Abstract
Bioarchaeology is the study of human skeletons from archaeological contexts. When viewed in temporal, spatial, social, cultural, and environmental contexts, human skeletal remains provide a fund of information about the lives, lifeways, and living conditions of human ancestors. Bioarchaeologists study human remains in order to develop an understanding of behavior and behavioral inferences about conditions of life, including from individuals and from populations of individuals from cemeteries, regions, continents, and the world. These inferences are documented from an array of biomarkers employed to assess, in various ways, health and general well-being; injuries sustained from accidents, interpersonal violence, and warfare; activity, workload, and mobility; masticatory and nonmasticatory functions of the teeth and jaws; diet and nutrition; and biological relatedness and social identity. The age-at-death of individuals comprising assemblages of skeletons and the growth, stasis, or decline of population size give meaning for understanding long-term sustainability of communities and regions.
References
- Blom, D. E. 2005. “Embodying Borders: Human Body Modification and Diversity in Tiwanaku Society.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24: 1–24.
- Bocquet-Appel, J.-P. 2011. “When the World's Population Took Off: The Springboard of the Neolithic Demographic Transition.” Science 333: 560–61.
- Buikstra, J. E. 1977. “ Biocultural Dimensions of Archeological Study: A Regional Perspective.” In Biocultural Adaptation in Prehistoric America, edited by R. L. Blakely, 64–74. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
-
Chenal, F., B. Perrin, H. Barrand-Emam, and B. Boulestin. 2015. “A Farewell to Arms: A Deposit of Human Limbs and Bodies at Bergheim, France, c. 4000 BC.” Antiquity
89: 1313–30.
10.15184/aqy.2015.180 Google Scholar
- Currey, A. 2016. “Slaughter at the Bridge.” Science 351: 1384–89.
- Erdal, Y. S. 2007. “Occlusal Grooves in Anterior Dentition among Kovuklukaya Inhabitants (Sinop, Northern Anatolia, 10th century AD).” International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 18: 152–66.
- Hofmanová, Z., S. Kreutzer, G. Hellenthal, C. Sell, Y. Diekmann, D. Diez-del-Molino, L. van Dorp, et al. 2016. “Early Farmers from across Europe Directly Descended from Neolithic Aegeans.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 113: 6886–91.
- Holmes, M. A., and C. B. Ruff. 2011. “Dietary Effects on Development of the Human Mandibular Corpus.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 145: 615–28.
- Irish, J. D. 2016. “ Additional Insight into Post-Pleistocene Nubian Population History.” In Science and the Study of Ancient Egypt, edited by J. Rowland and A. Shortland, 74–84. Oxford, UK: Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
- Jantz, R. L., and M. K. Spradley. 2014. “ Cranial Morphometric Evidence for Early Holocene Relationships and Population Structure.” In Kennewick Man: The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton, edited by D. W. Owsley and R. L. Jantz, 472–91. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.
- C. Knüsel, and M. J. Smith, eds. 2014. The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict. London: Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
- Lambert, P. M. 2014. “ Violent Injury and Death in a Prehistoric Farming Community of Southwestern Colorado: The Osteological Evidence from Sleeping Ute Mountain.” In The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Human Conflict, edited by C. Knüsel and M. J. Smith, 308–32. London: Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
- Larsen, C. S. 1995. “Biological Changes in Human Populations with Agriculture.” Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 185–213.
-
Larsen, C. S.
2015. Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
10.1017/CBO9781139020398 Google Scholar
- Marler, R. A., B. L. Leonard, B. R. Billman, P. M. Lambert, and J. E. Marler. 2000. “Biochemical Evidence of Cannibalism at a Prehistoric Puebloan Site in Southwestern Colorado.” Nature 407: 74–78.
-
Peretz, J., A. Pekosz, A. P. Lane, and S. L. Klein. 2016. “Estrogenic Compounds Reduce Influenza A Virus Replication in Primary Nasal Epithelial Cells Derived from Female, but Not Male, Donors.” American Journal of Physiology Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology
310: L415–25.
10.1152/ajplung.00398.2015 Google Scholar
- Pilloud, M. A., and C. L. Larsen. 2011 “‘Official’ and ‘Practical’ Kin: Inferring Social and Community Structure from Dental Phenotypes at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 145: 519–30.
