In the 1980s, archaeological studies near the village of Valkenburg, South-Holland, unearthed the skeletal remains of individuals buried at the Valkenburg-Marktveld cemetery during the Roman period...Show moreIn the 1980s, archaeological studies near the village of Valkenburg, South-Holland, unearthed the skeletal remains of individuals buried at the Valkenburg-Marktveld cemetery during the Roman period. Part of multiple Roman fortifications along the Limes dating from 40 A.D. onwards, the cemetery was likely used as a burial ground for inhabitants of the Valkenburg fort or nearby vicus, a civilian settlement. The cemetery comprised at least 250 cremated individuals as well as 47 inhumations, which is a striking find that contradicts the common Roman practice of cremation. Due to these inhumated skeletal remains, the site provides an unique opportunity to employ osteoarchaeological analysis to reconstruct the lives of individuals that lived in the Roman Frontier region. This thesis utilizes cross-sectional geometry and bilateral asymmetry analysis to infer activity patterns among individuals at the Valkenburg-Marktveld cemetery, as current research on the differences in bone geometry between different demographic groups within Roman communities in the Lower Rhine area is limited. The study further investigates the factors and potential activity patterns that might influence those variations, such as biological age and sex. To do so, it builds on the initial osteoarchaeological study conducted by Lonnée and Maat (1998), who reported the estimated sex and age-at-death of each individual. Following this, each relevant bone in the upper and lower limbs was measured on various points to generate the indices for each point of measurement, as well as calculate the percentage directional asymmetry (DA%) and absolute asymmetry (AA%). The resulting values were then compared statistically between the biological sexes and age-at-death categories. While statistical significance is limited, the interpretation of data highlights the potential of these analyses in inferring activity patterns. Results from the analysis indicate that males tend to display more robust and symmetric upper and lower limbs than females, which are likely attributable to biological factors or a wider range of activities in males. Age-at-death categories exhibited inconsistencies with patterns described in other study, which is possibly due to natural variation or the limited preservation and availability of the skeletal material. Despite the limited number of individuals that could be examined, this thesis contributes valuable insights into the application of cross-sectional geometry and bilateral asymmetry analysis in osteoarchaeological studies, complementing historical data and broadening our understanding of activities in Roman frontier regions.Show less
Research master thesis | Archaeology (research) (MA/MSc)
under embargo until 2025-11-01
2025-11-01T00:00:00Z
During the early modern period (1500-1800 CE), Europe was plagued by syphilis, a venereal infection caused by the bacteria Treponema pallidum, resulting in chronic and debilitating symptoms....Show moreDuring the early modern period (1500-1800 CE), Europe was plagued by syphilis, a venereal infection caused by the bacteria Treponema pallidum, resulting in chronic and debilitating symptoms. Desperate to resolve the infection, patients were often subjected to prolonged and extensive treatments with toxic mercury. Unfortunately, osteoarchaeological study of syphilis is challenging due to the limited skeletal visibility of the infection. Moreover, historical evidence is sparse and often influenced by sociocultural stigma attributed to the venereal nature of the disease. This scarcity of data on syphilis in the early modern period has limited more holistic research into the disease and its treatment. Therefore, this study adopted a multidisciplinary approach to investigate syphilis and its treatment at St. Gertrude’s infirmary (1382 - ca. 1611) in Kampen, the Netherlands, where presence of the disease has been previously reported. Human skeletal remains (n=79) were re-examined with a focus on treponemal disease, following the scoring system laid out by Harper et al. (2011). The potential therapeutical use of mercury was investigated by conducting archival research and multiple trace elemental analyses. Using portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (pXRF) and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), subsamples of the skeletal assemblage were assessed on the presence of mercury in human bone. Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive X-Ray (SEM-EDX) was conducted to assess the potential uptake of mercury in dental calculus on the teeth. Osteoarchaeological study identified several diagnostic cases of treponemal infection at the site (n=5 or 6.33%), as well as a number of cases with lesions suggestive of treponemal disease. This finding demonstrates the influence of treponemal disease, likely attributable to venereal syphilis, at St. Gertrude’s infirmary in Kampen, especially when compared to the prevalence of the disease in human skeletal assemblages from similar Dutch sites. Research into historical archives indicated that mercury was indeed used therapeutically in Kampen during the 18th century. However, it showed no direct evidence for syphilis or mercury treatment at St. Gertrude’s infirmary in the period of interest (1382 – ca. 1611). Unfortunately, elemental analyses revealed no substantial evidence for significantly elevated mercury concentrations, although interesting trends were found. In particular, both pXRF and SEM-EDX analyses did not result in absolute and quantifiable mercury concentrations. While ICP-MS analysis showed absolute concentrations of mercury in a subsample of bone material, interpreting and contextualising these results remains challenging. These observations may be explained by a lack of available mercury treatment in Kampen or a preference for other treatment methods. Nonetheless, this study helps to understand syphilis and its treatment in the early modern Netherlands and provides an evaluation of chemical analyses to detect mercury in archaeological bone.Show less
