During the Late Chalcolithic 3/4 (c. 3900–3200 BCE), Tell Brak in NE Syria became a large urban centre with central administration, craft specialization and a settlement size of at least 130 ha.
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Sr values in enamel of 34 human individuals from Tell Brak representing four temporal subsets were measured and compared against the local background to understand the pattern of migrations and origin of food consumed by inhabitants of the city. The rate of migration from areas with different
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Sr background values was constantly low, and there is no evidence of long-distance mobility. Decrease of average
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Sr values with time was paralleled by their higher dispersal. Finally, in the last subset representing the end of first urbanization period data are again less variable. All this indicates a rise in spatial heterogeneity of resources to feed the growing population of the expanding city, which was likely caused by a gradual extension of land used for food production.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
The strontium (Sr) concentration in bioapatite of human bone and teeth reflects the Sr concentration in food that is differentiated by two major factors: an abundance of Sr in local soils and the ...biopurification effect along the trophic levels. Eastern Syria is an area with a relatively high concentration of Sr within the Euphrates valley and a low concentration of Sr beyond the valley. For this reason, the strontium/calcium (Sr/Ca) ratio in human enamel retrieved from skeletons buried in cemeteries within the Euphrates valley may be used as a proxy for food provenience in a local population. A sample of human teeth (N = 72) from Tell Ashara and Tell Masaikh was divided into seven temporal subsets covering periods between c.2200 bce and the early 20th century ce. A significant difference in Sr/Ca values between temporal subsets is observed. The Sr/Ca values in later subsets are negatively correlated with δ13C values, indicating the wider exploitation of steppe areas outside the valley with more wild C4 grasses and a low Sr concentration. For periods with lower Sr/Ca values (c.2200–1900 bce and 19th–20th centuries ce) there is additional textual and isotopic evidence for food transportation from outside the river valley, supporting the interpretation of Sr/Ca values as a proxy for food provenience in this specific area.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Strontium stable isotope values (87Sr/86Sr) have been measured in tooth enamel samples representing 11 Bronze Age individuals buried at Tell Ashara–Terqa, a major archaeological site in the middle ...Euphrates valley, eastern Syria. For all analysed individuals, δ15N and δ13C values for dentin collagen were also available. No 87Sr/86Sr value exceeds the local environmental range, so there is no evidence of long‐distance migration. Observed statistically significant negative correlation between 87Sr/86Sr and δ15N values suggests that some food consumed by the local population was imported from areas with a much higher precipitation (lower δ15N) and a different geological background (higher 87Sr/86Sr), which is consistent with textual evidence of cereal transportation from farming areas north to Tell Ashara.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Between c. 300 BC and AD 350, the Meroitic kingdom dominated the Middle Nile Valley; following its breakdown, it was replaced by a series of smaller successor polities. Explanation for this change ...centres on socio-political and economic instability. Here, the authors investigate the role of climate and environment using stable carbon and oxygen isotope analyses of human and faunal dental enamel from 13 cemeteries. The results show increasing δ18O values towards the end of the Meroitic kingdom and in the post-Meroitic period, combined with less negative δ13C values. These trends suggest a shift towards more arid conditions associated with changes in agricultural practices and land use that may have contributed to the kingdom's dissolution.
The Near East and Eastern Mediterranean are regions where textual sources appeared much earlier than elsewhere, with the first logographic writing systems invented already in the 4th millennium BCE. ...Although for some places and for some periods written sources are abundant, the combination of research on ancient texts and archaeological human remains is still relatively rare and often superficial. Some popular research topics within historical bioarchaeology may be identified as studies that focus on ancient funeral rites, reconstructing biographies of people known from written sources whose skeletons have been discovered, research on the catastrophic mass burials, e.g. the results of epidemics or the acts of violence, human lifetime mobility, diet, subsistence, and finally, living conditions in general. Beyond reviewing representative past studies of these topics, this paper also identifies some new potential methods and objectives for regional historical bioarchaeology.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Objectives
Breastfeeding and childhood diet have significant impact on morbidity and mortality within a population, and in the ancient Near East, it is possible to compare bioarchaeological ...reconstruction of breastfeeding and weaning practices with the scant textual evidence.
