Bioanthropology

Background. Dental traits are amongst human variations influenced much by genetic endowment. Premolar rotation has been found in several populationss around the world, however, it was thought to be one of  the unique features found in LB1 and LB6 Flores dentition. Methods. Frequencies of premolar rotations were observed in a sample of 233 individuals from Surabaya, a big city in West Indonesia, comprising 75 males and 158 females age 9 to 43 years, whose parents born in various locations in Indonesia.  Results. All individuals had rotated at least one premolar tooth. Frequency of rotated individual premolars varied from 88 % (upper left second premolar) to 94% (lower left first premolar). Conclusion. It can be concluded that premolar rotation is very common among Indonesian sample in Surabaya

What is Dental Anthropology? Dental anthropology is the study of teeth in extinct and extant primates, including human.
Nowadays dental anthropologists are not only anthropologists, but also anatomists, zoologists, dentists, radiologists, biochemists, geneticists, paleontologists, archaeologists, and forensic scientists.
Teeth either in children and adults have patterns that reflect the diseases and changes during their life so that they will be distinct for every individual. Teeth are not easily modified by the environment as do bones , because teeth are controlled by genetic make up.
Teeth have structures that are preserved so that they can be studied even a long time after the development during childhood.
Because teeth are used for mastication, they are useful for paleoanthropologists and archaeologists to study adaptation to hard food. Fortunately, because teeth are the hardest part of the body, most remains contain teeth so that they give useful informations regarding the life of the individual.
Teeth can be studied by taking dental casts, examination of extracted teeth, or by observing directly.
The morphology of the teeth is what interest anthropologists the most.

Objective: In this study, we analyze breastfeeding and weaning practices in pre-Columbian complex hunter-gatherers from the lower Paraná River basin (South America). Materials and Methods: We carried out bone isotope analyses concerning δ 13 C in

XIII CONGRESO ASOCIACIÓN LATINOAMERICANA DE ANTROPOLOGÍA BIOLÓGICA 15-18 DE OCTUBRE 2014

La presente investigación está inmersa dentro del campo de estudio de la antropometría del rostro humano, específicamente en la medición de tejidos faciales blandos. Se plantea como proyecto piloto que se encamine hacia la realización de tablas estandarizadas de espesores faciales de población chilena, que ayuden a la aproximación cráneo-facial escultórica con fines forenses, arqueológicos y museográficos. El objetivo general es verificar la existencia o no, de relación entre Índice de masa corporal (IMC) y los tejidos faciales blandos. Para ello se evaluó una muestra de sujetos femeninos y masculinos, con un rango etario entre los 18 y 28 años. La medición de los tejidos faciales blandos se realizó a través de la técnica ultrasonográfica con un ecógrafo de ultrasonido. Específicamente se evaluaron 23 puntos cefalométricos: 10 de la línea media y 11 puntos cefalométricos de la línea lateral del rostro. Para determinar el IMC se midió talla y peso de cada uno de los individuos de la muestra, los cuales fueron relacionados con la edad de cada sujeto.
Posteriormente se vio la relación, a través de las estadísticas, entre IMC y cada uno de los puntos cefalométricos evaluados por sujeto.

Resumen En este trabajo se analiza el somatotipo de tres grupos universitarios de artes marciales y el proceso formativo de sus practicantes. Tras realizar una contextualización de la bioantropología del deporte, de la cineantropometría y del somatotipo, se muestran los resultados de una prueba piloto. Esta fue hecha sobre un grupo de control, justificando la estandarización internacional de la técnica por la ISAK. El somatotipo promedio fue Endomesomorfo para Capoeira (3,8 ± 1,4 – 4,9 ± 1,0 – 1,4 ± 1,1), Judo (4,1 ± 1,5 – 5,9 ± 1,1 – 0,9 ± 0,5) y MMA (3,2 ± 1,2 – 4,7 ± 1,1 – 1,7 ± 0,7) y estos fueron comparados con referencias internacionales. Sobre su proceso formativo, los integrantes de los tres grupos afirmaron sentirse mejor tanto física como psicológicamente y reportaron los beneficios y dificultades en la práctica de su arte marcial. Palabras clave: bioantropología, deporte, cineantropometría, somatotipo, artes marciales. Abstract This research analyzes the somatotype of three martial-arts groups of a university and the formative process of their practitioners. After talking about the context of bioanthropology of sport, kinanthropometry and somatotype, the results of a pilot test are presented. This one was performed on a control group, justifying the ISAK international standardization of the technique. The mean somatotype was Endomesomorph for Capoeira (3,8 ± 1,4 – 4,9 ± 1,0 – 1,4 ± 1,1), Judo (4,1 ± 1,5 – 5,9 ± 1,1 – 0,9 ± 0,5) and MMA (3,2 ± 1,2 – 4,7 ± 1,1 – 1,7 ± 0,7) and these ones were later compared with international references. About their formative process, the members of the three groups stated to feel physically and psychologically better and reported the benefits and difficulties of their martial art practice. Keywords: bioanthropology, sport, kinanthropometry, somatotype, martial arts.

Reassessment of the studies about the São Gens 1
dolmen (Nisa) and the human remains collected in site,
focusing particularly on the bones presently found in the
Geological Museum of Lisbon. These include two fragments
of an adult and the incomplete skeleton of a non-adult
individual from High Middle Ages, dead between
the ages of 12 and 15.
The funerary deposition recalls several cases of reuse
at later moments unrelated with the Megalithic era,
but where the mythical past represented by the dolmen
cannot be forgotten.

The analysis of burned bone stumbles on the problems raised by the heatinduced changes that seriously interfere with the methods adopted by biological anthropologists. These changes especially affect the structure of bone leading to fragmentation, dimensional modification, warping and fracturing. As a result, quantitative analysis based on measurements and weighing are usually overlooked due to uncertainties regarding their ability to correctly process burned skeletal remains. Although some pioneering research on this issue has been carried out in the Past, this remained sporadic and with little application from  bioanthropologists. In addition, a significant part of that research was either developed on rather small samples of human bones or on samples of faunal bones. Also, some other investigation was carried out by extrapolating from the results obtained on unburned skeletons, which is an inadequate indirect approach. The present research tackled these problems by analysing present-day cremations on a modern crematorium in order to investigate three distinct issues. The first one regarded the relevance of heat-induced warping and thumbnail fracturing for the determination of the pre-cremation condition of the human remains. Secondly, the implication of heat-related dimensional change on sexual dimorphism and consequent sex determination from calcined bones was addressed. Finally, the value of postcremation skeletal weights for bioarchaeological interpretation of funerary contexts was also investigated. This was done by examining human skeletons both prior and after cremation on two different cremation samples: one composed of recently dead cadavers
submitted to cremation; and another one composed of dry skeletons recently exhumed.
The research demonstrated that, although heat-induced warping and thumbnail fracturing is much more typical of cremations on fleshed cadavers, these features are also present on the burned remains of defleshed skeletons. Therefore, the occurrence of these features is probably related to the preservation of collagen-apatite bonds which play an important role on the mechanical strength of bone. As for sexual dimorphism, the results revealed that it is not significantly affected by heat and that such differences between females and males can be useful to classify unknown individuals according to sex based on the univariate metric analysis of calcined bones. Therefore, sex determination of this kind of material needs not to rely exclusively on the examination of morphological traits which requires a multivariate approach. At last, logistic regression coefficients that are able to estimate the expected proportion of the specific skeletal regions present on funerary assemblages were developed. This was carried out in order to assist on the interpretation of the course of action adopted during the recovery of the skeletal remains from the pyre and their consequent deposition in the grave. Such method was proven to be more dependable than previous ones based on weight references from unburned skeletons. This research demonstrated that, although heat-induced bone changes can indeed be very extensive, their analytical potential is not completely wiped out. Nonetheless, such analysis needs to be based on references that are specific to burned bone to allow for reliable insights. As a result, additional research is needed to better equip bioanthropologists with new analytical techniques more suitable for the investigation of burned human skeletal remains.