The focus of this study is to assess sexual dimorphism of non-metric and metric characteristics of the mandible of a Dutch post Medieval rural population from the Middenbeemster polder in the...Show moreThe focus of this study is to assess sexual dimorphism of non-metric and metric characteristics of the mandible of a Dutch post Medieval rural population from the Middenbeemster polder in the province of Noord Holland in the Netherlands. The mandible is not seen as a reliable feature for sex estimation in research on Dutch Medieval populations based on non-metric traits. Studies on populations around the world show that the mandible is a reliable tool for estimating sex, provided that metric measurements of the mandible are used. This study focuses on the re-evaluation of the mandible as a reliable tool for sex estimation by studying both non-metric and metric sexual dimorphism of the mandible in a Dutch population. The development of a technique that reliably estimates mandibular sex in Dutch medieval populations would be a great contribution to the field of bioarchaeology. Sex estimation is paramount for the reconstruction of demographic structures of past societies. In this thesis sexual dimorphism based on both non-metric and metric is assessed. 90 samples from the Middenbeemster with known sex are used for measurement and observations. This sample consists of 40 females and 50 males. The non-metric scores are compared to known sex to assess reliability. The metric measurements are analysed using binary logistic regression and tree modelling to assess if the specific measurements are reliable in estimating sex of an unknown individual. The overall accuracy of the non-metric sex estimation is very low and therefore not reliable for further use. The metric measurements have a higher reliability rate, especially the bigonial breadth and the mean of the maximum ramus height. With the use of these two measurements a cross validated classification accuracy of 80.2 percent can be achieved. In conclusion, after re-evaluating the mandible it appears that the mandible can be used with high accuracy in sex estimation in the Dutch population of Middenbeemster and maybe in other North Western European populations from the post Medieval time period, which has to be assessed by future research.Show less
Sex estimation of non-adult skeletal remains has long been regarded as a problematic or even an unattainable objective within physical anthropology and forensic science. Few extant methods have...Show moreSex estimation of non-adult skeletal remains has long been regarded as a problematic or even an unattainable objective within physical anthropology and forensic science. Few extant methods have been able to match the accuracy rates of methods designed for adult remains and those that have failed to achieve similarly acceptable rates when tested on a population other than the one on which the method was originally developed. Due to this, children are habitually excluded from archaeological investigations since a major component of their biological profiles is considered inaccessible. A definitive and reliable technique to estimate sex in non-adult osteological remains would contribute greatly to the field of osteoarchaeology, allowing for the refinement of osteological age estimation and growth studies as well as more perceptive interpretations of the social, economic, or environmental implications of osteological evidence. In this thesis, a population-specific statistical approach to non-adult sex estimation based on the crown and cervical dimensions of the permanent canines and maxillary first molars was tested on the documented post-medieval skeletal collection of Middenbeemster, the Netherlands. The odontometrics of the adult component of the population (n = 76) were used to develop 14 binomial logistic regression formulae, which were subsequently applied to the non-adult individuals of the same population (n = 15). Though the two formulae based on the maxillary first molar odontometrics performed little better than chance, all 12 of the formulae based on the permanent canines achieved accuracy rates above 75%, with eight surpassing 85% and five achieving 100% accuracy. It was demonstrated that as little as one dimension of the permanent maxillary or mandibular canine can be used to estimate sex with an acceptable level of confidence. Due to the necessity of a permanent canine, this method is only applicable to individuals aged five years and above at the time of death, including adult individuals whose state of preservation does not allow for morphometric sex estimation or whose morphological sex estimate was indeterminate. By allowing reliable sex estimation in non-adult skeletal remains, this method makes it possible to gain insights into the past lives of non-adult individuals, who all too often seem invisible in archaeological and historical narratives.Show less
Thesis on the link between caries and diet when studying the Roman populations of the Western and Southern cemeteries in London with the use of the MOLA database.