- Rasmussen, M., M. Sikora, A. Albrechtsen, T. S. Korneliussen, J. V. Moreno-Mayer, G. D. Poznik, C. P. E. Zolliker, et al. 2015. “The Ancestry and Affiliations of Kennewick Man.” Nature 523: 455–58.
- Rose, J. C., M. K. Marks, and L. L. Tieszen. 1991. “ Bioarchaeology and Subsistence in the Central and Lower Portions of the Mississippi Valley.” In What Mean These Bones? Studies in Southeastern Bioarchaeology, edited by M. L. Powell, P. S. Bridges, and A. M. W. Mires, 7–21. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
- Sattenspiel, L., and H. Harpending. 1983. “Stable Populations and Skeletal Age.” American Antiquity 48: 489–98.
- Schoeninger, M. J., and M. J. DeNiro. 1984. “Nitrogen and Carbon Isotopic Composition of Bone Collagen from Marine and Terrestrial Animals.” Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 48: 625–39.
- Shaw, C. N., and J. T. Stock. 2009. “Intensity, Repetitiveness, and Directionality of Habitual Adolescent Mobility Patterns Influence the Tibial Diaphysis Morphology of Athletes.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 140: 149–59.
- Smith, B. H. 1984. “Patterns of Molar Wear in Hunter-Gatherers and Agriculturalists.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 63: 39–56.
-
A. L. W. Stodder, and A. M. Palkovich, eds. 2012. The Bioarchaeology of Individuals. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
10.5744/florida/9780813038070.001.0001 Google Scholar
- Turner, C. G. II. 1987. “Late Pleistocene and Holocene Population History of East Asia Based on Dental Variation.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 73: 305–21.
- Turner, C. G. II, and L. M. C. Machado. 1983. “A New Dental Wear Pattern and Evidence for High Carbohydrate Consumption in a Brazilian Archaic Skeletal Population.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 61: 125–30.
- Vogel, J. C., and N. J. van der Merwe. 1977. “Isotopic Evidence for Early Maize Cultivation in New York State.” American Antiquity 42: 238–42.
- Warriner, C., C. Speller, and M. J. Collins. 2015. “A New Era in Palaeomicrobiology: Prospects for Ancient Dental Calculus as a Long-Term Record of Human Oral Microbiome.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 370: 20130376.
-
White, T. D.
1992. Prehistoric Cannibalism at Mancos 5MTUMR-2346. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
10.1515/9781400852925 Google Scholar
- Wilczak, C., R. Watkins, C. C. Null, and M. L. Blakey. 2009. “ Skeletal Indicators of Work: Musculoskeletal, Arthritic, and Traumatic Effects.” In The Skeletal Biology of the New York African Burial Ground Part I, edited by M. L. Blakey, and L. M. Rankin-Hill, 198–226. Washington, DC: Howard University Press.
- Wolff, J. 1892. The Law of Bone Remodelling. Berlin: Springer.
Further Reading
-
S. C. Agarwal, and B. Glencross, eds. 2011. Social Bioarchaeology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
10.1002/9781444390537 Google Scholar
- J. E. Buikstra, and L. A. Beck, eds. 2006. Bioarchaeology: The Contextual Analysis of Human Remains. San Diego: Academic Press.
- M. N. Cohen, and G. J. Armelagos, eds. 2013. Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, revised ed. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
- Hillson, S. 2014. Tooth Development in Human Evolution and Bioarchaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Katzenberg, M. A., and S. R. Saunders. 2008. Biological Anthropology of the Human Skeleton, 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
-
D. L. Martin, R. P. Harrod, and V. R. Perez, eds. 2013. Bioarchaeology: An Integrated Approach to Working with Human Remains. New York: Springer.
10.1007/978-1-4614-6378-8 Google Scholar
- Ortner, D. J. 2003. Identification of Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains, 2nd ed. San Diego: Academic Press.
- Roberts, C. A., and J. E. Buikstra. 2003. The Bioarchaeology of Tuberculosis: A Global View on a Reemerging Disease. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
The International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology
Browse other articles of this reference work:
