The Emergence of Mesolithic Cemeteries in SW Europe: Insights from the El Collado (Oliva,Valencia, Spain) Radiocarbon Record

Located on the Iberian Mediterranean coast, El Collado is an open-air site where a rescue excavation was conducted over two seasons in 1987 and 1988. The archaeological work excavated a surface area of 143m2 where 14 burials were discovered, providing skeletal remains from 15 individuals. We have obtained AMS dates for 10 of the 15 individuals by means of the direct dating of human bones. The ranges of the probability distribution of the calibrated dates suggest that the cemetery was used during a long period of time (781–1020 years at a probability of 95.4%). The new dates consequently set back the chrono-cultural attribution of the cemetery from the initial proposal of Late Mesolithic to an older date in the Early Mesolithic. Therefore, El Collado becomes the oldest known cemetery in the Iberian Peninsula, earlier than the numerous Mesolithic funerary contexts documented on the Atlantic façade such as the Portuguese shell-middens in the Muge and Sado Estuaries or the funerary sites on the northern Iberian coast.     

山西洪洞西冯堡清代墓地缠足女性的骨骼损伤和关节疾病

女性缠足是山西洪洞西冯堡墓地埋葬人群中一处值得关注的文化现象,相关人骨遗存为研究山西地区明清时期的缠足习俗提供了珍贵的考古资料。本文主要对山西洪洞西冯堡清代墓地出土的93例女性人骨标本中与缠足行为关系较为密切的骨骼损伤和关节疾病现象进行统计与分析,以窥探缠足与未缠足女性的健康状况。统计结果显示： 1)在膝关节和足部骨关节上,缠足女性有更高的骨性关节炎发生率;2)在肘关节和左侧腕关节的患病程度上,缠足女性与未缠足女性群体基本相当;在右侧和双侧腕关节以及手部关节的患病等级上,缠足女性略大于未缠足女性;3)西冯堡墓地各椎段椎体周缘骨赘患病率上,缠足女性均高于未缠足女性,颈椎和腰椎是所有女性患病最严重的部位;4)两个群体的骨骼损伤和骨性关节炎的患病率和患病程度均未表现出显著差异,这可能是与下层平民家庭对女性经济价值追求的背景下缠足与未缠足女性均需承担体力劳动有关。     

年龄鉴定的转换分析法及其在月家庄墓地人骨中的应用

转换分析是一种基于贝叶斯统计的人骨年龄鉴定新方法,具有综合多种年龄标志物、不受参考样本影响、适用于老年个体等优势。本文将其用于陕西洛川月家庄墓地人骨年龄鉴定并与传统方法进行对比。结果表明,两种方法构建出的人群死亡年龄结构、生存过程有显著差异：转换分析得到的最高寿命、平均死亡年龄明显高于传统方法,更多个体可存活至中老年。两种方法鉴定出的年龄差值受样本保存状况、年龄阶段的影响,存在结构性差别。转换分析是人骨年龄鉴定方法的重大创新,使鉴定过程标准化、鉴定误差定量化。未来需使用一些年龄已知的个体开展更多验证研究,以评估该方法对我国人骨样本的适用性及不同软件间的差异。     

Social "status" and biological "status": a comparison of grave goods and skeletal indicators from Pontecagnano.

Comparison of funerary treatment and skeletal biology can be very informative about the interplay of social status and meanings and actual life conditions in ancient communities, but such comparison is rarely done, due in part to the disciplinary separation of bioanthropology and social archaeology in many archaeological traditions. In this paper, we analyze relations between skeletal pathologies and grave goods in a sample of 94 individuals from Pontecagnano (Salerno, Italy, seventh-third centuries BC). The results show that the relationship between health, activity, and social status as expressed in grave goods was complex. Some biological indicators considered typical of "stress" or biological status (enamel hypoplasia, cribra orbitalia, adult stature) bore no relation to social status. Other indicators, particularly those of activity and stress in adult life (trauma, Schmorl's nodes, periostitis), covaried with grave assemblage and help to outline a possible division of labor. As this analysis shows, when skeletal and archaeological data are used in conjunction, the result is a deeper picture of the social and economic life of the community than can be obtained from either source.     

