Category: Bioarcheology

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Thousand years after Castillo: Chinese immigrants in Huarmey

One of the most unexpected and surprising discoveries at Castillo de Huarmey site were the burials dated to the very beginning of the 20th century. They were found within palacio, which is the architectural establishment located at the foot of the hill on which the mausoleum is situated, from which the Castillo de Huarmey is best known. The whole area of this archaeological site functioned as a burial site at least since the Early Horizon (see: Tysiąc lat przed Castillo: Atypowe pochówki z Huarmey ENG!) through the Middle Horizon (these burials were associated with the presence of the Wari Empire in the area), to the Late Horizon. However, discovery of the much younger burials indicate that Castillo functioned as the funeral zone in the minds of even 20th-century residents of the Huarmey Valley. Certainly the hill and overlooking mausoleum, were strongly distinguished in the local landscape (before the great earthquake of 1970 probably it might dominate evenmore so than today), was considered as huaca, which means a “sacred place.” Similar to the platforms of the Moche Valley, or those in the area of modern Lima (e.g. Huaca Pucllana located in Miraflores district).

 

DISCLAIMER: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS PHOTOS OF HUMAN REMAINS

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“Fire walk with me”. Cremation burial practices in Tierra Caliente, Michoacán

Cremation is one of the most common types of burial rites practiced by various communities around the world. Nevertheless, the first associations that spring to mind for these practices, during which the remains of the deceased were consumed by fire, would lead us in the direction of the Vikings or the inhabitants of much of Northern Europe during the Late Bronze Age or Iron Age. In this case, however, a doctoral student at the University of Warsaw and editor of Archeowieści will tell the story of a particular area of western Mexico where, more than six centuries ago, cremation was the main funeral rite for at least a part of the Indigenous community. Burials associated with the local community of this region were recently discovered in the Middle Balsas River valley, which constitutes the border between the states of Michoacán and Guerrero. Traces of these funerary practices are the subject of a remarkably important study conducted by the author in collaboration with researchers from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia Michoacán and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, under the direction of Dr. José Luis Punzo Díaz.

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Llamas in the jungle? Or what do we know about the camelid presence on the eastern slopes of the Andes

Llamas (Lama glama) and alpacas (Vicugna pacos) are the only large, domesticated, and endemic mammals in the Peruvian Andes. They had immense significance for all pre-Columbian Andean cultures by providing essential resources such as meat, wool for textile production, bones for tool and ornament manufacturing, and dung used as fuel and fertilizer. Llamas and alpacas held an important place in pre-Columbian iconography. Their images were depicted on pottery, textiles, and on rocks in the form of petroglyphs and carvings. More robust llamas also served as pack animals and traversed the Andes in trade caravans.

Unfortunately for zooarchaeologists (scientists studying the relationships between humans and animals in the past), all South American camelid species are genetically related, which complicates their species identification if based solely on animal bones recovered during archaeological fieldwork. For this reason, in Andean zooarchaeology, they are conventionally referred to as “camelids.”

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Workshop on Bioarchaeology in Mesopotamia

From February 29 to March 2, 2024 an online, free workshop on “Bioarchaeology in Mesopotamia” will showcase state-of-the-art bioarchaeological research in Mesopotamia.

“Bioarchaeology” is a broad umbrella term for research on biological remains recovered from archaeological contexts. Bioarchaeologists provide information on human health, diet, workload, mobility, and more. They reconstruct past ecologies and reveal ancient changes in climate. They illuminate economies and social structures, revealing how foods were produced, homes were furnished, and cities were cleaned (or not). They contribute information vital to understanding why people in the past settled where they did, and why they abandoned settlements.

Workshop on Bioarchaeology in Mesopotamia/ورشة العمل حول البيوأثرولوجيا في بلاد ما بين النهرين

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Tales as old as time: Teeth reveal migrant neighborhoods in ancient Mesopotamia

The earliest large cities emerged in northern Mesopotamia during the Late Chalcolithic (c. 4200 – 2900 BCE). It was a time of transformation from local village-based social structures to big cities with hierarchical societies, more sophisticated division of labour and development of central authorities towards early states. The process of urbanization is well indicated by the rapid increase in settlement size, which at Tell Brak reached more than 120 hectares in mid-4th millennium BCE. It was however not clear whether this process was due to local population growth or migration and absorption of people from different areas. A recent bioarchaeological study published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology offered a new line of evidence, suggesting that the Late Chalcolithic urban growth was supported by migration. Much like today, people migrated into the city and settled in neighborhoods based around their shared migratory origins. These neighborhoods remained distinct communities that did not begin to integrate for multiple generations.

