The pattern of human bone dissolution-A histological study of Iron Age warriors from a Danish wetland site

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.K.E. Tjelldén ◽  
S.M. Kristiansen ◽  
H. Birkedal ◽  
M.M.E. Jans
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Histological Study ◽  
Human Bone ◽  
Wetland Site

The postmortem exposure interval of an Iron Age human bone assemblage from Alken Enge, Denmark

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 819-827 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lene Mollerup ◽  
Anna Katarina Ejgreen Tjellden ◽  
Ejvind Hertz ◽  
Mads Kähler Holst
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Human Bone ◽  
Exposure Interval

Defining the Individual

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Sharples
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Soil Layer ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Human Bone ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Left Femur ◽  
Southern England ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

During the 1985 excavation at Maiden Castle (Sharples 1991a), a large grain storage pit cut into the back of the rampart of the Early Iron Age hillfort was excavated. About half way down the fill of that pit the left femur of a mature adult was exposed. This bone was lying in a relatively sterile soil layer and it was not marked by any special finds or careful constructions; in many respects it could easily be dismissed as a discovery with little significance. Fifty years ago such bones would have been regarded as accidental losses, simply rubbish conveniently disposed of in a handy receptacle. It could be an indication that excarnation was the general means of disposal and that this occurred close to or actually inside settlements, but it might also indicate the accidental disturbance of human remains in graves located at the hillfort. In recent years we have come to understand that these deposits are much more significant. A number of archaeologists (Whimster 1981; C. Wilson 1981; Cunliffe 1992) came to realize that the presence of human remains on Iron Age settlements was a distinct cultural tradition characteristic of central southern England. The work of J. D. Hill (1995b) has enhanced our understanding of this phenomenon by emphasizing that the deposition of human remains is part of a complex suite of actions which involves the arrangement of different categories of material in carefully placed deposits. The process of deposition was clearly intimately involved in the definition of social relationships in the Iron Age of central southern England. It is difficult to imagine that if we, as archaeologists, could immediately recognize a human bone, our ancient pit diggers could not. The placement of this bone was a deliberate act, and the location of this deposit was carefully chosen. Hill (1995b) has shown that these pit deposits were carefully structured. Human remains are normally found in layers that are largely sterile, but a pit chosen for the deposition of human bone will normally have fills containing other carefully selected deposits. These mark the pit as a bank of socially constructed material.

Iron Age inhumation burials at Yarnton, Oxfordshire

Antiquity ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (281) ◽  
pp. 551-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gill Hey ◽  
Alex Bayliss ◽  
Angela Boyle
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Human Bone ◽  
Common Part ◽  
Burial Practice ◽  
Middle Iron Age

Radiocarbon dating of unaccompanied skeletons discovered during the excavation of an Iron Age, Roman and Saxon settlement at Yarnton, Oxfordshire, unexpectedly revealed the presence of a middle Iron Age cemetery (3rd or 4th century cal BC). British Iron Age burials before the 1st century BC are usually found as individuals, often in pits on settlement sites, or are repersented by disarticulated human bone. This paper explores whether cemeteries were a more common part of Iron Age burial practice than hitherto believed, or whether the Yarnton burials were a highly unusual and localized phenomenon? It highlights the merits of obtaining radiocarbon determinations on otherwise undated burials.

scholarly journals Stable isotopes and diet: their contribution to Romano-British research

Antiquity ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 87 (335) ◽  
pp. 137-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gundula Müldner
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotopes ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Nitrogen Isotope ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Bone ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Standard Response ◽  
British Research

The study of stable isotopes surviving in human bone is fast becoming a standard response in the analysis of cemeteries. Reviewing the state of the art for Roman Britain, the author shows clear indications of a change in diet (for the better) following the Romanisation of Iron Age Britain—including more seafood, and more nutritional variety in the towns. While samples from the bones report an average of diet over the years leading up to an individual's death, carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures taken from the teeth may have a biographical element—capturing those childhood dinners. In this way migrants have been detected—as in the likely presence of Africans in Roman York. While not unexpected, these results show the increasing power of stable isotopes to comment on populations subject to demographic pressures of every kind.

scholarly journals Beccles Triple Post Alignment, Beccles Marshes, Suffolk: Excavation and Palaeoenvironmental Analyses of an Iron Age Wetland Site

2011 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 231-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin R. Gearey ◽  
Henry P. Chapman ◽  
Andrew J. Howard ◽  
Kristina Krawiec ◽  
Michael Bamforth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Single Phase ◽  
Lap Joints ◽  
Floodplain Vegetation ◽  
North West ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
Wetland Site ◽  
Before And After ◽  
And Function ◽  
Floodplain Hydrology

This paper describes the results of two seasons of excavation and associated palaeoenvironmental analyses of a wetland site on Beccles Marshes, Beccles, Suffolk. The site has been identified as a triple post alignment of oak timbers (0.6–2.0 m long), over 100 m in length, and 3–4 m wide, running north-west to south-east towards the River Waveney. It was constructed in a single phase which has been dated dendrochronologically to 75 BC, although discrete brushwood features identified as possible short trackways have been dated by radiocarbon to both before and after the alignment was built. It is unclear if the posts ever supported a superstructure but notches (‘halving lap joints’) in some of the posts appear to have held timbers to support the posts and/or aid in their insertion. In addition, fragments of both Iron Age and Romano-British pottery were recovered. A substantial assemblage of worked wooden remains appears to reflect the construction of the post row itself and perhaps the on-site clearance of floodplain vegetation. This assemblage also contains waste material derived from the reduction splitting of timbers larger than the posts of the alignment, but which have not been recovered from the site. Environmental analyses indicate that the current landscape context of the site with respect to the River Waveney is probably similar to that which pertained in prehistory. The coleoptera (beetle) record illustrates a series of changes in the on-site vegetation in the period before, during and after the main phase of human activity which may be related to a range of factors including floodplain hydrology and anthropogenic utilisation of Beccles Marshes. The possible form and function of the site is discussed in relation to the later prehistoric period in Suffolk.

Age Changes in Human Bone: A Microradiographic and Histological Study of Subperiosteal and Periosteal Calcifications

Gerontology ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 34 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 264-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Zagba-Mongalima ◽  
M. Goret-Nicaise ◽  
A. Dhem
Keyword(s):  
Histological Study ◽  
Human Bone ◽  
Age Changes
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