Bioarchaeological Practice and the Curation of Human Skeletal Remains in a Greek Context: The Phaleron Cemetery

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni-Anna Prevedorou ◽  
Jane E. Buikstra
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Insufficient Time ◽  
Human Burials

ABSTRACTHuman skeletal remains constitute remarkably informative finds, both biologically and socioculturally. Their recovery, preservation, conservation, storage, and analysis are complex issues that need to be addressed within any given biocultural context. Given the country's geography and the long history of human occupation, Greek field archaeology is intense and ongoing, with both rescue and systematic excavations. Human burials are thus frequently encountered in excavations throughout Greece, resulting in the accumulation of osteological material. Some of the common challenges of bioarchaeological research in Greece consist of insufficient time, funding, and documentation in the field; unmet conservation needs and lack of storage space; as well as the long time-gap between excavation and analysis. Here, we give a brief overview of excavation, curation, and bioarchaeological practice within a Greek archaeological framework. We focus on the newly launched Phaleron Bioarchaeological Project on a vast necropolis from the wider Athens region in order to present our methodological approach. Finally, we consider the role of interdisciplinary collaboration in managing large-scale bioarchaeological projects and serving long-term heritage preservation goals.

Community Replacement Pathways: What Do Fossil Sequences Reveal About Marine Ecosystem Transitions?

1990 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 262-272
Author(s):  
William Miller
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Ultimate Cause ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Time And Energy

Paleontologists have lavished much time and energy on description and explanation of large-scale patterns in the fossil record (e.g., mass extinctions, histories of monophyletic taxa, deployment of major biogeographic units), while paying comparatively little attention to biologic patterns preserved only in local stratigraphic sequences. Interpretation of the large-scale patterns will always be seen as the chief justification for the science of paleontology, but solving problems framed by long time spans and large areas is rife with tenuous inference and patterns are prone to varied interpretation by different investigators using virtually the same data sets (as in the controversy over ultimate cause of the terminal Cretaceous extinctions). In other words, the large-scale patterns in the history of life are the true philosophical property of paleontology, but there will always be serious problems in attempting to resolve processes that transpired over millions to hundreds-of-millions of years and encompassed vast areas of seafloor or landscape. By contrast, less spectacular and more commonplace changes in local habitats (often related to larger-scale events and cycles) and attendant biologic responses are closer to our direct experience of the living world and should be easier to interpret unequivocally. These small-scale responses are reflected in the fossil record at the scale of local outcrops.

scholarly journals Embodied Identities in Roman Britain: A Bioarchaeological Approach

Britannia ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 177-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Gowland
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
The Social ◽  
Diversity Of Life ◽  
The Military ◽  
Integrated Study

ABSTRACTHuman skeletal remains from Roman Britain are abundant and provide a rich repository of social as well as biological information concerning health, migration, diet and body/society interactions. At present, skeletal remains tend to be marginalised in studies of Roman trade, the military, economy, urbanisation and the like, yet they have huge potential to contribute to current debates. This article aims to highlight the potential of bioarchaeological analysis for understanding aspects of social identity in Roman Britain through the use of a more integrated, theoretical approach towards embodied interactions. It encourages future collaborative scholarship between bioarchaeologists, archaeologists and historians. The social determinants of health and identity will vary greatly between regions and the only way of establishing the diversity of life across the Roman Empire is through the instigation of a more comprehensive, large-scale, integrated study of funerary and skeletal assemblages.