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Archaeology of the invisible: how proteins and carbon isotopes help to reconstruct the human past

Dr. Helen Fewlass is an archaeological scientist in the Ancient Genomics Lab at the Francis Crick Institute in London, UK. As an EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Crick, she studies proteins in ancient bones and fossils to tell how old they are and to investigate the process of human evolution. She is now collaborating with the researchers of the Faculty of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw in many scientific projects which involve radiocarbon dates and their interpretation. Archeowieści reached out to her for a little interview about her job and the connection of her field of expertise with the archaeological world. Continue reading “Archaeology of the invisible: how proteins and carbon isotopes help to reconstruct the human past”

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Bioarchaeology of the Near East: volume 16 is now available online

The most recent volume of Bioarchaeology of the Near East contains three regular papers. Grigoria Ioannou and Kirsi O. Lorenz present a systematic review of the history and current state of research on bioarchaeology in Cyprus. Yossi Nagar and colleagues discuss the discovery of a disarticulated male skeleton found in a cave in the Judean desert and dated to the Early Chalcolithic. Finally, Stephen Haines and colleagues present two cases of concha bullosa, a relatively rare non-metric trait occurring in the nasal conchae and identified in two females from 20th-century Cyprus.

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Polish computer application in archaeology

From April 2nd to April 6th, 2023, the 50th International Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology was held in Amsterdam. Polish archaeology was represented by a strong interdisciplinary group, which prepared two sessions and presented 10 presentations and 2 posters.

Photogrammetric model of a barrow during excavation with markings showing the location of various monuments
by J. Stępnik

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New study sheds light on the ancient pastoralists of Iran

When bioarchaeologists excavate human remains, they are sometimes faced with burials that can be somewhat complicated. A ‘perfect’ burial for bioarchaeological analyses would contain a complete set of bones that are well preserved. Some archaeological sites, however, are of such great significance that we even work with poorly preserved and incomplete burials, using unconventional methods that allow us to overcome these preservation limitations. This was proven by our research team whilst studying the Bronze Age cemetery of Deh Dumen, located in the Zagros Mountains in Iran. 

Wszystkie kości udowe w badanym materiale były mocno uszkodzone, większość miało zachowane trzony, ale brakujące nasady (patrz: szary obszar na szkicu kości udowej). Przebadaliśmy przekroje poprzeczne trzonów kości udowej, aby ustalić ich rozmiary i kształt, a także obejrzeć mikrostruktury kostne w obrębie wydzielonych obszarów przekrojów. © J. Miszkiewicz, na licencji CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
All of the femora in our sample were fragmented, with most having their shafts preserved but missing their ends (see greyed area of the femur sketch). We were able to examine midshaft cross-sections of these femoral segments for size and shape, and then look at bone microstructure within further specified smaller regions of the femur cross-section.  © J. Miszkiewicz, under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

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The mummy with a pickled fetus: another example of wishful thinking

In the spring of last year, the media around the world circulated sensational information about the discovery of a fetus in a female mummy held at the National Museum in Warsaw. The authors of this discovery, from the Warsaw Mummy Project team, found that the woman died in the 26th–30th gestational week, i.e. at the beginning of the third trimester, and the fetus was not pulled out during embalming – contrary to the treatment of the viscera of the female, which were removed through an incision in the lower part of the abdomen. They also observed that the mummified fetus had broken bones (not shown on the published radiograph) and was found in two parts, which was interpreted as the result of the postmortem fracture of the female pelvis.

Typical ancient Egyptian mummification process drawing by SimplisticReps, published on licence CC BY-ND 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Typical ancient Egyptian mummification process;
drawing by SimplisticReps, published on licence CC BY-ND 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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