The commingling of human skeletal remains poses a recurrent challenge for osteoarchaeologists. Prior to any comprehensive analysis, the reassociation of these remains is required. Over the past...Show moreThe commingling of human skeletal remains poses a recurrent challenge for osteoarchaeologists. Prior to any comprehensive analysis, the reassociation of these remains is required. Over the past seven decades, numerous methodologies have emerged to address this challenge. However, each method exhibits limitations, prompting the necessity for the advancement of current techniques and the introduction of novel approaches. Among these evolving methods, the portable X-ray fluorescence technique stands out. Originally not designed for application on human remains, its appeal lies in its non-destructive nature and cost-effectiveness, drawing keen interest from osteoarchaeologists and forensic anthropologists. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of portable X-ray fluorescence in sorting commingled archaeological remains buried in the Netherlands. It involves the examination of 40 adults, 20 unearthed from Arnhem and 20 from Middenbeemster, dating back to the post-medieval period. The research initiates by investigating both intra-skeletal and inter-skeletal chemical variation, further exploring the potential factors contributing to these differences. Throughout the analysis, multiple sorting attempts are conducted to ensure a thorough exploration of the technique's capabilities. The results indicate statistically significant chemical variation within the same skeleton and among different individuals. In terms of intra-skeletal variation, from the 12 skeletal elements tested in each individual, only four pairs of bones (humerus–femur, rib–mandible, tibia–parietal, and tibia–rib) did not exhibit variation in the concentrations of chemical elements. With regard to inter-skeletal variation, 23 out of the 30 elements detected by the pXRF, and 14 out of the 15 ratios explored, demonstrated significant differences. Variation was also observed between males and females, as well as between sites. For the differences among the adult sub-groups that were noted, no generalizations can be made unless further research is conducted. Finally, the reassociation attempts reveal that the most successful sorting cases involved two individuals from different sites, utilizing principal components derived from ratios, while the tooth measurements were excluded. Key ratios influencing the sorting process included Mn/K, Mn/S, Mn/Fe, K/Fe, Sr/Ca, Ca/P, Pb/Ca, S/Sr, and Sr/Pb. While the method showed promise when a small number of individuals were involved, it lacked consistency. Therefore, it should be used in conjunction with other methods until further research is conducted.Show less
Biological kinship is a phenomenon inherent in all people. Therefore, it is no wonder that it is an often-researched topic in bioarchaeology. Even though a living person could speak about their kin...Show moreBiological kinship is a phenomenon inherent in all people. Therefore, it is no wonder that it is an often-researched topic in bioarchaeology. Even though a living person could speak about their kin, the bones of people long passed have another way of saying who their relatives are. The approach used in this research examines cranial non-metric traits, the morphological variants appearing on the skull. This study investigated the relationship between biological kinship and cranial non-metric traits in the Middenbemster skeletal collection. Examining these traits aimed to gain further insight into familial connections within the cemetery, adding to previous studies that only focused on dental non-metric traits and foot anomalies. To estimate the familial relationships in the Middenbeemster skeletal collection, the data on 27 cranial non-metric traits were collected in 213 adult individuals. The traits were visually scored as present, absent, or unobservable if skeletal material was missing or poorly preserved. After collection, data were statistically analyzed. Analysis of traits revealed that most traits were represented in the sample and that there is inconsistency in the sex dependence of the traits. The principal finding of this research was the identification of precondylar tubercle as a basis for further hypothesizing about kinship, as it appeared in a significantly higher frequency in the Middenbester sample compared to the reference sample. This finding was further used to form a hypothetical kinship group, which may further be used to explore kinship through the archival data. Moreover, this research adds to the previous research conducted on this topic in Middenbeemster and provides a fresh perspective.Show less
Sex estimations are an important step in the study of skeletons in osteoarcheology. Sex estimations are necessary for the estimations of age and stature of individuals. If sex, age, and stature are...Show moreSex estimations are an important step in the study of skeletons in osteoarcheology. Sex estimations are necessary for the estimations of age and stature of individuals. If sex, age, and stature are known comparisons with other individuals, contexts, or populations can be made. Sex estimations are also important for forensic archaeology because one of the first steps in identifying an individual in order to link this to a missing person is determining the sex. The Phenice method is a well-known morphological method used for estimating the sex of a skeleton by only looking at three traits of the pubic bone, namely the ventral arc, the subpubic concavity, and the medial aspect of the ischiopubic ramus. With just these three traits an accuracy of 96 % can be achieved (Phenice, 1969, p. 300). The Phenice method is a popular method to estimate the sex of skeletons in archaeology, including Dutch archaeology. But while this method is excessively tested on North American skeletal collections, there has been only one research on a Dutch skeletal