This study investigates the current state of archaeological research performed on the mummified human remains of the Nazca culture in Peru. At the time of writing, there is a lack in the archiving...Show moreThis study investigates the current state of archaeological research performed on the mummified human remains of the Nazca culture in Peru. At the time of writing, there is a lack in the archiving of archaeological research of the Nazca mummified remains as well as the datedness of the used research techniques. To improve the research on mummified human remains in the Nazca region, a bioarcheological comparison of research techniques is carried out between the Nazca region and the arid regions most similar to Nazca, in this case the regions of China and the Nile. A database was created with the research techniques utilized in the Nazca, China and Nile region. After comparing the different research techniques utilized in the different regions, the study concludes that eleven research techniques are not used in the Nazca region. Of these research techniques seven are suitable for future research on site. The findings of this study demonstrate that there is potential for the creation of a database for archiving reports of the mummified human remains and corresponding research techniques, as well as the utilization of newer and more modern research techniques. Both are expected to have a positive impact on the research of mummified human remains in Nazca. This research can be used as a guideline for future archaeological research on the Nazca human mummified remains.Show less
Research master thesis | Archaeology (research) (MA/MSc)
open access
The human hand is a complex structure that is heavily involved in many everyday activities. As such, it can serve as a useful area for activity reconstruction in the past. Though its function and...Show moreThe human hand is a complex structure that is heavily involved in many everyday activities. As such, it can serve as a useful area for activity reconstruction in the past. Though its function and evolution have long been studied, parts of it still need to be better understood. There is evidence to suggest that the fifth ray of the hand contributes significantly to grip strength and stability in a way that has so far gone largely ignored. The aim of this study is two-fold. First, it seeks to gain a better understanding of the function and use of the fifth digit in habitual activity on the basis of three postmedieval Dutch populations. Second, it investigates habitual activity and occupation among the individuals that belonged to these communities to gain a better understanding of the lives led by people in the post-medieval Netherlands. In order to achieve those goals, the study analyses activity patterns among hand entheses through the “Validated Entheses-based Reconstruction of Activity” (VERA) method. The method is applied to 3D scans of the hand bones of 43 adult individuals. Multivariate statistics, including principal component analysis, are used for the analysis of the entheseal attachment sizes. The analysis showed that the muscles of the fifth ray are recruited in both precision and power grips in different capacities. It suggests that the fifth ray is an important supporting structure that aids in the execution of power and precision grips through its opposing position to the thumb. It is also used to provide stability by pulling it towards the other fingers. The results of this study support the assumption that the fifth ray of the hand plays a crucial role in everyday manual activity. They also suggest that a deeper understanding of its role could provide additional insights into different kinds of grasping activities in the past. The analysis further showed that the three different groups exhibit different activity patterns. The lower-class urban individuals or Arnhem exhibit a trend towards more intense power grasping, while the higher-class urban individuals from Zwolle showed a tendency for precision grasping activity. This is consistent with historical records that suggest the Zwolle individuals had worked as merchants, investors, and in similar professions, while the working poor in the city of Arnhem were probably working in factories and in the local tobacco production. The individuals from the rural community of Middenbeemster fell somewhat surprisingly in the middle of the other two groups, with a sizeable number of individuals exhibiting precision gripping patterns. This suggests that, despite this community having mainly revolved around dairy farming, individual life experiences were likely quite varied. Future analyses of the fifth ray should expand on the groundwork laid in this study by increasing the sample size, looking into individuals from different contexts and time periods, and looking into potential connections between the fifth ray and the fourth ray, wrist, and forearm.Show less
The purpose of my thesis is to research how individuals from the lower class with severe and visible disabilities were cared for during the Early modern period in the Dutch city of Arnhem. To be...Show moreThe purpose of my thesis is to research how individuals from the lower class with severe and visible disabilities were cared for during the Early modern period in the Dutch city of Arnhem. To be able to say something about care for these individuals I use historic literature, which functions as a historical framework, and I apply a bioarchaeological method known as the Index of Care, in which pathology found on skeletal remains form an important source of information. I will use pathology found on three skeletal individuals, from Arnhem, to say something about the living conditions of these people and what their quality of life might have looked like considering their disability. Based on the historic literature I provide the reader with an image of what care might have looked like for these individuals. And I research what this says about Arnhem’s population of the time and what their perspective was on their disabled and sick community. Arnhem would have different facilities in which people could be provided with care. Guesthouses played a major role in the caring for the city’s poor, sick and disabled community. In these guesthouses people could stay for a certain period of time up until a lifetime, depending on the guesthouses’ regulations. The church offered food, prayers and housing (also through guesthouses) to those in need as well. Additionally there were physicians and apothecaries that took care of the medical aspects of care for those who could afford it. However we must not forget that most of the disabled and sick individuals were most likely cared for by their relatives. The three individuals I analysed, must all have been cared for, for a longer period of time, most likely till their death. Based on these results and the historic framework, it is known that the lower class of Arnhem that was harshly disabled or sick would have been able to receive care if they needed to, and that this was provided by parties from different angles of society such as the church, the individual’s own social circle and the local guesthouses. This means that the early modern Arnhem cared for their disabled and sick population and that these people were seen as individuals that are entitled to housing, food a normal live and (medical)-care.Show less