Trachypogon plumosus (Poaceae,Andropogoneae): ancient thatch and more from the ceren site,El Salvador

Paleoethnobotanical studies in the Zapotitdn Valley of north-central El Salvador revealed that a species of grass,Trachypogon plumosus, was in common use as a thatch material at the Ceren site, a small mesoamerican farming community inundated by volcanic ash circaa.d. 590. Although the grass must have been common in Precolumbian times, repeated attempts to collect fresh specimens from the modern valley were unsuccessful. A survey of the major herbaria with collections from El Salvador likewise demonstrated a lack of modern specimens from the Zapotitdn Valley. The elimination of theT. plumosus from this area and its characteristic savanna habitat probably occurred as a result of the introduction of competing Old World grasses and excessive herbivory. This finding demonstrates why conservationists working in the tropics should be concerned not only with the extinction of rain forest habitats, but with the elimination of other habitats as well.     

Concordance of cranial and dental morphological traits and evidence for endogamy in ancient Egypt

A biological affinities study based on frequencies of cranial nonmetric traits in skeletal samples from three cemeteries at predynastic Naqada, Egypt, confirms the results of a recent nonmetric dental morphological analysis. Both cranial and dental traits analyses indicate that the individuals buried in a cemetery characterized archaeologically as high status are significantly different from individuals buried in two other, apparently nonelite cemeteries and that the nonelite samples are not significantly different from each other. A comparison with neighbouring Nile Valley skeletal samples suggests that the high status cemetery represents an endogamous ruling or elite segment of the local population at Naqada, which is more closely related to populations in northern Nubia than to neighbouring populations in southern Egypt. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Biological and spatial structure of an early classic period cemetery at Charco Redondo,Oaxaca

This article presents an analysis of biological and spatial patterning of an Early Classic (A.D. 250–500) Chatino cemetery at the archaeological site of Charco Redondo, located in the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico. The Early Classic was a time of political instability positioned between two phases of state‐level centralization within the coastal valley. The communal cemetery at Charco Redondo adds significantly to the inventory of excavated graves from this time period and provides novel data on mortuary practices during a critical phase in the development of state level polities in the region. Cluster analysis of mortuary data is combined with intracemetery biodistance approaches to reconstruct how the Charco Redondo cemetery was organized with respect to biological relationships. Cluster analysis of mortuary data identified three groupings of burials. Multidimensional scaling of Euclidean distances and Gower coefficients based on 45 odontometric and 13 dental morphological variables suggests a strong relationship between grave characteristics and locations and phenotypic variation. In other words, the cemetery at Charco Redondo appears biologically kin‐structured. The communal nature of the cemetery conflicts with the assumed “household” burial model for this time period. We propose the observed combination of features represents a transitional practice in which aspects of community, kin, and individual identity were signaled simultaneously within the funerary environment during a time of political transition in the Valley. This article highlights the utility of intracemetery biodistance analyses for examining dimensions of kinship, “house,” and community throughout Mesoamerica where overarching models often mask regional variability. Am J Phys Anthropol 152:217–229, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Brief communication: A test and correction of the clavicle method of Stout and Paine for histological age estimation of skeletal remains

The histological method developed by Stout and Paine ([1992] Am. J. Phys. Antropol. 87:111–115) for estimating age at death using the clavicle is tested on a known age independent sample from a nineteenth century cemetery near Spitalfriedhof St. Johann in Basel, Switzerland. The mean absolute difference between reported ages and histologically predicted ages is 5.5 years. Mean predicted age for the sample is different from mean reported age. This difference is accounted for by differences in the age distributions between the original autopsy sample used to derive the histological age-predicting formula and the cemetery sample, and an inherent loss of reliability of histological age predictions for the skeletal remains of older individuals. A new formula based upon the combined original autopsy sample of Stout and Paine (1992) and the Swiss cemetery sample is presented. It is recommended that this formula be used when estimating ages for older individuals or archaeological skeletal samples. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Frequency and distribution of enamel hypoplasias in a historic skeletal sample