Laura Lockau, Stephanie Atkinson, Simon Mays, Tracy Prowse, Michele George, Alessandra Sperduti, Luca Bondioli, Carolan Wood, Marissa Ledger, Megan B. Brickley

Taking the innovative step of considering individuals of all age groups and disease states via aspects of a life course perspective, this study aims to shed light on biocultural factors contributing to vitamin D deficiency in the Roman period assemblage from Isola Sacra, Italy (1st-3rd century AD) comprising 678 individuals (307 non-adults, 371 adults). Active and healed deficiency were identified in nonadults (< 20 years) and adults (20 years and older) using standard paleopathological criteria based on macroscopic, radiographic, and histological evidence. The overall prevalence of skeletal evidence for vitamin D deficiency was 7.5% in nonadults (23/307 individuals) and 5.7% in adults (21/371 individuals); the age distribution of lesions indicates the importance of deficiency in infancy and adolescence, but not in older adulthood. Biocultural factors, including dense occupation , multi-storey buildings, and Roman childcare practices, probably influenced the development of vitamin D deficiency. Patterning of lesions suggests important biological and social links between infants and young children and their adult caretakers, highlights adolescence as a period of social transition and rapid growth that may affect susceptibility to deficiency, and reveals resilience in older adulthood that may relate to differential resource access in this group.

On August 15 1566, the Abbey Our Lady of The Dunes (Koksijde, Belgium) was sacked by the iconoclasts. Within a quarter of a century the abbey buildings, abandoned by the monks, were demolished. Dismantling and selling the construction materials, the impoverished community tried to reinstall itself at the Ten Bogaerde farm at Koksijde (around 1600). In 1627 the monks moved the abbey to Bruges.While at Ten Bogaerde, the monks searched for the lead coffin of Idesbald, third abbot of the Cistercian abbey. Deceased in 1167 and reburied likely (1237) in the chapter house, Idesbald was excavated in 1623. Opening the coffin in Ten Bogaerde, the monks found an uncorrupted body, which was considered as a miracle. Since that moment the devotion for Idesbald started to spread. At the abbey in Bruges the coffin was kept in a shrine. The last monk of the abbey gave the precious relic in 1831 to the sisters of Our Lady of the Pottery. In 1894 the devotion of Idesbald became official when he was beatified by the pope. A thorough analysis of the relic of the Blessed Idesbald had to provide a main reference for the research into the large collection of human skeletons, excavated on the abbey site at Koksijde from the 1950s onwards. The Museum of the Abbey of the Dunes at Koksijde started and coordinated an interdisciplinary investigation including a.o. radiocarbon dating (Mark Van Strydonck), an osteological study (Caroline Polet and Jennifer Gonissen), a study of the lead coffin (Patrick Storme), a DNA analysis (Ronny Decorte and Maarten Larmuseau) and an analysis of the textiles present in the shrine (Fanny Van Cleven). The results pointed out that the individual in the coffin is far too young to be identified as Idesbald. One of the questions now is: who’s in the coffin? The presentation will focus on the scientific methods and results

Human activities are recognized as potential threats to the survival of swamp forests and their resources in the rural environment of the GrandLahou Sub-Prefecture. This study proposes to question the relations between the riverside communities and these environments, in a perspective of valorization, use and sustainable management of these environments, as well as their resources. As part of a socioecological approach and based on a qualitative analysis, the information was collected through documentary research, direct observation and semi-structured group and individual interviews with administrative, customary and rural households. Near the swamp forests of the sub-prefecture of Grand-Lahou for a staff of one hundred and forty-three people (146). With systemic and phenomenological analysis tools, the processing and interpretation of the collected data were subjected to statistical data analysis and qualitative content analysis. Thus, the study made it possible to understand that the swamp forests of the subprefecture of Grand-Lahou are an element of the landscape characteristic of the natural, socio-economic and cultural inheritance of this sub-prefecture. They participate through their natural resources in the livelihoods of neighboring communities. For example, according to the data collected, 58.3% of the respondents use them as agricultural areas(perennial crops, food crops (rice, corn,) and vegetables). And for more than 80% of them, they constitute reserves of organic raw materials (lumber and construction, hunting, fishing, pharmacopoeia, fuel, etc.). However, among the accepted human activities of these environments, some, such assustainable agriculture, capitalist logging, hunting, gold panning and agricultural pollution with pesticides, constitute threats that lead to the disappearance or the degradation of these environments at the local level.

