Relevant bibliographies by topics / Human remains (Archaeology) Human skeleton Paleopathology

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Academic literature on the topic 'Human remains (Archaeology) Human skeleton Paleopathology'

Author: Grafiati
Published: 4 June 2021
Last updated: 2 February 2022

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Journal articles on the topic "Human remains (Archaeology) Human skeleton Paleopathology"

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Villotte, S., A. R. Ogden, and E. Trinkaus. "Dental Abnormalities and Oral Pathology of the Pataud 1 Upper Paleolithic Human." Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris 30, no. 3-4 (2018): 153–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.3166/bmsap-2018-0020.

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We have re-evaluated the dental abnormalities and oral pathology evident on the Mid-Upper Paleolithic Pataud 1 skeleton, including additional remains recently excavated for this individual, in an effort to expand current knowledge of Pleistocene human paleopathology, in light of current clinical and paleopathological assessments of oral variation and diseases. The young adult female Pataud 1 presents an impacted right M3, widespread periodontitis, large retromolar voids, double right maxillary supernumerary (paramolar) teeth, and new bone deposition on the medial mandibular rami and posterior maxillae. The Pataud 1 remains thus join a substantial sample of Pleistocene humans with congenital/developmental abnormalities, some of which (as in Pataud 1) consequently resulted in secondary abnormalities. M3impaction and supernumerary teeth are known in a couple of other Mid-Upper Paleolithic individuals, and mild to moderate periodontal disease appears to have been widespread. However, such marked resorption of the alveolar margin in a young adult is unusual, and the secondary inflammation (possibly septicemia) leading to new bone deposition is otherwise unknown in the sample and may have led to her death.
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O'Connor, Sonia, Howell G. M. Edwards, and Esam M. A. Ali. "The preservation of archaeological brain remains in a human skeleton." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 374, no. 2082 (2016): 20160208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2016.0208.

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The identification of biomass within the cranial cavity of a waterlogged human skeleton inside a fish-tailed wooden coffin from a nineteenth century burial has been confirmed as brain tissue. A comparison is made between the Raman spectra obtained in the current study with those from an Iron Age brain found in an isolated cranium dating from about 500 years BCE, the only other Raman spectroscopy study made of human brain recovered from waterlogged, archaeological excavations. The spectra give some surprisingly detailed information about the state of preservation of brain tissue in both burials, especially when it is realized that, unlike preserved bog bodies, no other soft tissue has survived. The biosignatures of proteinaceous brain material are well characterized. The presence of spectral signatures from extraneous cyanobacterial colonization in the depositional site of the Iron Age brain had been construed to be responsible in part for the unusual preservation of brain tissues in the waterlogged environment, but they were not detected in the current study of the nineteenth century brain. The challenges for Raman spectroscopic analysis of biomaterials under these conditions are reviewed in the light of the successful outcome of the experiments. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Raman spectroscopy in art and archaeology’.
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Villotte, S. "Unexpected Discovery of More Elements from the Prehistoric Immature Skeleton from Baousso da Torre (Bausu da Ture) (Liguria, Italy). Inventory, Age-at-Death Estimation, and Probable Sex Assessment of BT3." Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris 30, no. 3-4 (2018): 162–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.3166/bmsap-2018-0015.

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This note presents the unexpected discovery of human remains belonging to the immature skeleton from Baousso da Torre (BT3), considered to date from the Gravettian period. These remains were explicitly described as missing by Rivière who undertook the study of this skeleton and was supposedly present at the time of the discovery. These remains, some of them indisputably refitting with the partial skeleton of BT3, permit a better estimation of the age-at-death and a probable assessment of the sex of this individual.
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Waters, Michael R. "Sulphur Springs Woman: An Early Human Skeleton from Southeastern Arizona." American Antiquity 51, no. 2 (1986): 361–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/279948.

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Sulphur Springs Woman, an early human burial, was recovered from alluvial deposits dated between 8,200 and 10,000 years before the present in Whitewater Draw, southeastern Arizona. These are the oldest human remains from the Southwest and are some of the oldest in North America. These bones provide data on the earliest inhabitants of the New World.
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Parker-Pearson, M. "From corpse to skeleton: dealing with the dead in prehistory." Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris 28, no. 1-2 (2016): 4–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13219-016-0144-y.

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The shortcomings of the archaeological record raise many challenges for the interpretation of prehistoric funerary practices, particularly because the remains of most people in prehistory have left no trace at all. Throughout prehistory, most human remains were treated in ways that are archaeologically invisible. A brief review of the sequence of funerary practices in British prehistory reveals major gaps and deficiencies in the burial record. It may well be that the normative rites for much of British prehistory were those that left little or no archaeological trace, such as excarnation through exposure of corpses or scattering of cremated ashes.One form of mortuary practice only recently demonstrated for British prehistory is that of mummification. Scientific analysis of Late Bronze Age skeletons from Cladh Hallan, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, has revealed that they were not only composites of multiple individuals but were also mummified prior to burial. In particular, histological analysis of bioerosion in the bone microstructure reveals that putrefaction was arrested soon after death. This method of histological analysis has been applied to a large sample of prehistoric and historical human remains, and reveals that patterns of arrested decay are particularly a feature of the British Bronze Age from the Bell Beaker period onwards.
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Price, T. Douglas, Corina Knipper, Gisela Grupe, and Václav Smrcka. "Strontium Isotopes and Prehistoric Human Migration: The Bell Beaker Period in Central Europe." European Journal of Archaeology 7, no. 1 (2004): 9–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461957104047992.

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Human skeletal remains from Bell Beaker graves in southern Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary were analyzed for information on human migration. Strontium isotope ratios were measured in bone and tooth enamel to determine if these individuals had changed ‘geological’ residence during their lifetimes. Strontium isotopes vary among different types of rock. They enter the body through diet and are deposited in the skeleton. Tooth enamel forms during early childhood and does not change. Bone changes continually through life. Difference in the strontium isotope ratio between bone and enamel in the same individual indicates change in residence. Results from the analysis of 81 Bell Beaker individuals indicated that 51 had moved during their lifetime. Information on the geology of south-central Europe, the application of strontium isotope analysis, and the relevant Bell Beaker sites is provided along with discussion of the results of the study.
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Lippert, Dorothy. "Remembering Humanity: How to Include Human Values in a Scientific Endeavor." International Journal of Cultural Property 12, no. 2 (2005): 275–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0940739105050137.

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TheBonnichsendecision has been heralded as a victory for anthropology, because it appears to vindicate the position of the plaintiffs who brought their suit in order to be allowed to conduct scientific research on a 9,000-year-old skeleton from North America. It appears to be a defeat for Native Americans, who view this skeleton as an ancestor and who would prefer to see the remains of this individual returned to the ground to continue the long journey back to the earth. In fact, this polarized view of the case returns the discourse surrounding repatriation to a previous level in which arguments were made over the question, “who owns the past?” While this may be a rhetorically satisfying problem to wrestle with, it does not capture the true nature of how archaeology can engage with Native people in the process of understanding ancient lives. It presumes that the past exists as a form of property. Under this simplistic construction, human remains can exist as property and can be owned by one group or another.
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Lemmers, Simone A. M., David Gonçalves, Eugénia Cunha, Ana R. Vassalo, and Jo Appleby. "Burned Fleshed or Dry? The Potential of Bioerosion to Determine the Pre-Burning Condition of Human Remains." Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 27, no. 4 (2020): 972–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09446-x.

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Abstract The practice of cremation is often interpreted as an alternative to inhumation, taking place shortly after an individual’s death. However, cremation could be a final stage in complex mortuary practices, with previous steps that are obscured due to the heating process. This project reports on experimental scoping research on a set of experimentally heated femoral fragments from modern and archaeological collections of the University of Coimbra. Sixteen recent femur samples from eight individuals, as well as five femur samples from an archaeological skeleton from the medieval-modern cemetery found at the Hospital de Santo António (Porto), were included in this research. Samples presented five different conditions: unburnt, and burnt at maximum temperatures of 300 °C, 500 °C, 700 °C and 900 °C. Each sample was prepared to allow observation using binocular transmitted light microscopes with ×10, ×25 and ×40 magnifications. Results indicated that, if burial led to bioerosion, this will remain visible despite burning, as could be in cases where cremation was used as a funerary practice following inhumation. From this, we conclude that the observation of bioerosion lesions in histological thin sections of cremated bone can be used to interpret potential pre-cremation treatment of the body, with application possibilities for both archaeological and forensic contexts. However, the effect on bioerosion of substances such as bacterial- or enzymatic-based products often used to accelerate decomposition should be investigated.
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McLaren, Dawn, Donald Wilson, Rob Engl, et al. "A Short Cist Burial at Kilkeddan Farm, Campbeltown, Argyll & Bute." Scottish Archaeological Journal 38, no. 1 (2016): 33–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/saj.2016.0062.