A skeletal sample of 296 individuals from a 19th century American poorhouse cemetery is examined for the frequency and chronological distribution of linear enamel hypoplasias on the mandibular canines and maxillary central incisors. Dental enamel hypoplasias may be considered to be indicators of increased exposure to health risk at the time of weaning. The purpose of this study is to examine childhood stress and provide a relative measure of that stress, as evidenced by hypoplasias, in a historic sample that represents an industrializing population. The frequency of enamel hypoplasias per individual by tooth ranged from 70 to 73%, with a peak age at stress of 2.5 to 3 years for the maxillary central incisor and 3.5 to 4 years for the mandibular canine. There were no significant differences in the presence of hypoplasias between males and females. The peak age at stress between 2.5 and 4 years in this 19th century sample transects the ranges reported for prehistoric populations (2-6 years) and for modern groups (0-3 years). These results indicate that the stress associated with weaning probably occurred earlier in incipient industrial societies than in prehistoric hunter/gatherers and agriculturalists, yet not as early as in modern industrial groups. The high level of childhood stress in this skeletal sample compared with that of other samples may indicate a change in health, at least among the lowest class, associated with the cultural transition from an agricultural to an industrial society.     

Brief communication: A proposed method for the assessment of pubertal stage in human skeletal remains using cervical vertebrae maturation

The assessment of age‐at‐death in non‐adult skeletal remains is under constant review. However, in many past societies an individual's physical maturation may have been more important in social terms than their exact age, particularly during the period of adolescence. In a recent article (Shapland and Lewis: Am J Phys Anthropol 151 (2013) 302–310) highlighted a set of dental and skeletal indicators that may be useful in mapping the progress of the pubertal growth spurt. This article presents a further skeletal indicator of adolescent development commonly used by modern clinicians: cervical vertebrae maturation (CVM). This method is applied to a collection of 594 adolescents from the medieval cemetery of St. Mary Spital, London. Analysis reveals a potential delay in ages of attainment of the later CVM stages compared with modern adolescents, presumably reflecting negative environmental conditions for growth and development. The data gathered on CVM is compared to other skeletal indicators of pubertal maturity and long bone growth from this site to ascertain the usefulness of this method on archaeological collections. Am J Phys Anthropol 153:144–153, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Comparative degenerative joint disease of the vertebral column in the medieval monastic cemetery of the Gilbertine Priory of St. Andrew,Fishergate, York,England

The pattern of degenerative joint disease (DJD) of the intervertebral and apophyseal joints of the vertebral column of 81 skeletons from the thirteenth to fourteenth century medieval priory cemetery of St. Andrew, Fishergate, York, was recorded in relation to their location of interment: eastern cemetery, southern cemetery, and intramurally (within the priory buildings). Archaeological context and ethnohistorical accounts support the interpretation that people of different social status were buried in these areas. Linear discriminant function analysis and paired Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests showed that the differences in vertebral column DJD pattern and severity among the three subgroups were not statistically significant. As the archaeological and historical evidence seems reliable, it is argued that the analysis of DJD of the vertebral column might not be ideal to study the effects of normal activity patterns, a conclusion which supports the results of recent bioarchaeological research. Further, high-low plots demonstrate that the differences in DJD pattern were located between intervertebral and apophyseal joints of individuals rather than between subgroups of the cemetery. It is thought that this difference was produced as a response to erect posture during bipedal locomotion, reflecting vertebral curvatures, rather than differing occupational stresses. Thus, due to biological constraints on its function, the vertebral column might not be an ideal structure to study markers of occupational stress. Am J Phys Anthropol 103:481–495, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