This study will answer the question: can we discover social differentiation in cemeteries using joint diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) after correlating social status with burial positioning?...Show moreThis study will answer the question: can we discover social differentiation in cemeteries using joint diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA) after correlating social status with burial positioning? In order to successfully carry out this research, the relationship between status and burial positioning had to be confirmed. Individuals of different statuses often differ in their burial treatment. To discover if joint diseases could be used as a proxy for finding social differentiation, OA is linked to status. Lower classes could have had more mechanical stress in their joints because of hard physical labour, resulting in a higher OA prevalence within this group. This theory could now be tested on a cemetery, for which St Peter’s Church Cemetery in Barton-upon-Humber is used. A big cemetery with almost a thousand years of occupation, from 950 AD to 1855 AD, which makes it a perfect case study for a study like this. Five different cemetery phases (grouped A to E) are analysed individually. This study looked at sex and age distribution, and correlated this to burial positioning. Two main methods are used. First the burials inside the church are compared with burials outside the church. Secondly, different fields outside the church are compared to each other. The comparisons are also statistically tested and furthermore each grave is marked on a burial plan. This resulted in excellent overviews of the OA prevalence in the cemetery. Some patterning is discovered, suggesting that the burial locations of different social classes are not distributed at random. In using these methods, the main question of the thesis could be answered. Osteoarthritis can be used to discover social differentiation on St Peter’s Church Cemetery. Therefore, the theory of using joint diseases to discover social differentiation in cemeteries after correlating social status with burial positioning, turned out to be reliable. However, it must be used in combination with other disciplines and resources to strengthen its reliability.Show less
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that left a large mark on the history of the Netherlands. Archaeological remains may help us to reconstruct the distribution of TB both spatially as well as...Show moreTuberculosis is an infectious disease that left a large mark on the history of the Netherlands. Archaeological remains may help us to reconstruct the distribution of TB both spatially as well as demographically, and may provide information on the (changing) social conditions of the Netherlands. Therefore I have posed the following research question: is it possible to create a database on TB cases in the Netherlands, and, what can this database then tell us about TB in the Netherlands and Europe? The TB database was based on physical anthropological records as well as excavation reports. In order to contextualize the data, a comparison with Great Britain was included. A database of all archaeological sites with skeletal remains was also provided in order to study the distribution of skeletal remains in the archaeological record as a whole. The TB database shows 12 individuals out of 11 sites. This amount is low considering that tuberculosis was one of the main causes of death for centuries, and especially compared to Great Britain. Several social factors play a role in the spread of TB, including migration, animals, heating, nutrition and living conditions. When compared to Great Britain, urbanization and industrialization, both strongly linked to the rise of TB, are slow in their progress. Migration does not seem to have played a large role, nor do other social conditions. Nutrition may have been an important factor. For the Netherlands, a large problem seems to lie in the preservation, excavation and documentation of skeletal remains and pathologies. Often, not much attention is paid to pathologies. TB is often only differentially diagnosed on the occurrence of Pott’s disease, ignoring other lesions such as new bone formation on the ribs that may be consistent with TB. More thorough examination of skeletal remains, in combination with biomolecular studies, will ensure a more representative view of TB in the Netherlands.Show less
After years of research the etiology of Harris lines (abbreviated as HLs) is still a matter of much discussion. Multiple scholars agree on HLs being an indicator of psychological stress (González...Show moreAfter years of research the etiology of Harris lines (abbreviated as HLs) is still a matter of much discussion. Multiple scholars agree on HLs being an indicator of psychological stress (González-Reimers et al. 2007; Macchiarelli et al. 1994; White 2005). However, recent research that could not directly associate HLs with other stress indicators, such as linear enamel hypoplasia and hypothyroidism, suggested that HLs are not good indicators of periods of nutritional stress or disease (Papageorgopoulou 2011). Thus, there is still a lot of discussion concerning the etiology of HLs (Alfonso-Durruty 2011; Ameen et al. 2005; Hughes et al. 1996; Nowak and Pointek 2002; Ribot and Roberts 1996). The focus of this thesis is the occurrence of HLs in the distal tibiae of skeletons from the Early Medieval cemetery of the Paardenmarkt (i.e. horse market) in the Dutch city of Alkmaar. HLs are compared to another stress marker namely, linear enamel hypoplasia (abbreviated as LEH). This stress marker forms in the teeth, and comparison is made in order to assess their concordance with HLs. These markers are compared, with the assumption that the late Medieval population of Alkmaar was affected by physiological stress experiences, such as malnutrition and illness during a time of marked social, political and economic change. The results show that there are some links to be found between LEHs and HLs, mainly the younger individuals show more stress events. In addition, the age-at-line formation times show an overlap, five individuals have stress events in there dentition and bones during at the same time. A possible explanation of HLs in the Alkmaar population is malaria; the high number of cribra orbitalia in the Paardenmarkt collection in combination with this high number of stress events could be caused by this parasitic disease. But, due to the small dataset(55 tibia belonging to 33 individuals) it is difficult to make strong statistical statements.Show less
