Objectives
The Falys–Prangle‐method assesses age‐related morphological changes to the sternal clavicle end (SCE), enabling the observation of mature adults from the 5th decade onwards in unburnt ...human skeletal remains. The aim of this study is to investigate the applicability of the Falys–Prangle‐method on burnt human remains.
Materials and methods
Fifty‐two SCE of 40 cremated individuals (out of 86) from the William M. Bass collection of the Forensic Anthropology Center (Knoxville, Tennessee) of known age‐at‐death and sex are available for assessment. Surface topography, porosity, and osteophyte formation are evaluated, after which the calculated composite score is associated with the corresponding age range as described by Falys and Prangle. The method is also applied on an archaeological case study from Oudenburg, Belgium, dating to the Roman period.
Results
The assessed age ranges strongly agree with the true age ranges (α = 0.828), suggesting the Falys–Prangle‐method to be applicable on burnt human remains. The case study from Oudenburg yields markedly improved age‐at‐death estimates, significantly enhancing our understanding of the age distribution within this community.
Discussion
Information on age‐at‐death is key in the construction of biological profiles of past individuals. The mature adult is often invisible in the archaeological record since most macroscopic age estimation methods do not distinguish beyond 46+ years old. Our study stresses the usefulness of a large‐scale application of the Falys–Prangle‐method, which will increase the visibility of mature adults, especially in archaeological burnt human skeletal collections, where such information is, at present, extremely difficult to obtain.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
In order to reveal a possible carbon exchange between carbon dioxide of the fuel and the bone apatite during the cremation process an experiment was set up using fossil fuel. Two setups were ...constructed, one using natural gas and one using coal. In both experiments, a carbon substitution in the apatite was revealed.
Archaeological research at Aalst – Siesegemkouter revealed several pits within a Middle to Late Bronze Age settlement. Most of them hardly contained any artefacts, but one exception showed a ...structured stratigraphy with an abundance of finds, including a large amount of shattered pottery, charcoal and calcined animal bone. The study of this assemblage, and comparison with two other pits showing similarities, provides strong indications of a closing deposit or another type of ‘site maintenance practice’. In the Low Countries, comparable contexts generally date from the Iron Age, suggesting that the finds from Aalst – Siesegemkouter represent early forerunners of this ritual practice. On top of this early date, the large volume of cremated animal bone represents an almost unique characteristic for which, until now, parallels from the Metal Ages have hardly been found, even on a Northwestern European scale. In general, the role played by organic remains in ritual contexts from these periods and regions is poorly understood, often due to bad preservation conditions or the lack of a multidisciplinary approach.
This study aims to better understand the development of group identity, mobility, and health in the Early Medieval Meuse Valley. This is achieved by combining existing demographic and ...palaeopathological information from 73 cremation deposits from Echt, the Netherlands, with new strontium isotope ratios (
87
Sr/
86
Sr) and strontium concentrations (Sr) that are performed on pars petrosa, diaphysis, and rib fragments. Although the surrounding Early Medieval cemeteries practiced inhumation, the initial burial community of Echt persisted in expressing the divergent burial ritual of cremation. Thirty-two radiocarbon dates demonstrate the fifth- to sixth-century cremation deposits to be chronologically separated from the seventh-century inhumations that were preserved in situ, suggesting a subsequent burial community replaced cremation with inhumation in the seventh century. Nutritionally inadequate diets may have contributed to the relatively high prevalence of porotic hyperostosis (~ 34%), resulting from decreasing foods supplies caused by deteriorating climatic conditions. The inhabitants are postulated to have mainly consumed foods originating from the land directly surrounding their farmsteads, expressed by the great variability in the
87
Sr/
86
Sr of the diaphyses and ribs (0.7096 to 0.7131), matching the geological complexity of the area. The lack of significant differences between the
87
Sr/
86
Sr and Sr of ribs and diaphyses connotes little change in the geological origin of the foods occurred over time, stressing the importance of the yield of local harvests. In contrast, large differences in childhood (i.e. pars petrosa) vs. adult (i.e. ribs and diaphyses)
87
Sr/
86
Sr suggest the regional movement of individuals to possibly support inter-farmstead relationships (e.g. via marriages).
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Cremation is a complex mortuary practice, involving a number of activities of the living towards the dead before, during, and after the destruction of the bodily soft tissues by fire. The limiting ...information concerning these behavioral patterns obtained from the pyre remains and/or cremation deposits prevents the reconstruction of the handling of the corpse during the burning process. This pioneering study tries to determine the initial positioning of the corpse in the pyre and assess whether the deceased was wearing closed leather shoes during cremation through isotopic (δ
13
C, δ
18
O) and infrared (ATR-FTIR) analyses of experimentally burnt pig remains, used as a proxy for humans. The results obtained show that both the position of feet on or within the pyre and the presence of footwears may moderately-to-highly influence the oxygen isotope ratios of bone apatite carbonates and the cyanamide content of calcined bone in certain situations. By forming a protective layer, shoes appear to temporarily delay the burning of the underlying pig tissues and to increase the heat-shielding effect of the soft tissues protecting the bone mineral fraction. In such case, bioapatite bone carbonates exchange oxygen with a relatively more
18
O-depleted atmosphere (due to the influence of lignin-derived oxygen rather than cellulose-derived oxygen), resulting in more pronounced decrease in the δ
18
O
carb
values during burning of the shoed feet vs. unshoed feet. The shift observed here was as high as 2.5‰. A concomitant isotopic effect of the initial location of the feet in the pyres was also observed, resulting in a top-to-bottom decrease difference in the δ
18
O
carb
values of shoed feet of about 1.4‰ between each deposition level tested. Finally, the presence of cyanamide (CN/P ≥ 0.02) seems to be indicative of closed footwear since the latter creates favorable conditions for its incorporation into bone apatite.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The high temperatures reached during cremation lead to the destruction of organic matter preventing the use of traditional isotopic methods for dietary reconstructions. Still, strontium isotope (
Sr/
...Sr) and concentration (Sr) analyses of cremated human remains offer a novel way to assess changing consumption patterns in past populations that practiced cremation, as evidenced by a large amount of new data obtained from Metal Ages and Gallo-Roman human remains from Destelbergen, Belgium. The Gallo-Roman results show significantly higher Sr and a narrower interquartile range in
Sr/
Sr (0.7093-0.7095), close to the value of modern-day seawater (0.7092). This contrasts with the Metal Ages results, which display lower concentrations and a wider range in
Sr/
Sr (0.7094-0.7098). This typical Sr signature is also reflected in other sites and is most likely related to an introduction of marine Sr in the form of salt as a food preservative (e.g. salt-rich preserved meat, fish and fish sauce). Paradoxically, this study highlights caution is needed when using
Sr/
Sr for palaeomobility studies in populations with high salt consumption.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The CRUMBEL project aims to investigate the mobility of the former population in Belgium from the Neolithic period until the Early Middle Ages. To reach these research goals different topics will be ...studied. In a preliminary phase, the ancient collections of cremated bone will be documented. A selection of these funerary sites will be studied to understand the mobility using different archaeometric approaches as stable isotopes and radiocarbon dating to obtain reliable information on earlier mobility in Belgium.
L'épée de Chauny (Aisne) fait partie des rares épées à poignée métallique découvertes dans le nord de la France et plus globalement dans le nord-ouest européen. Datée de la fin de l'Âge du Bronze, ...elle était jusqu'à récemment considérée comme perdue. Sa récente redécouverte dans les collections de la Société académique de Saint-Quentin (Aisne) a permis d'en réaliser un nouvel examen, à la fois sur les plans morphologique et technologique. Cette étude est également l'occasion de faire le point sur les autres épées à poignée métallique découvertes dans le nord-ouest européen, comprenant le nord de la France, la Belgique, les Pays-Bas et le Luxembourg, et tout particulièrement celles contemporaines de l'épée de Chauny. Les quelques épées à poignée métallique de cette zone la font apparaître comme en périphérie dans les cartes de répartition. Cependant, la diversité des types rencontrés indique l'existence de réseaux d'échanges connectant le nord-ouest de l'Europe à d'autres espaces où de nombreuses épées à poignée métallique ont été retrouvées, comme la région nord-alpine ou le sud de la Scandinavie.
The funerary Bronze Age culture in the Belgian part of the Meuse valley is poorly understood due to the challenging nature of cremation deposits that dominate the archaeological record. Only a few ...sites were analysed in that region, limiting the possibilities to reconstruct the development of Bronze Age populations in Belgium. Due to its good preservation and detailed excavation reports, the site of Herstal (Belgium) offers a unique opportunity to finally gain new insights into the life and death of those buried in the Meuse Valley during the Late Bronze Age. A total of 21 graves were analysed using a multi-proxy approach, combining grave typology, osteoarchaeology, strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr), and radiocarbon dating. The 87Sr/86Sr results show that the individuals of Herstal most likely used a variety of local food supplies while having interactions with other populations in and beyond the Meuse Valley, as demonstrated by the bronze artefacts and ceramics displaying clear influences from Germany, Southern Netherlands, and North-West France. The cemetery most likely shows a local burial style with the presence of two (or even three) individuals in several cremation deposits containing a number of privileged individuals who had access to bronze trading networks.
•Multi-proxy analyses reveal regional and local burial practices.•87Sr/86Sr from different bone fragments in the same grave aid in determining MNI.•Different radiocarbon dates within single graves show familial significance.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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