Human Skeletal Remains Recovered from a Napo Funerary Urn in the Ecuadorian Amazon

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole A. Jastremski ◽  
Alejandra Sánchez-Polo
Keyword(s):  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Long Bones ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
Human Skeleton ◽  
Height Range ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Pathological Conditions ◽  
Ecuadorian Amazon ◽  
Bone Preservation ◽  
History Of

There is very little published literature regarding pre-Columbian burial practices that include human skeletal remains of the Napo culture (A.D. 1188–1480) in the western Amazon. Due to poor bone preservation and a history of looting practices, bioarchaeologists have rarely been able to collect, analyze, and interpret skeletal remains. Here, we provide the initial publication of a human skeleton from the Ecuadorian Amazon belonging to the Napo culture, preserved in a funerary urn acquired by the Museo de Arte Precolombino Casa del Alabado in Quito, Ecuador. This partial adult skeleton, radiocarbon dated to cal A.D. 1021–1155, consists primarily of broken long bones that indicate a robust individual with a height range of 160–170 cm. Although no trauma was observed, pathological conditions including cysts and likely Osgood-Schlatter’s disease were present and robust muscle insertions were noted. Taphonomic damage from termite osteophagy was inferred by the presence of round bore holes, cavities, tunneling, and cortical etching on the humerus, femur, and tibia. The urn itself is an anthropomorphic polychrome vessel that opens at the bottom, with six equally spaced holes to facilitate closure. The urn burial is similar to those of other Amazonian Polychrome Tradition cultures located to the east in Brazil.   Las prácticas funerarias precolombinas que incluyen restos humanos esqueléticos de la cultura Napo (1188–1480 D.C.), en el oeste de la Amazonía, han sido escasamente dadas a conocer en la literatura arqueológica. Debido a la pobre preservación de los huesos en ese medio y a una dilatada trayectoria de huaquerismo, desde la bioarqueología no ha sido posible recoger, analizar e interpretar restos humanos. Este artículo trata de solventar este vacío al atender desde una perspectiva bioarqueológica los restos óseos humanos provenientes de la Amazonía ecuatoriana pertenecientes a la cultura Napo, preservados en una urna funeraria que se conserva en el Museo de Arte Precolombino Casa del Alabado en Quito, Ecuador. Por un lado, este esqueleto parcial del que se conservan huesos largos fragmentados de un adulto fue datado mediante técnicas radiométricas entre 1021 y 1155 cal D.C.Habría sido una persona robusta, con una altura que oscilaría entre los 160 y 170 cm. Aunque no se ha observado ningún traumatismo, las patologías registradas incluyen quistes, como los debidos a la enfermedad de Osgood-Schlatter, e inserciones musculares robustas. Entre las afecciones tafonómicas más relevantes, se han apreciado las causadas por osteofagia de termitas, las cuales se infieren por la presencia de perforaciones redondas, cavidades, túneles y decapado cortical en húmero, fémur y tibia. Por otro lado, la urna es un ejemplar antropomorfo policromado de apertura basal con seis orificios espaciados que ayudaban a cerrarla. El entierro en urna es similar a aquellos otros de las culturas de la Tradición Polícroma Amazónica localizadas al este en Brasil.

scholarly journals The history of scatter hoarding studies

2010 ◽  
Vol 365 (1542) ◽  
pp. 869-881 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Brodin
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Scatter Hoarding ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theoretical Paper ◽  
The 1960S

In this review, I will present an overview of the development of the field of scatter hoarding studies. Scatter hoarding is a conspicuous behaviour and it has been observed by humans for a long time. Apart from an exceptional experimental study already published in 1720, it started with observational field studies of scatter hoarding birds in the 1940s. Driven by a general interest in birds, several ornithologists made large-scale studies of hoarding behaviour in species such as nutcrackers and boreal titmice. Scatter hoarding birds seem to remember caching locations accurately, and it was shown in the 1960s that successful retrieval is dependent on a specific part of the brain, the hippocampus. The study of scatter hoarding, spatial memory and the hippocampus has since then developed into a study system for evolutionary studies of spatial memory. In 1978, a game theoretical paper started the era of modern studies by establishing that a recovery advantage is necessary for individual hoarders for the evolution of a hoarding strategy. The same year, a combined theoretical and empirical study on scatter hoarding squirrels investigated how caches should be spaced out in order to minimize cache loss, a phenomenon sometimes called optimal cache density theory. Since then, the scatter hoarding paradigm has branched into a number of different fields: (i) theoretical and empirical studies of the evolution of hoarding, (ii) field studies with modern sampling methods, (iii) studies of the precise nature of the caching memory, (iv) a variety of studies of caching memory and its relationship to the hippocampus. Scatter hoarding has also been the subject of studies of (v) coevolution between scatter hoarding animals and the plants that are dispersed by these.

