Early Bronze Age Populations Research Articles

Evaluating the biological discontinuity hypothesis of Cis-Baikal Early versus Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age populations using dental non-metric traits

The aim of this study is to assess dental non-metric trait frequencies of Middle Holocene hunter–gatherer populations from the western Lake Baikal region of Siberia, the Russian Federation, for evidence of population discontinuity. Mortuary practices, cranial morphology, and mitochondrial DNA data have led to the hypothesis of a discontinuity event between the Early Neolithic (EN; ∼7500–7025 cal BP) and Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age (LN–EBA; ∼5500–3700 cal BP) populations. Dental non-metric traits are highly heritable and can be used to infer biological affinity between populations. Mean measure of divergence results find that dental non-metric trait frequencies vary between archaeological periods in statistical terms, but the extent of difference is minor. In the LN–EBA sample, several, but not all, trait frequencies shift towards the range characteristic of populations with Western European genetic admixture. Gene flow from a population to the south of the Baikal region is the most likely explanation for this shift, although the role of genetic drift and the impact of small sample sizes cannot be discounted. Two cemeteries along the Angara River on either side of the discontinuity event have the most similar dental non-metric trait patterns. The similarity of traits between the EN site of Lokomotiv and the LN component of the site of Ust'-Ida I could suggest population continuity or genetic admixture between groups in this area. Dental non-metric trait data are shown to be an informative avenue for assessing past population events, revealing trends not detected by other data types, and directing research into our reconstruction of the history of these groups away from the shores of Lake Baikal to along the Angara River.

Holes in teeth – Dental caries in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age populations in Central Germany

This study provides diachronic insight into the epidemiology of carious defects in teeth of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age populations in Central Germany over a period of 4000 years. The data were retrieved from skeletal remains uncovered at 21 sites throughout the Middle Elbe-Saale region (MES), comprising a total of 494 individuals with preserved teeth. The data generated were examined for age- and sex-related differences in order to gain information about the dietary habits and socio-economic structures of the period with the goal of identifying potential diachronic changes. The results indicated that dietary habits changed over the course of the Neolithic period: the prevalence of caries significantly decreased between the Early and Late Neolithic. The adults from the Early Neolithic sample, particularly those from the LBK bore the highest rate of caries. This highlights the essential importance of cereals in the diet of the early farmers in the Middle Elbe-Saale region. As time went on, meat and dairy products became more and more important, which had a positive impact on dental health. The data also show sex-specific differences: women were more often affected by caries than men and female jaws also generally exhibited greater numbers of carious teeth than their male counterparts. Dental health is a reflection of both biological factors and of economic and sociocultural structures.

Brief Communication: An enigmatic enamel alteration on the anterior maxillary teeth in a prehistoric North Italian population.

In this paper we describe a hitherto undocumented modification of the dental enamel surface observed in an Early Bronze Age population from northern Italy. The defect, which can be described as a curvilinear groove, is located on the lingual surface of incisors and canines in the upper jaw. This groove, documented both in the permanent and deciduous dentition, is located at approximately 1 mm from the cervix and extends from the mesiolingual to the distolingual surface. The occurrence of the groove is not related to the sex of the affected individuals, but its degree of expression is related to age at death. Because of its morphology, the groove cannot be considered as a result of disruptions in the process of enamel deposition. At the present stage of research we suggest that the groove might have been the result of some kind of dental erosion caused by as yet unidentified chemical factors.

Geophysical–Geochemical Reconstruction of Ancient Population Size – the Early Bronze Age Settlement of Fidvár (Slovakia)

ABSTRACTPopulation estimates are a vital backdrop to our understanding of ancient societies' socio‐economic structures and development. In order to facilitate such an informational mise en scène in terms of the early Bronze Age settlement of Fidvár in southwestern Slovakia, a new geophysical–geochemical approach is presented here, the first results of which are very promising. The crux of the new methodology utilizes the population's chemical fingerprint in relation to total anthropogenic phosphorus input as a proxy for different population models. These methods suggest an early Bronze Age population of 300–600 individuals, in accordance with the comparative analysis of a magnetic survey, and also matches initial archaeological estimates. Further methodological adjustments suggest an even higher population of up to 1000 inhabitants. In light of these figures, it is likely that Fidvár was one of the centres of the early Bronze Age socio‐economic system of the northern Pannonian Basin. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Organized violence in Anatolia: A retrospective research on the injuries from the Neolithic to Early Bronze Age

The question of the presence of organized violence in the Neolithic settlements in Middle East has been debated. This paper presents possible examples of organized violence from the Neolithic period, representing early examples of settlements in Anatolia, to the Early Bronze Age, which provides the early instances of central authority. Most injuries detected among Neolithic populations in Anatolia have been associated with daily activities. Although individual examples of interpersonal violence exist among Neolithic and Chalcolithic populations in Anatolia, but they are far from representing organized violence. On the other hand the Early Bronze Age populations present clear evidence of perimortem wounds, mass burials, high frequency of cranial fractures, walls surrounding cities, and metal weapons in Anatolia. This suggests an increased evidence of organized violence in EBA Anatolia. Based on bioarchaeological data, it is concluded that violence in these settlements resulted from one or more ecological and social factors. However, each settlement might have peculiar reason for fighting.