collection. MacLaughlin and Bruce reviewed the Phenice method on a Dutch skeletal collection and only achieved an accuracy of 68 % (MacLaughlin & Bruce, 1989, p. 1387). Therefore, in this thesis research, the reliability of the Phenice method has been tested on a Dutch skeletal collection in order to determine if this method is reliable for a Dutch skeletal collection. The reliability of the Phenice method was tested by examining a sample of 105 skeletons of the Middenbeemster skeletal collection, an archaeological rural collection dating between 1829 and 1866 CE. The pubic bones of the skeletons have been examined for the three Phenice traits and sex estimations have been made for each individual trait. A final sex estimation for the skeleton has been made based on the sex estimations of the individual traits. Lastly, the final sex estimations got compared to the known sex of the skeletons. An overall accuracy of 88. 57 % was achieved for estimating the sex of the studied 105 individuals. Thus the Phenice method was found to be a reliable method to estimate the sex of adult skeletons of the Middenbeemster collection, and presumably other Dutch skeleton collections. Hereby is it important that the guidelines published by Phenice (1969) in his original paper are followed. However, there is a small bias towards male sex estimations, and the sex of young (<23 years) and old individuals (> 50 years) is also more likely to be estimated wrong. Nevertheless, the overall accuracy rate of the Phenice method is still high and it remains a reliable method for Dutch archaeology.Show less
The goal of this thesis research is to test if the prevalence of vertebral pathological conditions reflect hard labour/tough life in the Arnhem Eusebiuskerk population and a lowstatus, middle...Show moreThe goal of this thesis research is to test if the prevalence of vertebral pathological conditions reflect hard labour/tough life in the Arnhem Eusebiuskerk population and a lowstatus, middle-status and high-status population from London. The vertebral pathological conditions that have been compared are vertebral osteoarthritis, osteophytes, intervertebral disc disease, Schmorl’s nodes and fusion. First, the prevalence of the vertebral pathological conditions have been compared between the Arnhem population and the three London populations. After that, the prevalence has been compared between the males and females within each population followed by a comparison of the prevalence across the age categories. The latter has been done for each population as well. Lastly, the male and female sample of the populations have been compared separately between the Arnhem population and the three London populations. To summarise, there does seem to be a relationship between vertebral pathology and social status in the Arnhem and London populations. Most vertebral pathological conditions are namely more prevalent in the low-status Arnhem population than in the higher status London populations. The prevalence of the vertebral pathological conditions in the lowstatus St. Arnhem population is similar to that of the low-status St. Bride’s Lower Churchyard population. Based on this, it can be inferred that the vertebral pathological conditions are more common in the lower status populations than in the higher status populations of this thesis. This could have been the result of the kind of labour these status groups were involved in. Furthermore, there does seem to be a difference in the prevalence of the vertebral pathological conditions between males and females; in three out of four populations (all except the St. Benet Sherehog population) males may have had harder working conditions than the females. When the prevalence in the male and female sample of the population were compared between Arnhem and the three London populations separately, a trend can be seen that may indicate that at least the males of the Arnhem population had harder working conditions than those in the other populations. The results have also shown that there are some biases. The first bias is that the statistically significant differences in the vertebral pathological conditions are more influenced by the male sample than by the female sample in all populations with Schmorl’s nodes likely being influenced by biological variation to some extent. Furthermore, the development of many of the vertebral pathological conditions are, at least to some extent, influenced by age in all populations.Show less
Otitis media, commonly known as middle ear inflammation, demonstrated a high prevalence rate in history. This trend also persists today. This condition is influenced by a combination of...Show moreOtitis media, commonly known as middle ear inflammation, demonstrated a high prevalence rate in history. This trend also persists today. This condition is influenced by a combination of environmental and genetic factors, of which the most important for the context of this thesis are urbanization and air pollution, joined by overcrowding. Mastoiditis is closely associated with otitis media, as it often arises as a consequence of untreated otitis media. In the field of osteology, various diagnostic methods are used to identify otitis media, leading to a problem in comparison and verification of results obtained through different methods. So, what is the interrelationship of these methods? Do they produce similar results? The main aim of this thesis was to answer this question. To investigate the interrelationship of these diagnostic methods, a sample of 97 individuals from post-medieval Arnhem, the Netherlands, was analyzed. The methods selected for the analysis were chosen from diverse case-studies, with each method focusing on the analysis of a specific skeletal element. These elements included auditory ossicles, the temporal bone around the external auditory meatus, and the mastoid process. The method focusing on the mastoid process is utilized for diagnosing mastoiditis, rather than otitis media. In addition to the three primary