A comparison of dental enamel defects in Christian and Meroitic populations from Geili,central Sudan

El Geili, located in the region of the Middle Nile, was occupied successively by Neolithic, Meroitic, and Christian populations at betweenn 3,500 BC and 1,500 AD. The scant archaeological evidence suggests that the Meroitic and Christian populations at Geili were patoral nomads. Dental enamel hypoplasias, indicators of general stress (malnutrition/disease), were studied in order to characterize and compare the health of these groups. A total of 130 individuals comprise the skeletal populations examined, from which a variety of appropriate sub-samples were analysed for defect presence, type, and age of occurence. Permanent incisors and canines represent the period of enamel development between birth and 6.5 years of age. Sample consisting of sets of incisors and canines (n=29) showed a negligibile difference of 77,8% vs. 81.8% in the Meroitic and Christian groups, respectively. Frequency differences by hypoplasia type reveal no obvious consistencies. Chronological analyses show chronic stress between 1 and 6 years of age. The research was supported by the Italian Ministery of Education (M.P.I. quota 40%) and the Italian Council of Research C.N.R. grant n. 89.00902.15).     

Disparities in HIV Screening among Pregnant Women – El Salvador, 2011

Objectives

To provide an accurate estimate of antenatal HIV screening and its determinants among pregnant women in El Salvador and help local authorities make informed decisions for targeted interventions around mother-to-child transmission (MTCT).

Methods

A total sample of 4,730 women aged 15-49 years were interviewed from a random sample of 3,625 households. We collected data on antenatal care services, including HIV screening, during last pregnancy through a pre-established questionnaire. We used a backward elimination multivariate logistic regression model to examine the association between HIV screening and sociodemographic and health care-related factors.

Results

A total of 2,929 women were included in this analysis. About 98% of participants reported receiving antenatal care, but only 83% of these reported being screened for HIV. Screening was lower in geographic areas with higher HIV incidence and ranged from 69.1% among women who were not seen by a physician during antenatal care, to 93.7% among those who attended or completed college. Odds for screening varied also by age, employment status, household economic expenditure, possession of health care coverage, health care settings, and number of antenatal care visits.

Conclusions

We found disparities in HIV screening during antenatal care at the environmental, social, demographic, and structural levels despite a high uptake of antenatal care in El Salvador. Our findings should urge health authorities to tailor and enhance current strategies implemented to eliminate MTCT and reduce inequities and HIV morbidity among women in El Salvador.     

Relatedness and social organization of coypus in the Argentinean pampas

Behavioural and trapping studies of the social organization of coypus have suggested the occurrence of kin groups and a polygynous mating system. We used 16 microsatellite markers to analyse parentage and relatedness relationships in two populations (Jáuregui and Villa Ruiz) in the Argentinean Pampas. At Jáuregui, a dominant male monopolized most paternities, leading to a high variance in reproductive success between males and a high level of polygyny. At Villa Ruiz, variance in reproductive success was low among resident males and males were the fathers of zero to four offspring each. For females, no significant differences were found. Two different social groups in each study site were used to assess genetic relatedness within and between groups. These groups were neighbouring at Jáuregui but not at Villa Ruiz. At Villa Ruiz, coypus were significantly more related within than between groups, suggesting that behavioural groups were also genetic ones, and adult females were more related within than between groups, as should be expected for kin groups. This relationship was not found at Jáuregui. Our results provide support to previous studies based on behavioural and trapping data, which indicate that coypus form social groups and have a polygynous mating system. However, we found differences in social organization between the two populations. This is the first study to determine parentage and/or relatedness in coypus.     

