Search results for "Archaeological Anthropology"
showing 4 items of 4 documents
Isotopic Anthropology of Rural German Medieval Diet: Intra- and Inter-population Variability
2016
This study investigates the diet of an eleventh century CE parish community located in northwestern Germany. We assessed the isotopic compositions of human (n = 24) and faunal (n = 17) bone collagen (δ 13Ccol, δ 15Ncol) and human structural carbonate (δ 13Csc) using skeletal material recovered from the Dalheim cemetery. Traditional interpretation of the isotopic data indicates that Dalheim residents likely relied on a C3 plant-based diet and consumed some terrestrial animal products without evidence of marine resource input in the diet. Bivariate and multivariate models used as an additional means to assess diet indicate minor consumption of C4 plant foods in this community. The multivariat…
Evaluating the microscopic effect of brushing stone tools as a cleaning procedure
2020
Cleaning stone tool surfaces is a common procedure in lithic studies. The first step widely applied at any archeological site (and/or at field laboratories) is the gross removal of sediment from the surfaces of artifacts. Lithic surface alterations due to mechanical action applied in wet or dry cleaning regimes have never been examined at a microscopic scale. This could have important implications in traceology, as any modern surface modifications inflicted on archeological artifacts might compromise their functional interpretations. The current trend toward quantification of use-wear traces makes the testing even more important, as even slight, apparently invisible surface alterations migh…
A quantitative assessment of intraspecific morphological variation in Gahagan bifaces from the southern Caddo area and central Texas
2019
This investigation aggregates intact or reconstructed Gahagan bifaces from the southern Caddo area and central Texas to test the hypothesis that Gahagan biface morphology differs between the regions. The Gahagan bifaces (n = 102) were scanned, then analysed using a novel landmarking protocol and the tools of geometric morphometrics. Results provide a preview of the significant differences in Gahagan biface morphology expressed between the southern Caddo area and central Texas regions. The size discrepancy represents an inversion of current theoretical constructs that posit a decrease in tool size thought to articulate with an increase in distance from the raw material source. It is posited …
People buried in St Leger's chapel to Alise-Sainte-Reine ( Burgundy, France): reflections on the discrepancy between the archaeological data and the …
2003
As burial registers corresponding to a fully excavated funeral assemblage are rather rare, the present study endeavours toexamine both wrritten data and bone remains from a chape frequented during the 17th and 18th centuries. The disparity between thepopulatiom described by the two types of sources, particularly concerning the proportions of children in each, would encourage us toreconsider wiith caution the evaluation of burial groups based on bone assemblages which are not informed by written sources. Analysisof the latter will allow us to evaluate more accurately just how representative the archaeological evidence is with respect to the overalloccupation of a given site.