The Corded Ware is one of the major archaeological traditions of Late Neolithic Europe. Its burial customs are characterized by single graves but multiple burials also occur. We present a detailed study of antemortem and perimortem trauma in a group of Corded Ware skeletons from four multiple graves and give the most probable interpretation of the site, based upon all available bioarchaeological evidence. The pattern of observed injuries in male, female, and subadult skeletons, including cranial trauma, arrow wounds, and fractures of the forearm and hands points towards a violent event that resulted in the death of all individuals, most probably a raid. In contrast to comparable Neolithic raid sites, there was no complete extermination of the local population and no use of mass graves. The burials have been arranged with care and detailed knowledge about biological kinship ties [Haak, W., Brandt, G., de Jong, H.N., Meyer, C., Ganslmeier, R., Heyd, V., Hawkesworth, C., Pike, A.W.G., Meller, H., Alt, K.W., 2008. Ancient DNA, strontium isotopes, and osteological analyses shed light on social and kinship organization of the Later Stone Age. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105, 18226–18231]. The combination of clear causes of death and the proven biological relationships among some of the individuals, including a nuclear family, provides new and important insights into Corded Ware mortuary customs and the reasons why and how multiple graves have been utilised.

In Deutschland wurden im späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert Sammlungen menschlicher Überreste außereuropäischer Herkunft angelegt, die auch heute noch Teil der Bestände von Museen, Universitäten und anderen wissenschaftlichen Einrichtungen sind. Einige solcher Einrichtungen haben bereits menschliche Überreste an Herkunftsgesellschaften repatriiert oder Projekte zur Provenienzklärung gefördert. Rückgabeforderungen werden von indigenen Gesellschaften, von Ursprungsstaaten, aber auch von Privatpersonen gestellt. Rückgabeforderungen von Vertretern der Herero und Nama an die Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin wurden im Rahmen des DFG-geförderten Charité Human Remains Project (CHRP) exemplarisch bearbeitet und führten im September 2011 zur Rückgabe von 20 Schädeln an Namibia. Die turbulenten Ereignisse der offiziellen Rückgabe und die bis heute nachwirkenden Folgen wurden in zahlreichen wissenschaftlichen Artikeln reflektiert, kontextualisiert oder als Vergleichsreferenzen für ähnliche Fälle herangezogen. Es wurden bis dato allerdings immer nur einzelne Aspekte beleuchtet und eine synthetisierende Darstellung ist bisher ausgeblieben. Wenn jedoch andere Einrichtungen, insbesondere solche deren Bestände menschliche Überreste von Angehörigen der Herero und Nama beinhalten, von den Erfahrungen des CHRP profitieren sollen, ist der schnelle Zugriff auf eine umfassendere Darstellung wünschenswert. Herero und Nama werden die Erfahrungen die sie 2011 in Deutschland gesammelt haben auch in zukünftigen Rückgabeprozessen erinnern. Umso wichtiger ist es, dass an solchen Prozessen beteiligte Wissenschaftler, Politiker und andere Akteure sich schnell und umfassend informieren können.

The Anglo-Saxon cemetery of Black Gate, Newcastle upon Tyne has revealed 660 burials. Osteological analysis investigates the sex, age-at-death, metric and non-metric traits of the adult skeleton ‘Sk191’ and immature skeleton ‘Sk490’. Critical comparisons of the primary methods and osteological standards are conducted to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of each method used. The data collected for Sk191 and Sk490 forms a small part of a bigger investigation at Black Gate. As such the information should be viewed as a larger picture to understand the historic population.
Osteological analyses of skeletal remains provide an objective view into the lives of individuals and historic communities from a unique vantage point that material culture studies do not allow. Historic trajectories of nutritional health, sexual divisions of labour, socioeconomic status and population migrations are among those questions that can be investigated.

The sites of Teviec and Hoedic, located in Brittany and excavated from 1928 to 1934 by Marthe and Saint-Just Péquart, have yielded twenty-odd graves dating to the end of the Mesolithic and containing almost forty individuals. Nearly a century later, they remain the most important funerary groups ever discovered in France for this period, and two major French Mesolithic sites. Until these days though, despite previous re-examinations of part of the unearthed material, no general review of the field data or of the human remains had ever been carried out, and all the debates concerning the functioning of both cemeteries relied on the interpretations once made by the Péquart and on the anthropological studies by Marcellin Boule and Henri Victor Vallois. This book presents the long lacking bioarchaeological review study of the Teviec and Hoedic graves: the field data have been reconsidered, relying in particular on a large series of pictures taken by the excavators, and the number of dead individuals, their age and sex have been reevaluated using anthropological techniques in accordance with our current knowledge. This review also gives us the occasion to carry out a global reflection on the circumstances under which the dead were grouped during the Mesolithic period and on the society of Atlantic Europe’s last hunters-gatherers as perceived through the filter of their funerary practices.


Fouillés entre 1928 et 1934 par Marthe et Saint-Just Péquart, Téviec et Hoedic, en Bretagne, ont livré une vingtaine de tombes datant de la fin du Mésolithique et contenant près de quarante individus. Presque un siècle plus tard, ils demeurent les ensembles funéraires les plus importants de cette période découverts en France, et parmi les sites majeurs du Mésolithique français. Mais jusque-là, si une partie des matériels mis au jour avaient été réexaminés, ni les données de terrain ni les restes humains n’avaient fait l’objet d’une révision générale, et toutes les discussions sur le fonctionnement des deux cimetières s’appuyaient sur les anciennes interprétations des Péquart et sur les études anthropologiques de Marcellin Boule et Henri Victor Vallois. Cet ouvrage présente le travail de révision bioarchéologique des sépultures de Téviec et Hoedic qui faisait jusqu’à présent défaut : les données de terrain y sont reconsidérées, en s’appuyant en particulier sur une importante série de photographies prises par les fouilleurs, et le nombre de morts, leur âge et leur sexe y sont réévalués en utilisant des techniques anthropologiques conformes au savoir actuel. Cette révision est également l’occasion d’une réflexion générale sur les regroupements des morts au Mésolithique, ainsi que sur la société des derniers chasseurs-cueilleurs d’Europe atlantique telle qu’elle est perçue à travers le filtre de leurs pratiques funéraires.

Pendidikan bagi anak usia dini merupakan pemberian upaya untuk menstimulasi, membimbing, mengasuh dan melaksanakan pembelajaran yang akan menghasilkan kemampuan dan keterampilan pada anak. Untuk mendukung hal tersebut, anak dapat dikenalkan pada Botani untuk mempelajari dunia tumbuhan. Sebagai media pengenalan Botani, tumbuhan memiliki kelebihan sebab tumbuhan mudah dijumpai lingkungan disekitar, memiliki bagian-bagian morfologi berbeda yang mudah diamati langsung oleh anak, memiliki jenis dan varietas serta fungsi yang beragam sehingga dapat merangsang rasa ingin tahu anak. Berbagai bentuk aktivitas yang dapat dilakukan untuk mengenalkan Botani pada anak yaitu mengamati langsung tumbuhan di habitatnya, mengenalkan bagian-bagian tumbuhan, praktik menanam dan mengamati pertumbuhannya, pembuatan terrarium dan berkebun. Kegiatan-kegiatan ini tentunya diperkenalkan dalam konsep sederhana yang mudah dimengerti anak, dan dilakukan secara menyenangkan. Anak yang diberi kesempatan untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungannya akan membuat anak terus mendapatkan dan mengembangkan pengetahuan mereka

The Neolithisation in the Near-East is a key period in the history of humanity: at this time, big changes appears in subsistance economy, provided by agriculture and animal husbandry. Other changes in lifestyle are generated by sedentarization and, at last, by the invention of pottery as container.
The disruptions known by neolithic’s populations are found both in health status and in the funerary practices. We studied the sepultures and the human remains from seven syrian archaeological sites distributed over the entire period of Neolithisation. The funerary practices become more complex, although the primary individual sepultures, with the corpse deposit in flexed position on one side have long been the standard. From the PPNA, some sepultures are directly associated with particular buildings, until specific burial areas appear in the end of the PPNB. 
The bioanthropological study focused on infectious diseases on bones and teeth and on stress indicators, with a selection of the most relevant. Thus tuberculosis, periostitis, caries, dental abcesses, ante-mortem tooth loss, periodontal disease, dental hypoplasia, Cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis were systematically searched on the skeletons. We first made a study of health status changes sites by sites, then we gathered the individuals by period in order to underscore the impact of the Neolithisation processes in a diachronic study. 
The advent of the agriculture seems to have entailed an increase of dental pathologies and stress indicators on the early PPNB, and a peak of stress registered in the middle PPNB could be related to the introduction of animal husbandry, creating dietary deficiency and new infectious diseases. Most of the markers indicates a deterioration of health status during the last studied period, the Pottery Neolithic. This work highlighted that changes in health status were far from linear; fluctuations happened beetween the period, depending on the indicators, with the most important in the PPNB. Furthermore, the severity of the pathologies evolved in a non linear way throughout the Neolithisation.

Bioarchaeology has relied on Darwinian perspectives and biocultural models to communicate information about the lives of past peoples. This book demonstrates how further theoretical expansion—a thoughtful engagement with critical social theorizing—can contribute insightful and more ethical outcomes. To do so, it focuses on social theoretical concepts of pertinence to bioarchaeological studies: habitus, the normal, intersectionality, necropolitics, and bioethos. These concepts can deepen study of plasticity, disease, gender, violence, and race and ethnicity, as well as advance the field’s decolonization efforts.

This book also works to overcome the challenges presented by dense social theorizing, which has paid little attention to real bodies. It historicizes, explains, and adapts concepts, as well as discusses archaeological, historic, and contemporary case studies from around the world.

Theorizing Bioarchaeology is intended for individuals who may have initially dismissed social theorizing as postmodern but now acknowledge this characterization as oversimplified. It is for readers who foster curiosity about bioarchaeology’s contradictions and common sense. The ideas contained in these pages may also be of use to students who know that it is naive at best and myopic at worst to presume data derived from bodies speak for themselves.

Reconstruction of past human activities allows us to understand historic trajectories of the changes in sexual division of labour (Hagaman 2009), socioeconomic stratification (Palmer 2012), occupational differences (Milella et al. 2012) and habitual activities such as combatant weapon usage (Rhodes, Knüsel 2005). Musculoskeletal markers (MSMs) have become the dominant method of recording physical activities in archaeological research, having been described as the Holy Grail of bioarchaeology (Jurmain et al. 2012)
This paper defines the use of MSMs, before addressing their limitations and benefits. Modern clinical cases demonstrate a relationship between physical performance, biomechanical stress and the development of MSMs (Niinimaki 2011). Afterwards, the Lieverse et al. 2009 case study is examined to determine whether MSMs can successfully reflect past activities of a Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer society, before concluding with final remarks on the use of Musculoskeletal Stress Markers (MSMs) in future research.