Mitochondrial Echoes of First Settlement and Genetic Continuity in El Salvador

Background

From Paleo-Indian times to recent historical episodes, the Mesoamerican isthmus played an important role in the distribution and patterns of variability all around the double American continent. However, the amount of genetic information currently available on Central American continental populations is very scarce. In order to shed light on the role of Mesoamerica in the peopling of the New World, the present study focuses on the analysis of the mtDNA variation in a population sample from El Salvador.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We have carried out DNA sequencing of the entire control region of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome in 90 individuals from El Salvador. We have also compiled more than 3,985 control region profiles from the public domain and the literature in order to carry out inter-population comparisons. The results reveal a predominant Native American component in this region: by far, the most prevalent mtDNA haplogroup in this country (at ∼90%) is A2, in contrast with other North, Meso- and South American populations. Haplogroup A2 shows a star-like phylogeny and is very diverse with a substantial proportion of mtDNAs (45%; sequence range 16090–16365) still unobserved in other American populations. Two different Bayesian approaches used to estimate admixture proportions in El Salvador shows that the majority of the mtDNAs observed come from North America. A preliminary founder analysis indicates that the settlement of El Salvador occurred about 13,400±5,200 Y.B.P.. The founder age of A2 in El Salvador is close to the overall age of A2 in America, which suggests that the colonization of this region occurred within a few thousand years of the initial expansion into the Americas.

Conclusions/Significance

As a whole, the results are compatible with the hypothesis that today''s A2 variability in El Salvador represents to a large extent the indigenous component of the region. Concordant with this hypothesis is also the observation of a very limited contribution from European and African women (∼5%). This implies that the Atlantic slave trade had a very small demographic impact in El Salvador in contrast to its transformation of the gene pool in neighbouring populations from the Caribbean facade.     

Hyperostosis frontalis interna - A marker of social status? Evidence from the Bronze-Age “high society” of Qatna, Syria

In 1719 Morgagni described a condition, today known as hyperostosis frontalis interna (HFI), as one sign within a triad consisting of HFI, virilism, and obesity. Today, HFI is predominantly found in older women. Although the etiology of HFI has not yet been determined precisely, the condition has been linked to metabolic disorders. HFI is reported to be rare in the archaeological record and the frequency of the condition is thought to have increased during the 19th and 20th centuries. We present preliminary results on the occurrence of HFI in the commingled human bone assemblage from “tomb VII” discovered underneath the Bronze Age royal palace of the ancient city of Qatna, Syria. A preliminary minimal number of individuals of 70 has been estimated for the as yet not fully analyzed skeletal remains. Skull fragments of nine individuals exhibit endocranial bone formations consistent with HFI. Rarity of stress indicators in the skeletons, the rich grave goods, and the burial place within the area of the Royal palace are suggestive of a high social status and an economically favorable situation of the buried individuals. Assuming that their life style included a high calorie diet in combination with little physical activity, acquired metabolic disorders may have been present in many individuals. The comparatively high number of individuals presenting HFI in the studied sample might therefore be viewed as being related to their high social status. Multiple occurrences of HFI in archaeological skeletal assemblages might serve as a proxy for social status.     

Loss of identity in nineteenth-century Norway: Oslo's House of Correction

In Norway, there was considerable overlap between the poor house, the workhouse, and correctional facilities. An assemblage of human skeletal remains from Oslo's House of Correction cemetery, largely comprised of individuals disturbed during municipal development in 1989, consists of c. 314 individuals who died as inmates or residents; many were disabled or elderly. Although names were recorded at death, the cemetery lacked grave markers or a map, with no expectation families might one day reclaim relatives. All remains have been aged and sexed anthropologically, with samples collected for biomolecular investigations. Despite extensive archival documentation, including names recorded in the House of Correction church book, their identities are shrouded by time. Observations of age, injury, and disease can suggest why inmates ended up in the House of Correction cemetery. But there, individual stories end and identities are lost.     