Materials and Methods
Nitrogen stable isotopes (δ15N) are analyzed here for dietary reconstruction in skeletal collections from five Bronze Age (ca. 2,800–1,200 BCE) sites in modern Lebanon and Syria. We employed Bayesian computational modeling on cross‐sectional stable isotope data of collagen samples (n = 176) mainly from previous studies to test whether the bioarchaeological evidence aligns with the textual evidence of breastfeeding and weaning practices in the region, as well as compare the estimated weaning times to the global findings using the WARN (weaning age reconstruction with nitrogen isotope analysis) Bayesian model.
Results
Though the Near East sites in this study had different ecological settings and economic strategies, we found that weaning was introduced to the five sites at 0.5 ± 0.2 years of age and complete weaning occurred around 2.6 ± 0.3 years of age on using the WARN computational model. These weaning processes are within the time suggested by historical texts, though average estimated weaning age on the Mediterranean coast is later than inland sites.
Discussion
Compared globally, these Near Eastern populations initiated the weaning process earlier but completed weaning within the global average. Early initial weaning may have created short spacing between pregnancies and a high impact on demographic growth within these agricultural populations, with some variation in subsistence practices accounting for the inland/coastal discrepancies.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Objectives
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N) were used to reconstruct the history of subsistence strategies in the middle Euphrates valley, NE Syria, in six temporal subsets ...dating from the Early Bronze Age (c. 2300 BCE) to the Modern period (19th/20th century CE). The study aims to demonstrate that changes in political and social organization over time, for which the archaeological record suggests different goals of land use and modes of production, register through dietary patterns that are reflected in isotopic data.
Materials and methods
173 dentin samples were taken from human individuals buried at three sites (Tell Ashara, Tell Masaikh and Gebel Mashtale) together with 15 animal bone samples. Distribution of the δ13C and δ15N values in collagen was interpreted in diachronic perspective, and with regard to lifetime shifts between childhood and adolescence.
Results
Diachronically, isotope signatures indicate a clear decrease in δ15N values accompanied by a small shift in δ13C values between the Old Babylonian (c. 1800–1600 BCE) and the Neo‐Assyrian (c. 850–600 BCE) subsets. A major shift in δ13C values occurred between the Early Islamic (c. 600–1200 CE) and Modern (c. 1800–1950) periods. Ontogenetic changes only occur in a few individuals, but these suggest change of residence between childhood and adolescence.
Discussion
The depletion in 15N from the Neo‐Assyrian period onwards is best explained in terms of a shift from intensive to extensive farming, triggered by the fall of regional city‐states after the Old Babylonian period and the formation of large supra‐regional polities in the Neo‐Assyrian period and later. The enrichment in 13C during the Modern period was most likely the effect of more widely utilizing the dry steppes, abundant in C4 plants, as pasture.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
•A review of causative agents and diagnostic criteria for dental erosion is required.•No adequate protocol exists to reliably diagnose erosion in past populations.•A differential diagnosis protocol ...is suggested for diagnosing erosive wear.
Although studies of dental wear on archaeological human remains have largely focused on mechanical wear (attrition and abrasion) in the past, chemical wear (erosion) is being increasingly identified as a separate form of wear. This paper aims to review the current state of research and to develop a protocol that may be universally used by biorchaeologists to specifically identify dental erosion.
A critical review of literature has been done in order to highlight the issues related to diagnosis of dental erosion in archaeological human remains. The bodies of work based on the analysis of both modern and archaeological dentitions raise their separate problems. In addition to a need to re-evaluate symptoms of dental erosion, notably dentin ‘cupping’, it is apparent that no specific protocol is adapted from medical to archaeological sciences. Authors rather rely on tooth wear indices and photographs of modern clinical cases for diagnosis. Furthermore, the diagenetic chemical alternation has rarely been considered as a bias.
Here we suggest a three-step protocol: the primary method is the microscopic identification of dental erosion by SEM, followed by the exclusion of taphonomic aetiology on surrounding bone and soil pH analysis. Archaeologists should also explore possible causative agents of wear using archaeological and historic knowledge about the population being analyzed.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
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