methods, two other diagnostic approaches were included in the analysis. These methods involved the utilization of computed tomography (CT) scans to assess mastoid air cells pneumatization and endoscopic examination of the cochlear promontory. Dataset collected by Casna et al. (2023a) was used, as they were the ones utilizing these two methods. The findings of this study revealed relatively low concurrence rates among the three primary diagnostic methods, and even lower rates when all five methods were compared. The presence of such results called for an exploration of explanatory models that would aim to explain such low concurrence rates. Additionally, factors possibly influencing the results were also considered. This research underscores the need for developing a universal and standardized method for diagnosing otitis media. The lack of agreement among the diagnostic methods suggests not all of them are linked to the same underlying cause, therefore signifying the need for a better approach. While this research provided valuable insight into the interrelationship of some of the diagnostic methods, further research that would compare other methods that have not been compared here is necessary for better understanding of the complexity of situation surrounding otitis media diagnosis in osteoarchaeology.Show less
As individuals living in a society, our activities, diet, and health are influenced by our socioeconomic position in said society. This amongst others means that our socioeconomic standings play a...Show moreAs individuals living in a society, our activities, diet, and health are influenced by our socioeconomic position in said society. This amongst others means that our socioeconomic standings play a large part in our social and bodily experience, therefore also in the level and kind of labour we are involved in. Labour is often highly routinised, as certain actions and movements are performed day in day out. Therefore, labour is an important aspect of ones ‘lived experience’. Osteoarthritis, a condition causing the degeneration of synovial joints and surrounding soft tissue, is the most prevalent disease in past and current societies. It is also the most frequently used marker for establishing and examining activity patterns within archaeological populations. The aim of this study is to figure out how differences in socioeconomic status and strenuous labour are embodied in a post medieval Dutch city. In order to answer this, this study analyses the severity and prevalence of osteoarthritis in two skeletal population samples of different socioeconomic status from the same city, Eindhoven. The individuals of high status were buried inside of the St. Catharinakerk, while the low status individuals were buried in the cemetery outside of this church. The high status sample consists of 13 adult individuals and the low status sample consists of 52 adult individuals. In total 40 skeletal elements have been analysed per studied individual, 20 on the left side and 20 on the right side, by using the method proposed by Buikstra and Ubelaker (1994). Following this, the scores resulting from the study of the skeletal remains were statistically analysed using ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance). This allows to control the sample population for a covariant, in this research age-at-death was controlled for. The statistical analysis showed that the low socioeconomic status individuals were significantly more affected by osteoarthritis in the acromial end of the left clavicle and right humeral head, while the high socioeconomic status individuals were significantly more affected in the distal radii and both left and right scaphoid. The most likely explanation for this is that the low and high socioeconomic status populations engaged in different types of activities. The low socioeconomic status individuals would have likely been subjected to repetitive and strenuous activities involving the shoulder such as lifting, pulling, holding, and carrying heavy objects. Yet, while the high socioeconomic status individuals of Eindhoven probably did not engage in the same repetitive and strenuous activities as the low socioeconomic status individuals, the prevalence and severity of osteoarthritis in the wrist does indicate that they too did experience strain on joints. This would have most likely been caused by the amount of writing the high socioeconomic status individuals had to withstand. Hence, this study concludes that osteoarthritis and thus strenuous labour is embodied differently among the high and low socioeconomic status populations of post-medieval Eindhoven.Show less
The estimation of sex is very important in the analysis of skeletal remains in both archaeological and forensic contexts. It is generally the first step that is taken to establish the...Show moreThe estimation of sex is very important in the analysis of skeletal remains in both archaeological and forensic contexts. It is generally the first step that is taken to establish the osteoarchaeological biological profile as the other elements of the profile (e.g. stature and age-at-death) are sex specific. Morphological sex estimation methods require a visual assessment of various features of the pelvis and skull, however, in practice the pelvis and skull are not always assessable when the skeletal elements are in a fragmentary state or are completely absent from the context. Therefore, it is useful to create methods that can be applied to a wider variety of bones and can handle incomplete skeletal elements. Metric methods have shown high accuracy rates on bones like the radius, ulna, femur, calcaneus, and many more. Previous research has shown that the talus is also a sexually dimorphic bone that can be used for sex estimation, however, the discriminant function equations that are created in previous research are population specific. This study extends the line of research done on the talus by testing its sex estimation ability in a post-medieval Dutch population using the Middenbeemster collection. A total of nine measurements were obtained from 111 individuals of known sex (47 males and 64 females). These measurements are based on previous studies and are the talar length, talar width, talar height, trochlear length, trochlear breadth, head-neck length, head height, length of the posterior articular surface, and the breadth of the posterior articular surface. Descriptive statistics and discriminant function analysis was applied to the acquired data. Basic statistics showed the sex discriminating potential of the talus in this Dutch post-medieval population. Univariate analysis reached accuracies between 62.3% and 88.8% while multivariate analysis reached even higher accuracies of between 82.5% and 97.4%. To further investigate the need for population specific equations, the Dutch data has been entered into multiple functions obtained from three previously researched populations. The accuracies obtained here proofed to be less than the accuracies obtained when using their own data suggesting the need for population specific equations. In conclusion, this study has established that the talus of Dutch individuals is effective in sex estimation.Show less
Adult body size, including body mass and stature, is usually influenced by genetic factors and nutrient levels during an individual’s life, while the nutrient level of an individual can largely be...Show moreAdult body size, including body mass and stature, is usually influenced by genetic factors and nutrient levels during an individual’s life, while the nutrient level of an individual can largely be affected by external stresses, such as diet, environment, and disease. In societies with social status inequality, the stresses faced by high-status and low-status groups are usually different, which might result in intrapopulation differences in body size. Inequality between social statuses prevailed in Europe in the post-Medieval period. So, did social inequality result in body size variations between the high-status and low-status populations in the post-Medieval Netherlands? The main purpose of this research is to answer this question, through intrapopulation and inter-sexual comparison of body size of two post-Medieval urban skeletal collections with different social statuses from Arnhem and Zwolle, the Netherlands. The stature of samples has been estimated based on the Trotter (1970) equations of maximum femur length, and the body mass of samples has been estimated based on the Ruff et al. (2012) equations of femoral head diameter and the Ruff et al. (1991) equations of stature/bi-iliac breadth separately. Estimated data have been statistically analyzed. Results have shown no statistically significant differences in body size between the two samples, although slight differences can be observed through descriptive statistics and visualizations. For the inter-sexual comparison, significant sexual dimorphism in body size is presented. Therefore, this research suggests that the inequality in post-Medieval Dutch society did not result in observable population body size differences in the skeletal collections of different social status groups. It cannot, however, prove that social inequality in populations did not impact body size differences. Further and improved research is needed to solve the questions.Show less
Osteoarthritis is a multifactorial and one of the most common diseases to be found in human bones and has a long history of research in medical as well as in archaeological studies. A number of...Show moreOsteoarthritis is a multifactorial and one of the most common diseases to be found in human bones and has a long history of research in medical as well as in archaeological studies. A number of variables have been suggested as risk factors, some of which are nutrition, hormones, diseases, age, sex, bone density, and body size. In particular body size either tested as an entity or as stature, body mass and bone robusticity separately has been suggested to be associated with the prevalence of the disease in the joints. Since body size is considered a risk factor for osteoarthritis, it was decided to test its relation to the disease in a sample from a Nubian site called Tombos. The sample consisted of 32 complete burials and a number of 373 individually bones coming from a commingled context. Osteoarthritis was recorded out of 12 joint surfaces and was separated into three categories which represented the three different types of osteoarthritic changes (lipping, porosity, eburnation). The rates of osteoarthritis were particularly low and almost no severe manifestation of development was recorded. The most prominent osteoarthritic change to be found was the lipping. Correlations for testing the relationship between osteoarthritis and body size were conducted with the help of statistical tests from the SPSS program. For the tests only the joints of the lower limbs were selected as the aim was to test the weight bearing joints. Stress in these joints is related with body size and as hypothesized, with osteoarthritis, considering that mechanical stress towards a joint can lead to development of the disease. In contrast with our speculation, body size did not correlate with any osteoarthritic change and in any of the joints except for the acetabulum one. Significant correlation presented in the acetabulum only with lipping. Porosity displayed negative and insignificant correlations with body size in all of the joints. The same was recorded as well in the femurs from the commingled context. This outcome implies an association of small-size individuals with prevalence of porosity in the joints. However with such low significant values no certain statement can be given. The same holds true for the positive correlation showed with lipping. What is important to mention is that in this research it was observed that the different types of osteoarthritis correlate differently with each variable and thus indicate independence in their occurrence.Show less
