss of cartilage in a joint
- Usually because of mechanical stress
- Causes bony outgrowths along joint margin called osteophytes
- Bone surfaces rub together producing a polished surface called “eburnation”
Paleodemography - Definition
- Life expectancy at birth. How old were people when they died as a proportion of the entire sample (‘population’)
Paleodemography - In children
- Many infants and children died in pre-modern populations (around 30-50%)
- Skeletons of infants and children may be poorly preserved and not recovered
- Children may look underrepresented when they are not
Paleodemography - In adults
Can see if males vs. females were exposed to different risks
• Late teens early 20s for women you will see increased mortality (because of risks in giving birth)
• Adult age estimation methods are imprecise (large age ranges), especially as people get older
Diet “You are What you Eat”
Chemical signature of what you eat gets recorded in your bones and teeth and can remain there for thousands of years
- In the protein part of bone which is collagen
- Collagen is the organ component in bone
Stable Isotopes (2 and what are they)
Carbon (C) - Carbon 12 - Carbon 13 Nitrogen (N) - Nitrogen 14 - Nitrogen 15
Stable Carbon Isotopes
- Plants take in carbon via 3 photosynthetic pathways
• C3, C4, CAM - C4 plants (corn) take in more C13 isotopes than C3 and CAM plants
- A person with a diet high in corn will have a higher C13/C12 value than a person with a diet low in maize
Stable Nitrogen Isotopes
Increase in N15 through the food chain
• Lowest in plants, intermediate in omnivores, highest in carnivores
• Humans who eat a lot of meat have high N15/N14 values
• Allows us to determine what type of plant was eaten, how common animal protein was, and what type of animal protein it was (from water vs. land animals)
Still Water Marsh - Diet and Workload
Diet
- Varied and probably usually adequate but periods of malnutrition occurred, and iron may have been low
Workload
- Walked a lot (they were foragers)
- Especially the men- tells us how labour was divided
- Had joint problems by middle age
Still Water Marsh - Disease/ Trauma and Life Expectancy
Disease/ Trauma
- No specific infections - Relatively healthy
- A few broken bones, but nothing out of the ordinary
Life Expectancy
- Not many lived into ‘old adulthood’ (50+ years)
How can we tell birthplace and if they migrated?
Strontium Isotopes
• Dental enamel
• Dental enamel forms during childhood and thereafter does not change
- So, we can tell where they were born and where they migrated to
The Neolithic Revolution
- Also known as?
“The ‘Forager-Farmer’ transition”
• Mounds/ hills created by many generations of human occupation (living and rebuilding on the same spot)
The Neolithic Revolution
- Diet
- Not much change- Grains, wheat, barley, with protein from sheep and cattle
- Less caries
The Neolithic Revolution
- Physical Activity
- Work load fairly high but mobility increased in the latest period
- Big differences between individuals- suggests inequality
The Neolithic Revolution
- Burial Context
- Well-preserved mud-brick houses clustered into neighbourhoods, stacked on top of one another
- Individuals, mostly non-adults, buried in the houses
The Neolithic Revolution
- History- Houses
• Elaborate rooms, adorned with art, showing multigenerational occupation