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AOC Archaeology Group undertook the excavation of a previously unknown Bronze Age cist, located in a field close to Kilkeddan Farm, Argyll & Bute, during September 2005 under the Historic Scotland call-off contract for human remains. The cist was found to contain poorly surviving unburnt human skeletal remains along with a finely decorated tripartite Food Vessel and a flint knife. The incomplete and fragmentary condition of the skeleton suggests that the human remains were disarticulated at the time of deposition. Radiocarbon dates obtained from the human bone and associated charcoal confirms an early Bronze Age date for the burial.
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Tiesler, Vera, Arturo Romano-Pacheco, Jorge Gómez-Valdés, and Annick Daneels. "Posthumous Body Manipulation in the Classic Period Mixtequilla: Reevaluating the Human Remains of Ossuary I from El Zapotal, Veracruz." Latin American Antiquity 24, no. 1 (2013): 47–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.7183/1045-6635.24.1.47.

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Our interdisciplinary study provides new information and interpretations of Ossuary I, a large assemblage of human bones associated with the ceremonial center dedicated to a life-size clay figure of a splendidly attired human skeleton (often identified as Mictlantecuhtli in the archaeological literature) at the site of El Zapotal in south-central Veracruz-Recovered in 1971, this assemblage has been interpreted as a ritual deposit of women who died during childbirth, whose bodies were dedicated in later Aztec lore to the Tlazolteotl goddess. The present paper provides new insights into the depositional sequence, the type and number of individuals within the assemblage, the sex and age profile of the mostly female cohort, the distribution of artificial head shapes as an ethnic marker, and evidence of perimortem violence and postmortem processing in the form of flaying. Our evidence indicates that Ossuary I represents the slow accumulation of loose bones and limb segments of partially skinned individuals in a circular shaft. Postdating the functioning of the Death God adoratorio and showing fluctuations in the patterns of pre-depositional body treatment, the assemblage expresses the Late Classic period ritual practice of flaying both males and females in Veracruz. In later stages, the ossuary was used again for a female cult, consistent with the original interpretation of women who died during childbirth.
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Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Human remains (Archaeology) Human skeleton Paleopathology"

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Vradenburg, Joseph A. "The role of treponematoses in the development of prehistoric cultures and the bioarchaeology of proto-urbanism on the central coast of Peru /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p3025658.

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Hunnius, Tanya von Saunders S. R. "Applying skeletal, histological and molecular techniques to syphilitic skeletal remains from the past /." *McMaster only, 2004.

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Greenan, Michele Anne. "Three early-middle Woodland mortuary sites in East Central Indiana : a study in paleopathology." Virtual Press, 1999. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1137663.

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The study of paleopathology is intrinsic to the study of past human societies. Through analyzing gross bone abnormalities in the individuals of a population group, one can discover occurrences of specific diseases. Diseases are often associated with diet, demography, environment, and culture of a population group. Understanding the types of diseases present can therefore lead to much information about a population group. The intent of this research is to analyze the skeletal remains from three mortuary sites to ascertain the occurrences of particular diseases. The New Castle site (12Hn1) the White site (121-In10), and Windsor Mound (12R1) represent a sample of the Early-Middle Woodland population from east central Indiana.<br>Department of Anthropology
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Yang, Dongya. "DNA diagnosis of thalassemia from ancient Italian skeletons /." *McMaster only, 1997.

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Worne, Heather A. "Lower-limb biomechanics and behavior in a Middle Mississippian skeletal sample from west-central Illinois." Diss., Online access via UMI:, 2005.

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Klaus, Haagen D. "Out of Light Came Darkness: Bioarchaeology of Mortuary Ritual, Health, and Ethnogenesis in the Lambayeque Valley Complex, North Coast Peru (AD 900-1750)." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1209498934.

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Smith, Patricia R. "The detection of haemoglobin in ancient human skeleton remains." Thesis, University of Essex, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.235815.

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Margolis, Julie Anna. "Tetracycline Labeled Bone Content Analysis of Ancient Nubian Remains from Kulubnarti." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429808453.

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Anson, Timothy James. "The bioarchaeology of the St. Mary's free ground burials : reconstruction of colonial South Australian lifeways /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 2004. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09pha622.pdf.

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Robin, Joshua B. "A paleopathological assessment of osteoarthritis in the lower appendicular joints of individuals from the Kellis 2 cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4703.

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative pathological condition of the appendicular joints which affects the cartilage and underlying bone. OA is relatively common in both the archaeological and clinical context, and a significant amount of research has been conducted on this osteological condition. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the incidence, demographic prevalence, and general severity of hip and knee OA in a Roman-Christian period (50 A.D-450 A.D) population sample from the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. The bioarchaeological sample originates from the Kellis 2 cemetery which is associated with the ancient town of Kellis. The town of Kellis is believed to have been a prosperous economic hub in Egypt, located in the Western Sahara Desert approximately 250 kilometers west of the Nile. The skeletal samples (n=135, 83 females and 51 males) was visually assessed for the osteological characteristics of OA in the hips and the knees. Joint surfaces of the hip include the acetabulum and femoral head. Joint surfaces of the knee include lateral/medial tibio-femoral compartments and the patellofemoral compartment. The ages of the individuals assessed in this study range from 19-72 years, and have been divided into five age categories which were then cross-tabulated with sex and OA incidence in order to determine demographic prevalence of OA. Findings indicate that age is a significant etiological factor of OA prevalence for both males and females. Males are afflicted by the disease significantly more than females in the hips (F: (L) 3.6%, (R) 5.9% and M: (L) 13.7%, (R) 13.7%) and also slightly more affected in the knees(F: (L) 17.5%, (R) 18.3% and M: (L) 22.9%, (R)21.3%). The acetabulum tends to be more arthritic than the femoral head for both males and females. Femoral condyles tend to be more arthritic than tibial condyles for both males and females.; The patello-femoral compartment tends to be the most arthritic part of the knee while the medial condyles of both tibiae exhibit virtually no OA (with the exception of one individual). The joint surface observed with the highest OA prevalence is the femoral surface of the patella (F: (L) 17.5%, (R) 15.9% and M: (L) 21.3%, (R) 21.3%). The highest prevalence of OA by joint complex is observed on the left knee in males (22.9%), and the lowest prevalence of OA is observed on the left hip of females (3.6%). Both hip and knee joints have higher prevalence of unilateral OA manifestation than bilateral. Isotopic and archaeological evidence indicates that the individuals at Kellis maintained an agricultural subsistence regime, and that the males within the population may have been highly mobile migrating to and from the Dakhleh Oasis. Subsistence agriculture has its necessary physical demands which may have been a contributory factor to OA rates. Males show higher OA rates than females throughout the joints of the legs. Sexual dimorphism of OA for the hips is suggestive of sexual divisions of labor. OA of the knees lacks sexual dimorphism therefore the knee joint complex of males and females were likely subjected to similar levels of mechanical loading. It can be concluded based on the OA data that males and females exhibit similar activity, or biomechanical stress levels in the knee joint complexes. Males exhibit significantly higher pathological manifestation of OA in the hip joint complexes, indicative of higher levels of mechanical loading in the hip joint complex which can theoretically be attributed to sexual divisions of labor or perhaps terrestrial mobility.<br>ID: 030646221; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (M.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references.<br>M.A.<br>Masters<br>Anthropology<br>Sciences<br>Anthropology
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Books on the topic "Human remains (Archaeology) Human skeleton Paleopathology"

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Ubelaker, Douglas H. Human skeletal remains: Excavation, analysis, interpretation. 2nd ed. Taraxacum, 1989.

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Ubelaker, Douglas H. Human skeletal remains: Excavation, analysis, interpretation. 2nd ed. Taraxacum, 1989.

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Ubelaker, Douglas H. Human skeletal remains: Excavation, analysis, interpretation. AldineTransaction, 2008.

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Human skeletal remains: Excavation, analysis, interpretation. 3rd ed. Taraxacum, 1999.

