Community differentiation is a fundamental topic of the social sciences, and its prehistoric origins in Europe are typically assumed to lie among the complex, densely populated societies that ...developed millennia after their Neolithic predecessors. Here we present the earliest, statistically significant evidence for such differentiation among the first farmers of Neolithic Europe. By using strontium isotopic data from more than 300 early Neolithic human skeletons, we find significantly less variance in geographic signatures among males than we find among females, and less variance among burials with ground stone adzes than burials without such adzes. From this, in context with other available evidence, we infer differential land use in early Neolithic central Europe within a patrilocal kinship system.
Assignment of biological sex to skeletal remains is critical in the accurate reconstruction of the past. Analysis of sex-chromosome encoded AMELX and AMELY peptides from the enamel protein amelogenin ...underpins a minimally destructive mass spectrometry (MS) method for sex determination of human remains. However, access to such specialist approaches limits applicability. As a convenient alternative, we generated antibodies that distinguish human AMELX and AMELY. Purified antibodies demonstrated high selectivity and quantitative detection against synthetic peptides by ELISA. Using acid etches of enamel from post-medieval skeletons, antibody determinations corrected osteological uncertainties and matched parallel MS, and for Bronze Age samples where only enamel was preserved, also matched MS analyses. Toward improved throughput, automated stations were applied to analyze 19th-century teeth where sex of individuals was documented, confirming MS can be bypassed. Our immunological tools should underpin development of routine, economical, high-throughput methods for sex determination, potentially even in a field setting.
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•Antibodies can distinguish human sex-chromosome encoded AMELX and AMELY peptides•Immunoassays using dental enamel extracts allow sex determination of human remains•Use of antibodies should allow sex determination to become a more routine activity
Immunology; Methodology in biological sciences; Paleobiology
Bioarchaeological evidence of interpersonal violence and early warfare presents important insights into conflict in past societies. This evidence is critical for understanding the motivations for ...violence and its effects on opposing and competing individuals and groups across time and space. Selecting the Neolithic of northwestern Europe as an area for study, the present paper examines the variation and societal context for the violence recorded in the human skeletal remains from this region as one of the most important elements of human welfare. Compiling data from various sources, it becomes apparent that violence was endemic in Neolithic Europe, sometimes reaching levels of intergroup hostilities that ended in the utter destruction of entire communities. While the precise comparative quantification of healed and unhealed trauma remains a fundamental problem, patterns emerge that see conflict likely fostered by increasing competition between settled and growing communities, e.g., for access to arable land for food production. The further development of contextual information is paramount in order to address hypotheses on the motivations, origins, and evolution of violence as based on the study of human remains, the most direct indicator for actual small- and large-scale violence.
This article will query the ethics of making and displaying photographs of human
remains. In particular, we will focus on the role of photography in constituting
human remains as specimens, and the ...centrality of the creation and circulation
of photographic images to the work of physical anthropology and bioarchaeology.
This work has increasingly become the object of ethical scrutiny, particularly
in the context of a (post)colonial politics of recognition in which indigenous
people seek to recover dominion over their looted material heritage, including
the remains of their dead. This ethical concern extends to the question of how
and under what circumstances we may display photographs of human remains.
Moreover, this is not just a matter of whether and when we should or should not
show photographs of the remains of the dead. It is a question of how these
images are composed and produced. Our discussion of the ethics of the image is,
therefore, indivisible from a consideration of the socio-technical process by
which the photographic image is produced, circulated and consumed.
The Past as a Foreign Country Fibiger, Linda
Historical reflections,
03/2018, Letnik:
44, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Steven Pinker’s thesis on the decline of violence since prehistory has resulted in many popular and scholarly debates on the topic that have ranged—at times even raged—across the disciplinary ...spectrum of evolution, psychology, philosophy, biology, history, and beyond. Those disciplines that made the most substantial contribution to the empirical data underpinning Pinker’s notion of a more violent prehistoric past, namely, archaeology and bioarchaeology/physical anthropology, have not featured as prominently in these discussions as may be expected. This article will focus on some of the issues resulting from Pinker’s oversimplified cross-disciplinary use of bioarchaeological data sets in support of his linear model of the past, a model that, incidentally, has yet to be incorporated into current accounts of violent practices in prehistory.