scholarly journals Magnetometer surveys in archaeological research in Papua New Guinea: Keveoki 1, Gulf Province

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Moffat ◽  
Bruno David ◽  
Bryce Barker ◽  
Alois Kuaso ◽  
Robert Skelly ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Earth Ovens ◽  
History Of ◽  
Geophysical Investigations ◽  
Human Burials ◽  
Ground Penetrating

A magnetometer survey was conducted on the abandoned village site of Keveoki 1, near the Vailala River, Gulf Province, PNG. The survey, using a single sensor proton precession magnetometer, was successful in locating and defining the boundaries of areas confirmed by excavation to contain dense assemblages of pottery. The combination of geophysical and excavation results allowed a broader understanding of the spatial distribution of human occupation at Keveoki 1 than would have been possible based on excavation or visual field walking alone. We suggest this technique should be applied more regularly. Archaeological geophysical prospection techniques have not previously been applied as part of archaeological investigations in Papua New Guinea (PNG), despite an extensive history of archaeological research in this area (e.g. Bulmer 1978; Frankel and Vanderwal 1985; White and O'Connell 1982). In part, this deficiency may be explained by the perceived high cost of geophysical survey as well as the difficulties associated with operating and transporting electronic equipment to the often remote, extremely rugged, wet tropical and inaccessible archaeological sites of the region. Nevertheless geophysical techniques have a demonstrated history of making an important contribution to archaeological investigations world-wide (e.g. Witten 2006; Conyers 2004; Gaffney and Gater 2003) and have the potential to answer important archaeological questions in PNG also. In particular, they have the potential to extend site information beyond the limited spatial extent usually obtained through excavation, and thus promise to enable understandings of village sites as spatially extensive landscapes rather than more restricted spatial nodes (Kvamme 2003). This is particularly apt for PNG where thick vegetation and swampy conditions can make site discovery through more conventional field walking very difficult.The archaeological record in many coastal parts of PNG is particularly amenable to geophysical investigations because here can be found extensive sites with dense ceramic deposits as well as numerous sub-surface structural features such as postholes, human burials and earth ovens. Since electromagnetic induction (EMI) and magnetic susceptibility in particular can directly detect pottery (Clark 1990) as well as the remnants of burning (Linford and Canti 2001) and anthropogenically-induced microbial activity (Linford 2004), geophysical prospecting evidently has great potential in such archaeological contexts. Other techniques, such as ground penetrating radar (GPR) (Conyers 2004) and direct current resistivity (Witten (2006) may find less regular application in this area, but could contribute where favourable site conditions exist.

scholarly journals Pre-Clovis occupation of the Americas identified by human fecal biomarkers in coprolites from Paisley Caves, Oregon

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (29) ◽  
pp. eaba6404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa-Marie Shillito ◽  
Helen L. Whelton ◽  
John C. Blong ◽  
Dennis L. Jenkins ◽  
Thomas J. Connolly ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Lipid Biomarkers ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
People First ◽  
Alternative Sources ◽  
Lithic Artifacts ◽  
Fecal Biomarkers

When and how people first settled in the Americas is an ongoing area of research and debate. The earliest sites typically only contain lithic artifacts that cannot be directly dated. The lack of human skeletal remains in these early contexts means that alternative sources of evidence are needed. Coprolites, and the DNA contained within them, are one such source, but unresolved issues concerning ancient DNA taphonomy and potential for contamination make this approach problematic. Here, we use fecal lipid biomarkers to demonstrate unequivocally that three coprolites dated to pre-Clovis are human, raise questions over the reliance on DNA methods, and present a new radiocarbon date on basketry further supporting pre-Clovis human occupation.

scholarly journals The Sequence of Human Occupation in the Atacama Oases, Chile: A Radiocarbon Chronology Based on Human Skeletal Remains