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Stories from the skeleton: Behavioral reconstruction in human osteology. Gordon & Breach, 1999.

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Bioarchaeological science: What we have learned from human skeletal remains. Nova Science Publishers, 2009.

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T, Black Michael, and Folkens Pieter A, eds. Human osteology. 3rd ed. Academic Press, 2012.

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Rostock, Universität, ed. Traumatologische und pathologische Veränderungen an prähistorischen und historischen Skelettresten-Diagnose, Ursachen und Kontext: Interdisziplinärer Workshop in Rostock-Warnemünde, 17.-18. November 2006. VML, Verlag M. Leidorf, 2008.

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Fairgrieve, Scott Ian. Amino acid residue analysis of type I collagen in human hard tissue: an assessment of cribra orbitalia in an ancient skeletal sample from tomb 31, site 31/435-D5-2, Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. The author], 1993.

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Lewis, Mary E. The bioarchaeology of children: Perspectives from biological and forensic anthropology. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

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Book chapters on the topic "Human remains (Archaeology) Human skeleton Paleopathology"

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Rathouse, William. "Contemporary Pagans and the Study of the Ancestors." In Archaeologists and the Dead. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198753537.003.0024.

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In 2007, English Heritage and the National Trust initiated a public consultation process regarding the display of human remains at the Alexander Keiller Museum at Avebury. This was a response to contemporary Pagan calls for reburial of a child’s skeleton displayed there (BBC News 2007; Jenkins 2011 and this volume; Tatham this volume; Thackray and Payne 2009; Historic England 2015). This chapter derives from ethnographic research (semistructured interviews and participant observation fieldwork) undertaken between April 2008 and March 2012 for a doctoral research project as well as nearly twenty years of personal engagement with the British Pagan community. This project was designed to provide qualitative analysis of relations between heritage and archaeological professionals and contemporary Pagans and did not attempt to establish any quantitative data on the proportions of people in these groups who hold particular views. It focused on the arguments and ideas behind contestation of sites and human remains. This chapter examines how the archaeology of ancient human remains aids contemporary Pagans to reinvent beliefs and emulate practices of the pre-Christian past. It also explores how excavation and display of human remains provides an arena for counter-cultural elements of contemporary Paganism to contest the authority of the heritage establishment. The sheer diversity of values, practices, and expression make it challenging to define contemporary Paganism. Pagans usually conceptualize the divine as immanent in nature either as pantheism (the divine permeates reality) or panentheism (the divine permeates reality but also exists beyond it). The divine may be seen as unified (monotheism), gendered polarities of the God and the Goddess (duotheism), or multi-faceted (polytheism). Additionally, some Pagans may be animists, which Harvey (2005: xi) defines as the belief that the world is inhabited by many persons, only some of whom are human, or even be atheists. Harvey (2005: 28, 2013: 206–10) suggests that religions may be better defined by their practices and behaviours rather than their beliefs. This is slightly harder to do with Paganism since most Wiccans and Druids tend to practice their rites by standing in circles of fellow Pagans and invoking elemental spirits at the four cardinal directions, while many Shamans, Heathens, and other reconstructionists do not.
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Williams, Howard. "Firing the Imagination: Cremation in the Museum." In Archaeologists and the Dead. Oxford University Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198753537.003.0022.