The mandible is one of the many structures of the human skeleton that can be characterized by large amounts of inter(between)-individual morphological variation. The primary aim of this thesis is...Show moreThe mandible is one of the many structures of the human skeleton that can be characterized by large amounts of inter(between)-individual morphological variation. The primary aim of this thesis is to provide the one of the first large-scale systematic investigations upon which the relationship between mandibular morphological variation and speech production capabilities and language change can be explored, a subject that has seen little previous research. In order to accurately capture the shape and size of the human mandible, three-dimensional geometric morphometrics are used on adults (18-49 years of age) from two Dutch archaeological sites: Alkmaar (AD 1484-1574, n= 37) and Middenbeemster (AD 1829-1866, n= 51). The results indicate that there is a large amount of overlap of shape variation between individuals and that the variation within the groups is quite large compared to the variation between groups. Overall, the mandibles belonging to individuals from Alkmaar are significantly larger while mandibles from Middenbeemster are smaller on average. The average male mandible from Alkmaar has a superiorly-posteriorly shifted anterior portion of the corpus. The male individuals from Middenbeemster show less antero-posterior curvature in the anterior part of the corpus and slightly more projecting chins. The females show no significant differences between the sites. Moreover, the sample from Middenbeemster shows sexual dimorphism which is dominated by differences in size. The differences are mainly located in the corpus and probably caused by dissimilarities in the mandibular symphysis in terms of robusticity. For the individuals from Alkmaar, there is no significant dimorphism in the shape captured by the landmarks presented here, except at the ramus, and specifically at the gonial angles. Therefore, the expression of sexual dimorphism shifts between these sites. These results are probably linked to the general softening of the diet that occurred between these time-periods due to processing improvements and different dietary components due to the Industrial Revolution, but more research on this subject is needed. This thesis contributes to our understanding of shape variation and sexual dimorphism in the mandible. It has shown that sexual dimorphism has changed over a small period of time in a geographical area in North Holland and represents the first time that three-dimensional geometric morphometrics have been applied to human skeletal remains in the Netherlands. It also provides one of the first steps upon which researchers can begin to investigate the potential role of mandibular morphology on variation in language and speech production. While unsuccessful in finding a direct correlation between language and mandibular morphology, this thesis demonstrates the complexity of this issue as it appears difficult to separate the effect of language from other, more prominent factors such as diet, mastication and tooth status. These factors need to be overcome before future research can tackle questions regarding language change and its relationship with mandibular morphology. Thus, this thesis will serve as one of the stepping stones that can be used to perform cutting-edge research on this complex but interesting subject.Show less
Since the 1950 and 60’s, when the link between porotic hyperostosis and ‘anemia’ was established both clinically and archaeologically, the term ‘anemia’ has become somewhat of a default diagnosis;...Show moreSince the 1950 and 60’s, when the link between porotic hyperostosis and ‘anemia’ was established both clinically and archaeologically, the term ‘anemia’ has become somewhat of a default diagnosis; an umbrella under which a multitude of aetiologically and pathophysiologically distinct hemoglobinopathic and red blood cell disorders are meant to reside. This is problematic since bioarchaeologists endeavor not only to diagnose disease, but to link them to the socio-cultural and environmental framework within which they are inherently and inseparably entrenched. A method for more accurately diagnosing, and possibly even differentiating between, ‘anemias’ is therefore a crucial step towards more accurately understanding the relationship between individuals, their bodies, and their world. The purpose of this thesis was to determine if, and how, the pathophysiology of homozygotic and heterozygotic sickle cell and/or thalassemia affects the assimilation, diffusion and/or metabolization of stable carbon (δ13C), oxygen (δ18O) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopes, using bone collagen and enamel apatite as indicators. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research represents the first extensive isotopic study of sickle cell and/or thalassemia in the archaeological record, as well as the first to amalgamate and critically assess the relevant biomedical research surrounding the pathophysiological fractionation of stable isotopes in ‘anemics’. Results, obtained from 45 individuals from el Plaza de Espana (8th-12th centuries A.D.) in Écija, Spain, suggests that bone collagen δ15N values are significantly different between Anemic and Control groups, however, breastfeeding could not be conclusively ruled out as the cause of the trophic level shift. No significant differences in bone collagen or enamel apatite δ13C values were noted between cohorts or tooth types, however, sample size is considered to be a contributing factor to the lack of significance. There were no significant differences in enamel apatite δ18O between tooth types, however, significant differences were noted between cohorts. Overall, while disease should be considered an underlying cause of local and systemic isotopic fractionation, more research is required prior to the adoption of stable isotope analysis as a palaeopathological diagnostic method.Show less
In the summer of 2011, archaeologists from Leiden University excavated the post-Medieval cemetery site of Middenbeemster, the Netherlands. The Middenbeemster skeletal collection provides unique...Show moreIn the summer of 2011, archaeologists from Leiden University excavated the post-Medieval cemetery site of Middenbeemster, the Netherlands. The Middenbeemster skeletal collection provides unique research possibilities due to the availability of detailed historical information on a portion of the excavated individuals. The discovery of a historical map of the cemetery allows for the identification of all individuals buried after 1829, providing age at death, sex, and socioeconomic status. This study applies biomechanical models to cross-sections of human limb bones in order to assess the variability in the habitual activities that were practised by the male and female inhabitants of the Beemster polder from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Cross-sections were obtained by Computed Tomography Scanning of lower and upper limb bones followed by digital sectioning. By combining historical data and the principles of bone functional adaptation, a reconstruction of life on one of the first polders is attempted. Results show that the presence of a sexual division of labour where the males were generally more mobile than females, and performed more strenuous manual activities. The males were very similar in limb bone strength and shape, but the female sample showed a high amount of variability. While a portion of the females were relatively gracile, other females showed very robust lower and upper limb bones indicating high mobility and strenuous manual labour. This indicates that economic roles were not the same for all females in the seventeenth to nineteenth century Beemster polder. The current study represents the first time that cross-sectional geometric analysis has been applied to a Dutch archaeological population. The results obtained from the current study are therefore a valuable contribution to the international fields of bioarchaeology and biological anthropology.Show less