Urban–rural differences in Roman Dorset,England: A bioarchaeological perspective on Roman settlements

In the Roman period, urban and rural ways of living were differentiated philosophically and legally, and this is the first regional study of these contrasting life‐ways. Focusing on frailty and mortality risk, we investigated how these differed by age, sex, and status, using coffin type as a proxy for social status. We employed skeletal data from 344 individuals: 150 rural and 194 urban (1st–5th centuries A.D.) from Dorset, England. Frailty and mortality risk were examined using indicators of stress (cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, nonspecific periostitis, and enamel hypoplastic defects), specific metabolic and infectious diseases (rickets, scurvy, and tuberculosis), and dental health (carious lesions and calculus). These variables were studied using Chi‐square, Siler model of mortality, Kaplan–Meier analysis, and the Gompertz model of adult mortality. Our study found that overall, mortality risk and survivorship did not differ between cemetery types but when the data were examined by age, mortality risk was only significantly higher for urban subadults. Demographic differences were found, with urban cemeteries having more 0–10 and >35 year olds, and for health, urban cemeteries had significantly higher frequencies of enamel hypoplastic defects, carious lesions, and rickets. Interestingly, no significant difference in status was observed between rural and urban cemeteries. The most significant finding was the influence of the skeletal and funerary data from the Poundbury sites, which had different demographic profiles, significantly higher frequencies of the indicators of stress and dental health variables. In conclusion, there are significant health, demographic, and mortality differences between rural and urban populations in Roman Britain. Am J Phys Anthropol 157:107–120, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Bioarchaeological evidence for trophy-taking in prehistoric central California

Fourteen adult burials in a large (N = 224) prehistoric central California cemetery (CA-SCL-674) lack forearm bones. Twelve of these otherwise well-articulated primary interments have distal humeri bearing cutmarks with a distribution like that seen in fur seals butchered by Native Californians. Most of the burials with missing forearms are young adult males, a demographic profile that differs significantly from the full sample. Three of these males show evidence of perimortem trauma in addition to forearm amputation. Drilled and polished human radii and ulnae were recovered from the CA-SCL-674 cemetery in archaeological contexts separate from burials with missing forearms. A warfare-related trophy-taking practice is strongly suggested by these bioarchaeological data. Based on these data, it seems likely that 20% (N = 10) or more of the adult males (N = 59) in this population were victims of violence. Evidence of perimortem violence was much less common among women, with only about 2% (N = 2) of adult females (N = 86) subjected to trophy-taking. Examination of museum collections produced further evidence for perimortem forearm amputation among the Native American inhabitants of this area during the transition between the Early and Middle periods. The emergence of more hierarchical social systems during this period may have fostered warfare-related trophy-taking as a symbolic tool for enhancing the power and prestige of individuals within competing social groups.     

Exploring the multidimensionality of stature variation in the past through comparisons of archaeological and living populations

Adult stature variation is commonly attributed to differential stress-levels during development. However, due to selective mortality and heterogeneous frailty, a population's tall stature may be more indicative of high selective pressures than of positive life conditions. This article examines stature in a biocultural context and draws parallels between bioarchaeological and living populations to explore the multidimensionality of stature variation in the past. This study investigates: 1) stature differences between archaeological populations exposed to low or high stress (inferred from skeletal indicators); 2) similarities in growth retardation patterns between archaeological and living groups; and 3) the apportionment of variance in growth outcomes at the regional level in archaeological and living populations. Anatomical stature estimates were examined in relation to skeletal stress indicators (cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, linear enamel hypoplasia) in two medieval bioarchaeological populations. Stature and biocultural information were gathered for comparative living samples from South America. Results indicate 1) significant (P < 0.01) differences in stature between groups exposed to different levels of skeletal stress; 2) greater prevalence of stunting among living groups, with similar patterns in socially stratified archaeological and modern groups; and 3) a degree of regional variance in growth outcomes consistent with that observed for highly selected traits. The relationship between early stress and growth is confounded by several factors—including catch-up growth, cultural buffering, and social inequality. The interpretations of early life conditions based on the relationship between stress and stature should be advanced with caution. Am J Phys Anthropol 155:229–242, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.