Angelica SIMALCSIK, Bogdan Petru NICULICA, Anthropological research of the Komariv type (Middle Bronze Age) tumular cemetery, at Adâncata (Suceava County, Romania) (original) (raw)
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This paper concerns the anthropological analysis of the skeleton discovered in 2007 in the stone tomb (cista) in Suceava-Câmpul Şanţurilor-strada Parcului (Suceava County, Romania). The funerary monument was chronologically ranked in the Middle Bronze Age, the Komariv culture. The osteological remains discovered in Suceava-Câmpul Şanţurilor-strada Parcului belonged to a male, aged approximately 20-25 at death. The cranial index is dolichocranic. The frontal-parietal index is stenometopic. The occipital-parietal index is large-sized. The cranial bone relief is marked. The nasal region seems to have been narrow and quite high. The mandible is moderately robust, with medium robustness index. The postcranial skeleton is robust, clearly indented, with pronounced muscle insertions. The humeri record a euribrachic cross-section index. The femora are hyperplatymeric, with a prominent linea aspera and moderate pilaster. The tibiae show a mesocnemic crosssection index. The stature was appreci...
This paper presents the interim results from the archaeological excavation, and osteological analysis of the human remains found at the Neolithic site at Lumea Nouă, Alba Iulia, Romania, in August and September 2015. The human material from one burial pit, currently comprises 16 individuals, an MNI which may change during the ongoing analysis. There are seven adults; three females aged 40 to 45+, two males aged 17 to 30 years old, and two individuals of indeterminate sex, aged between 17 and 35 years old. There are one adolescent under 18 years old, two juveniles aged 8.5 to 10.5 years old, one 5.5 to 7.5 year old, and one 3.5 to 5.5 year old. There are also one adolescent, and three juveniles approximately three years old, one year old, and perinate, along with various un-associated skeletal elements, which have not yet been analysed. The individuals display common dental diseases such as caries, plaque and dental hypoplasia, and pathologies such as osteomyelitis, porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia and possible ankylosing spondylitis. Dental pathologies such as odontoma and tooth agenesis were also noted. There is tentative evidence for activity wear in the dentition of one individual. The stature range for the females (151-158cm), and the males (156-162cm) show the individuals were of average height compared to contemporary Central Europeans. The age-at-death distribution show a bias towards older females and sub-adults. Older males are completely absent. This, together with the evidence for blunt force cranial trauma in nine of the 16 skeletons, and the various burial practices present, indicate burials which differ from the everyday community burial situation.
The cemetery at Gura Secului was attributed to the Culture of Carpathian Tumulus (CCT). The CCT monuments provide only scarce information, which cannot support chronological specifications. The present study analyzes the buried bone remains, of human origin, discovered in the 9 tumuli of Gura Secului. Out of the total number of 9 tumuli discovered in the necropolis of Gura Secului – Nemţişor (Neamţ district), only 5 contain rests of human origin. A minimum number of individuals are 11 (maximum number – 18 individuals); 6 are children who died in the infans I age interval (54.54%), and 5 died at ages belonging to the adultus or young maturus category (20-35 years), which means a percent ratio of 45.45%. Out of the 6 children with the decease age within infans I interval (0-7 years), 4 are newborn babies (66.67%), while only 2 exceeded this critical postpartum threshold, attaining ages of 5-7 years (33.33%). Out of the 5 individuals who exceeded the critical threshold of childhood and reached an adult age, in only 3 cases the gender could be determined (2 female and 1 male).
The human osteological material that makes the subject of the current study was discovered and exhumed in 2011 archaeological excavations, at the Palace of Culture in Iași (Iași County, Romania). We have identified 10 inhumation skeletons from individual graves, and fragments from reinhumations that belonged to six subjects. According to the information provided by the archaeologists, the skeletons were dated to the 13 th century. The orientation of the deceased was according to the Christian ritual. The preservation status of the skeletons is satisfactory. From the total of 16 skeletons, three didn't live past the age of 20 (two women and one man), three subjects were between 35 and 40 years old (two men and one woman) and the other 10 subjects (seven men and three women) lived past the age of 40. Biometric and morphological characteristics were revealed to estimate the anthropological type. Pathologies and abnormalities were identified and analysed.
This article represents a bioanthropological study of a small osteological series (32 skeletons) discovered in 2012 in the necropolis of Piatra Neamț – Dărmănești. According to the authors of diggings (Garvan Daniel, archaeologist, and his collaborators at Piatra Neamț Museum of History and Archaeology) the necropolis is dated between the XIVth and XVth centuries. The general and child mortality rates were analyzed, by gender and age, as well as the average lifespan by calculating the average age at death. We noticed a high mortality rate in childhood stage (0-14 years: 43.75%). If we add to it the teenage mortality rate (14-20 years: 6.25%), we can see that half of the studied population died before reaching adulthood. In the 20-x years interval, the highest mortality rate was recorded for mature people (30-60 years – 25%); the incidence of death among adults (20-30 years) and subjects over 60 years is much lower (15.63% and 9.38%, respectively). The average lifespan for the entire population under study (0-x years) is 25.63 years, the value recorded by gender, being of 44.17 years in men and 40.36 years in women. Anthropological analysis indicates, on the average, a population of over-middle height in males and middle height in females, with mesocranic skulls in males and brachycranic skulls in females, orthocranic and acrocranic (in the male series), respectively chamecranic and tapeinocranic (in the female series) skullcaps. The forehead is eurimetopic (in the male series) and metriometopic (in the female series), with averagely wide (in males) and wide (in females) occipitals. The face is, on the average, leptoprosopic an leptene in males, respectively mesoprosopic and mesene in females, with hypsiconch orbits and leptorrhine nose. Mandible robustness is moderate in both genders.