The Past as a Foreign Country Fibiger, Linda
Historical reflections,
03/2018, Letnik:
44, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Steven Pinker’s thesis on the decline of violence since prehistory has resulted in
many popular and scholarly debates on the topic that have ranged—at times even raged—
across the disciplinary ...spectrum of evolution, psychology, philosophy, biology, history, and
beyond. Those disciplines that made the most substantial contribution to the empirical
data underpinning Pinker’s notion of a more violent prehistoric past, namely, archaeology
and bioarchaeology/physical anthropology, have not featured as prominently in these discussions
as may be expected. This article will focus on some of the issues resulting from
Pinker’s oversimplifi ed cross-disciplinary use of bioarchaeological data sets in support of
his linear model of the past, a model that, incidentally, has yet to be incorporated into current
accounts of violent practices in prehistory.
Ancient microbial genomes can illuminate pathobiont evolution across millenia, with teeth providing a rich substrate. However, the characterization of prehistoric oral pathobiont diversity is ...limited. In Europe, only preagricultural genomes have been subject to phylogenetic analysis, with none compared to more recent archaeological periods. Here, we report well-preserved microbiomes from two 4,000-year-old teeth from an Irish limestone cave. These contained bacteria implicated in periodontitis, as well as Streptococcus mutans, the major cause of caries and rare in the ancient genomic record. Despite deriving from the same individual, these teeth produced divergent Tannerella forsythia genomes, indicating higher levels of strain diversity in prehistoric populations. We find evidence of microbiome dysbiosis, with a disproportionate quantity of S. mutans sequences relative to other oral streptococci. This high abundance allowed for metagenomic assembly, resulting in its first reported ancient genome. Phylogenetic analysis indicates major postmedieval population expansions for both species, highlighting the inordinate impact of recent dietary changes. In T. forsythia, this expansion is associated with the replacement of older lineages, possibly reflecting a genome-wide selective sweep. Accordingly, we see dramatic changes in T. forsythia's virulence repertoire across this period. S. mutans shows a contrasting pattern, with deeply divergent lineages persisting in modern populations. This may be due to its highly recombining nature, allowing for maintenance of diversity through selective episodes. Nonetheless, an explosion in recent coalescences and significantly shorter branch lengths separating bacteriocin-carrying strains indicate major changes in S. mutans demography and function coinciding with sugar popularization during the industrial period.
Interpersonal violence in the past is studied from different perspectives, one of which is experimentation. Using analogues to the human skeleton it is possible to replicate fractures found in the ...archaeological record and understand how they were produced. The main objective of this paper is to describe and differentiate sharp-blunt force cranial trauma caused by stone axes and adzes, to test previous interpretations of an archaeological case. This will create a comparative frame of reference for future studies. In the present experiment, seven Synbone polyurethane spheres were used as analogues to the human skull. These were covered with rubber skin, filled with ballistic gelatin, and fixed in a way that allowed some mobility when struck. This system creates a skin-skull-brain-neck model. A replica of a stone axe and adze were used as weapon-tools, simulating a face-to-face attack. The results of the experiment showed that there are a series of characteristics that differentiate the fracture pattern associated with each one, confirming previous bioarchaeological interpretations. The differentiation between both weapon-tools through the resulting cranial trauma allows conclusions about the direction of the blow and the position of the attacker with respect to the victim. This provides a better reconstruction of the most likely scenario surrounding the confrontation and the possible cause of death of the individuals, which is especially important during the Neolithic period, when this type of cranial trauma is very common.
•Stone axes and adzes are common weapon-tools used during the Neolithic.•Characterizing the cranial fracture pattern caused by each object is the main objective of this research.•The use of synthetic analogues has proven to be a reliable method in bioarchaeological experiments.•The results show that both objects are macroscopically distinguishable, and the direction of the blow can be identified.•This differentiation allows to better contextualize the interpersonal attack, approaching the attacker-victim constellation.
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