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Torres-Rouff ◽  
Mark Hubbe
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
South Central ◽  
San Pedro ◽  
New Information ◽  
Radiocarbon Chronology ◽  
Future Work

The San Pedro de Atacama oases have been permanently occupied since ca. 2500 B.P. and over this time developed a rich culture that was intertwined with social developments in the south-central Andes. However, despite decades of archaeological research, the region still lacks a strong chronological framework based on absolute dates. Here we present 53 new AMS 14C dates from osteological remains from San Pedro de Atacama, in order to contribute to an understanding of the Atacameño cultural sequence. These dates suggest that some cemeteries were occupied for long periods, frequently transcending cultural phases, and that in fact a number of cemeteries within the same ayllu were in use concurrently. We also show that, not surprisingly, population displacement through time primarily follows oscillations in the sources of water. The new information presented here suggests that future work in the region should emphasize detailed analyses that consider intra-ayllu variability, given that diversity within periods is masked by the uniform use of cultural phases to describe human development.

Craniometric Patterning within Ancient Peru

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann H. Ross ◽  
Douglas H. Ubelaker ◽  
Sonia Guillén
Keyword(s):  
Discriminant Analysis ◽  
South America ◽  
Morphological Variation ◽  
Canonical Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Biological Distance ◽  
Human Skeletal Remains ◽  
Group Variation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Rich History

Numerous studies have used the Howells Peruvian sample from the province of Yauyos as the morphological representative for South America. Although Peru has a rich history of investigations of human skeletal remains, biological distance studies based on craniometrics are limited to nonexistent. This study examines the morphological variation found in Peru using the Howells sample and three additional coastal (Makatampu and Ancón) and highland (Cajamarca) samples. The between-group variation and the degree of among-group differentiation were tested using a canonical discriminant analysis and Mahalanobis D², respectively. All groups are significantly different from the Yauyos sample and results indicate a closer morphological affinity between coastal groups and the two highland groups.

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF SPATIAL AND MASS ON KERATON KASEPUHAN CIREBON

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (04) ◽  
pp. 345-362
Author(s):  
Deby Sinantya Purbodewi ; Rahadian P. Herwindo
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Pattern ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Spatial Development ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract- Keraton Kasepuhan Cirebon is one of the oldest palace that built during the transition era of Hindu Buddhism and Islam. Therefore. Keraton Kasepuhan has many periods of cultural period, where each period of time has its own distinctive culture, especially from special activities and daily activities that can affect the needs that create a spatial pattern. In terms of architecture, the existence of cultural influences resulted in the development of spatial and mass patterns, so that Kasepuhan Palace has elements of the culture in the spatial pattern and mass. According to the results of previous research, the culture is: Hindu-Buddhist, Islam, and also Colonial.  Using linear analytical methods, the data were analyzed by discussing according to the history of spatial development from the influence of each culture. The data were analyzed based on the composition of the HinduBuddhist, Islamic, Chinese, and Colonial spatial layout with the spatial development in the history of the Kasepuhan Palace, which was divided into four ages of leadership namely Ketemenggungan, Kesunanan, Panembahan and Kasultanan, in the focus of large-scale contexts, sacred building contexts, residential buildings.  This study aims to tell the architectural pattern that form Keraton Kasepuhan. The benefits of the completion of this research are to add to the architectural treasury of spatial and mass principles by various cultures in Indonesia, and add insight into the principles of spatial and mass arrangement based on theory and culture.  The conclusion of this research is the development of spatial and mass on Keraton Kasepuhan is most influenced by local culture, Hindu and Javanese Islam, while the outside culture does not much influence especially on spatial and mass Keraton Kasepuhan. In this case also found that the spatial and mass of a building can survive in a long time, while the form elements in the building can whenever changed and can be adopted or inspired from any culture. Spatial and mass is very crucial, it is the key to the relationship of architecture with humans.  Key Words: Acculturation, Spatial and Mass, History, Keraton, Keraton Kasepuhan Cirebon

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