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The displays of articulated, unburned, and fleshed human remains in European museums are often claimed to fixate and simultaneously repulse the modern viewer, and provoke all manner of varied responses in between these extremes (Brooks and Rumsey 2007: 279–80). Unused to the sights (and smells) of corpses and skeletons, the modern visitor is certainly fascinated by the uncanny nature of the archaeological dead. While bearing the signs of transformation by time and treatment, they often retain an unsettling individual persona, regularly enhanced by being posed, re-clothed, and sometimes awarded facial reconstructions when selected for museum display (Swain 2002, 2007a; Wallace 2005). Seemingly denying and disrupting the passage of time and drawing the past into the present, these cadavers afford the illusion of sleeping persons suspended between animation and oblivion (see also Nordström this volume). Such ‘immortals’ can become emblematic of entire societies and periods in the human past and icons of archaeology itself as a discipline that deals with the traces of human mortality through time (Nordström 2007, this volume; Williams 2009). It is the strikingly ‘human’ and ‘whole’ cadavers that have provoked the strongest emotional responses from the public as well as securing direct spiritual connections for particular religious minority groups. Such is the case of the campaign by the British Order of Druids who focused their claim for reburial centred on the memorable and evocative skeleton of a Neolithic child ‘Charlie’ on display in the Keiller Museum at Avebury (see Giles and Williams this volume; Tatham this volume; Rathouse this volume). Such claims of affection and affinity are clearly predicated on the corporeal integrity and the emotive responses this integrity evokes for the viewer. While human remains provoke the most powerful emotive engagements with the archaeological dead, other strategies for displaying mortuary contexts, such as casts of human bone (Goodnow 2006a: 18–19) and artist’s reconstructions of funerals (Williams 2009; Giles this volume), can inspire strong reactions. The same also applies to dioramas with mannequins: their uncanny resemblances to living persons can create powerful imaginative and educational connections between visitors and past individuals and the societies they represent within the museum context.
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"interpreted in different ways by individual scholars. Why, for example, is the preponderance of male depictions seen at Grot ta di Porto Badisco interpeted as meaning male domination of Neolithic society in Italy (Whitehouse, 1992b) whereas Hodder (1990: 68) declines to interpret the common occurrence of female figurines in the Neolithic of S.E. Europe as an indication of an equivalent female domination of society, but instead suggests "To put it over-simply, women may or may not have had any real power in the Neolithic of S.E. Europe, but certain aspects of being a woman were conceptually central."? One can cite a similar example from Skeates (1994: 207-8), where he accepts Whitehouse's identification of the human figures as males or females, but disagrees with her interpretation of male dominance and hostility between the sexes in Italian Neolithic society. Each of these two scholars also has their own interpretation of the important group 16 painted scene from the Grotta do Porto Badisco — needless to say, I also have mine. By turning to burial evidence, can one avoid the above dilemmas? Physical anthropological methods can be used to identify male and female human remains, and, knowing the sex of burials could then lead to a better understanding of the gender affiliations of accompanying grave goods. These artefacts can then be investigated in other contexts such as settlement sites. However, there is a surprising amount of uncertainty involved in sexing human remains. In this paper I wish to discuss the uncertainties in the physical anthropological methods of sexing human remains and their implications for gender studies by focussing on a recent analysis of an Iron Age necropolis at Pontecagnario, Campania, carried out by Vida Navarro (1992). PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL METHODS OF SEXING HUMAN REMAINS Since gender is culturally constructed, it is possible for individuals or groups to have a gender that is different from their biological sex, or is intermediate or anomalous in some way. For example, in Ancient Rome, a Vestal Virgin had an ambiguous status in Roman society as shown by the fact that she could give evidence in a law court like a man. Usually Roman women had to be represented by a male relation or their spouse and could not speak in court on their own behalf or give evidence (Beard 1980: 17). Nevertheless, a Vestal Virgin was still a woman, and was allowed to marry, if she so wished, after her term of office finished (Beard 1980:, 14, note 21). Although ambiguous groups of this kind have been recognised in many societies, it is nonetheless the case that one would expect a high level of correlation between biological sex and social gender. The accurate identification of the biological sex of human remains would therefore be a great step forward in understanding gender construction and gender roles in prehistory. Unfortunately, physical anthropological methods are reliable only to a certain extent, and it is important for all archaeologists to be aware of the limitations of these methods. Like other primates, humans show sexual dimorphism i.e., the males have a larger body and show other skeletal differences from females, especially in the shape of the pelvis. When an intact pelvis is present in a burial, the identification of those remains as male or female can be made with 95% confidence (Krogman & Iscan 1986: 259). This, of course, applies to recent skeletal material, as the morphological and morphometric methods for sex identification used by anthropologists are based on reference collections from modern human populations. As Gotherstrom et ¿z/. (1997) point out, the application of these standards to prehistoric remains may be inappropriate. Prehistoric females may have been more skeletally robust, so that in the absence of a diagnostic pelvis, they could appear to be males, according to standards derived from modern populations. The pelvis anchors muscles, and "Considering the plasticity of the skeleton in response to external forces and stimuli, there are reasons to proceed with caution in interpreting all morphological differences in the pelvic region as a result of differential reproductive function." (Gotherstrom et al. 1997)." In Gender & Italian Archaeology. Routledge, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315428178-13.

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