Français : Cette recherche porte sur l’analyse bioanthropologique et l’étude des rituels funéraires laténiens en Valais central. Plus précisément, elle traite des ensembles funéraires de Randogne – Bluche (fouillé entre 2001 et 2005) et de Sion – Parking des Remparts (fouillé en 2006). Le premier objectif a consisté à attribuer une identité et des caractéristiques biologiques aux individus inhumés au sein de ces deux ensembles. Ensuite, il s’est agi de caractériser ces deux ensembles funéraires par leur insertion au cadre géographique et archéologique, de s’intéresser à leur organisation chronologique et spatiale et à l’architecture des sépultures, ainsi qu’aux positions d’inhumation, de même qu’au mobilier funéraire présent. Nous avons développé une vision comparative de ces deux ensembles funéraires, avant de les confronter à l’intégralité du corpus funéraire laténien actuellement connu pour le Valais central. Ainsi, outre un simple agrandissement de ce dernier, cette étude permet de consolider certaines connaissances déjà acquises sur les sépultures laténiennes du Valais central. En essence, il en ressort que celles-ci se démarquent par rapport aux découvertes contemporaines en Europe périalpine par la richesse de leur mobilier et par des pratiques funéraires particulières et normalisées, qui reflètent un régionalisme palpable tout en attestant de liens avec les régions voisines (notamment le Sud et le Nord des Alpes).

English: This research presents a bioanthropological analysis and an investigation of Second Iron Age (also known as the La Tène period: 470–25 BC) funerary practices in central Valais. More precisely, it deals with the study of two necropolises lately discovered in this mountainous region of southern Switzerland: Randogne–Bluche (excavated between 2001 and 2005) and Sion–Parking des Remparts (excavated in 2006). The matter of Second Iron Age funeral practices has been investigated since the late 19th century in Switzerland and has ever since yielded many exceptional finds. In archaeological terms, the research presented in this work introduces a consistent summary of the current archaeological and historiographical state of knowledge regarding Second Iron Age funeral practices in southern Switzerland.

Se è vero che il profilo di mortalità di una popolazione è la migliore misura
del suo successo adattativo, la sua ricostruzione nelle popolazioni del passato
attraverso i resti odontoscheletrici è quanto mai complessa, articolata e spesso
impraticabile.
La comunità dei morti infatti non rispecchia nella sua composizione quella
dei vivi poiché gli accumuli di mortalità che vi osserviamo sono frutto di fenomeni
che non riusciamo il più delle volte a quantificare: fenomeni quali la
mortalità selettiva, la non stazionarietà demografica, la diversa suscettibilità
individuale, parametri che non sono facilmente stimabili in una popolazione
scheletrica (e per altro, spesso, neanche in una vivente).
Il quadro interpretativo in cui cerchiamo di ricostruire modi e tempi della vita
e della morte di comunità del passato è sempre quindi fortemente influenzato
e distorto: una damnatio disciplinare della paleoantropologia che già venti
anni fa fu chiaramente identificata da Wood e collaboratori nel loro citatissimo
(ma non sempre considerato) articolo The Osteological Paradox: problems of
inferring prehistoric health from skeletal sample1.
Anche se questo dato di fatto è stato spesso ignorato nelle ricerche paleoantropologiche
o più sottilmente il lavoro di Wood è stato citato come a dire “lo so,
ma che posso farci?”, altri ricercatori hanno cercato di mantenere alta la validità
delle proprie inferenze sulla popolazioni del passato con nuovi approcci disciplinari
e metodologici.
La morte nella sua natura binaria non racconta bene la complessa articolazione
degli adattamenti bioculturali e tende, come abbiamo visto, a oscurarli. Inoltre
se i tessuti mineralizzati sono utili al paleoantropologo in quanto si preservano,
l’osso è un pessimo registratore di eventi e patologie, in quanto sottoposto a
un costante e lento processo di rimodellamento. Differente lo smalto dei denti
che invece mostra una sensibilità di registrazione quanto mai alta anche se del
tutto non lineare.
Però, se queste sono le caratteristiche ineluttabili dei nostri reperti, è pur vero
che in essi è comunque registrata una porzione della vita biologica individuale
che, con fatica, tecnologia e pazienza può essere letta.
La ricostruzione della storia biologica individuale a partire dai resti odontoscheletrici
rappresenta dunque un approccio tra i più promettenti in paleoantropologia.
L’uomo, al pari di tutti gli organismi viventi, attraversa diversi
stadi della vita e le differenze nella scansione temporale e nella covariazione
di questi stadi, sono utili a spiegare difformità tra le specie e entro e tra le popolazioni.