Frequency and chronological distribution of linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age population from Żerniki Górne (Poland) – preliminary report

Linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) is treated as a nonspecific indicator of stress, but even so, many authors consider it the most reliable tool stress in anthropological research. Its analysis allows the reconstruction of health related to the socio-economic status of the group. This study documents and interprets patterns of LEH in Żerniki Górne (Poland), a settlement which was functional in the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age. We examined two successive cultures: the Corded Ware Culture (CWC; 3200–2300BC) and the Trzciniec Culture (TC; 1500–1300BC).
 In total, there were 1486 permanent teeth (124 adult individuals). The frequency of LEH in the examined cultures shows a small rising trend. In these series from Żernik Górne, males showed a higher occurrence of LEH (16.5%) than females (13.4%). The earliest LEH appeared at similar ages at about 2.0/2.2 years and the last LEH occurred at about 4.2 years of age in both cultures. However, it is worth noting that periods associated with physiological stress were more common but not very long (four months on average) in the CWC. Longer stress periods (nine months on average) were associated with the TC.

Palaeoethnobotanical Data from the High Mountainous Early Bronze Age Settlement of Tsaghkasar-1 (Mt. Aragats, Armenia)

Palaeoethnobotanical investigations suggest that at least part of the Early Bronze Age population of Tsaghkasar was settled and practiced agriculture in the high mountainous zone. People there appear to have cultivated hexa‐ and tetraploid wheats (probably bread wheat and emmer) and barley (possibly hulled). Bronze Age agriculture in the Southern Caucasus differs from earlier and later period when cultivation of pulses, oil‐producing plants, and other plants was common. This emphasis on the cultivation and use of certain cereal grains at Early Bronze sites such as Tsaghkasar can tentatively be added to a constellation of practices associated with the Kura‐Araxes culture in the South Caucasus.

Palaeoethnobotanical Data from the High Mountainous Early Bronze Age Settlement of Tsaghkasar-1 (Mt. Aragats, Armenia)

Palaeoethnobotanical investigations suggest that at least part of the Early Bronze Age population of Tsaghkasar was settled and practiced agriculture in the high mountainous zone. People there appear to have cultivated hexa‐ and tetraploid wheats (probably bread wheat and emmer) and barley (possibly hulled). Bronze Age agriculture in the Southern Caucasus differs from earlier and later period when cultivation of pulses, oil‐producing plants, and other plants was common. This emphasis on the cultivation and use of certain cereal grains at Early Bronze sites such as Tsaghkasar can tentatively be added to a constellation of practices associated with the Kura‐Araxes culture in the South Caucasus.

Craniofacial morphology in Austrian Early Bronze Age populations reflects sex-specific migration patterns.

The Early Bronze Age (2.300-1.500 BC) in lower Austria consists of three synchronous regional manifestations (Únetice, Unterwölbling, and Wieselburg cultures). The bearers of these cultures inhabited a relatively small geographic area and shared similar ecological conditions, but previous studies revealed population differences in skeletal morphology. We analyzed the cranial morphology of 171 individuals of these populations with a geometric morphometric approach in order to compare different migration scenarios. We find significant mean form differences between populations and between sexes. In a principal component analysis, the Wieselburg population, located southwest of the Danube, largely separates from the Únetice population north of the Danube, whereas the southwestern Unterwölbling group, which played a central role in trading bronze objects, overlaps with both. The Böheimkirchen group, inhabiting the southwestern Danubian area in the later phase of the Early Bronze Age, differs from the chronologically older Unterwölbling group. Geographic distance between six sites and position relative to the river Danube accounted for 64% of form distance variation; the effect of the river Danube was considerably larger than hat of geographic distance per se. As predicted for a patrilocal system in which females have a larger marriage domain than males, we found that female mean forms are more similar to each other than male mean forms. Geographic conditions explained more than twice as much variation in females as in males, suggesting that female migration was more affected by geographical constraints than male migration was.

Between‐group Differences in the Patterning of Musculo‐skeletal Stress Markers: Avoiding Confounding Factors by Focusing on Qualitative Aspects of Physical Activity

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a method for studying between‐group differences in physical activity patterns through the analysis of musculo‐skeletal stress markers (MSM). The specific aim was to develop a method that could overcome the problems related to confounding variables such as body size by shifting the analytical focus from the comparison of differences in intensity to the comparison of differences in kinds of activity. Instead of testing whether there are differences in the measures of central tendency of MSM scores between two groups, we proposed looking for differences in MSM covariation patterns. Formally, this is achieved through the statistical comparison of group‐specific MSM intercorrelation matrices. The null hypothesis is that the matrices are equal, and the statistical significance of the test statistic is obtained with a permutation test. In this way, the problem of confounding variables such as body size is mostly avoided because the procedure is based on the comparison of group‐specific sets of correlation coefficients which are scale‐free. The method was employed in a case study to investigate the differences in activity patterns between men and women from the Early Bronze Age population buried at the necropolis in Mokrin, Serbia. The null hypothesis of no difference between the male and female MSM correlation matrices was rejected (p = 0.0135). After the statistical significance of the difference was established, further investigation of male and female activity patterns was undertaken by means of principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation. PCA results suggest that covariation between MSMs is stronger in the male sample. Success in demonstrating differences in activity patterns between sexes implies that the proposed method can be used to test for differences in physical activity between groups of individuals defined by criteria other than sex. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The emergence of different social systems in Early Bronze Age Anatolia: urbanisation versus centralisation

AbstractThe second half of the third millennium BC has generally been accepted as the period in which urbanisation took place in Anatolia. Prominent sites of this period are described by scholars as ‘towns’, ‘town-like settlements’, ‘city-states’ and ‘proto-city-states’. The use of a variety of terms for the same type of site implies that there is no clear consensus on the conceptualisation of this transformational process. It is generally accepted that, from the Neolithic period onwards, Anatolia did not display a great degree of cultural homogeneity, both in terms of material culture and social systems. The topography of Anatolia is divided by deep river valleys and high mountain chains, and this may well have been a crucial factor in stimulating cultural regionalism. This article suggests that Early Bronze Age populations in Anatolia did not just experience the process of urbanisation, but also centralisation. Furthermore, it has been argued that certain areas of Anatolia at this time experienced neither urbanisation nor centralisation, but remained rural. This paper utilises archaeological evidence, such as settlement patterns, settlement layouts and types of material culture that have social implications, to explain these phenomena.

Resolving archaeological populations with Sr-isotope mixing models

Strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel is a useful provenancing technique to investigate the childhood origins and residential mobility of ancient people. However, where different geographical target regions have similar biosphere 87Sr/ 86Sr it is often difficult to resolve the 87Sr/ 86Sr ranges of two different groups of people and establish what constitutes the local range at each site. Here a multi-period study is presented from the Outer Hebrides, Scotland and an investigation of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age populations from the Yorkshire Wolds, NE England. The aim is to demonstrate that, despite complex human dietary strategies, simple mixing systems with only two end-members do occur in archaeological human populations in certain geological provinces and, despite overlapping 87Sr/ 86Sr ranges, it is possible to separate two populations based on the structure within the data set.

Sex Differences in Dental Caries Rates With the Origin of Agriculture in South Asia

L'auteur rapporte les resultats de recherches en pathologie dentaire effectuees sur des representants des populations prehistoriques du subcontinent indien, afin de determiner les variations de taux de caries, et de maladies dentaires en general selon que l'individu est de sexe feminin ou masculin, et d'identifier la nature de ces differences

Sexualdimorphismus der Zahnkronendurchmesser. Ein Beitrag zur Geschlechtsdiagnose subadulter Individuen anhand des früh-bronzezeitlichen Gräberfeldes von Franzhausen I, Niederösterreich

In this paper, the sexual differences between mesio-distal and bucco-lingual diameters of deciduous and permanent teeth of an Early Bronze Age population from Franzhausen are presented. Data from a total of 172 (85 male and 87 female) subadult individuals was collected. The presumptive sex determination needed for this investigation could be achieved because of specific burial rites that characterize the Unterwölbling culture south of the Danube. The averages of both the deciduous and permanent teeth show that female individuals possess altogether teeth of smaller dimensions. The differences are, for a few permanent teeth, statistically highly significant. Using these to calculate discriminant analyses based on differing variable sets, a correct sex assignment was achieved in 81% to 75% of all cases. For the purposes of sexual diagnosis, a function combining only three measurements (MD and BL diameters of upper canine and BL diameter of the first upper molar) was 80% successful.

Early Bronze Age Burial, Territory, and Population in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, and the Great Ouse Valley

SUMMARYThe excavation of four ploughed-out round barrows in Milton Keynes has produced evidence of relevance to barrow design, ceramic chronology, economy, settlement patterns and population in the second millennium B.C.The chronological usefulness of Longworth's Collared Urn Classification is considered and a long survival of All-Over-Cord Beaker tradition in southern Britain is suggested. Three of the sites produced a mixed flint assemblage ranging in date from Mesolithic to Bronze Age. A local pastoral economy, possibly associated with transhumance, is indicated at two sites. It is suggested that barrow distribution coincided with settlement distribution. An estimate is made of the proportion of the population who received barrow burial and a formula is derived for computing the size of local Bronze Age populations.