Abstracts of Papers presented at the Seventh Annual
BABAO Conference, Museum of London, September 2005
Chelsea Old Church – Posh or not?
Jelena Bekvalac and Tania Kausmally
Centre for Human Bioarchaeology
Museum of London
Chelsea Old Church is situated on the River Thames Embankment in the borough of
Kensington and Chelsea. The Church has undergone numerous stages of restoration
and rebuilding throughout its long history most recently it was completely rebuilt
between 1949 and 1958. A total of 286 inhumations were uncovered in the area of
excavation, of these 23 are named individuals. The skeletal remains have been dated
late 17/18th century to the mid 19th century and are considered high status.
The named individuals were recorded “blind” in order to test the archaeological
methods of ageing and sexing and the results will be discussed in relation to the result
from Christ Church Spitalfields. Further comparisons were made between the written
archive on the named individuals and the osteological data. Some of the individuals
were related and smaller family groups could be distinguished from the coffin plates,
the parish records and the plans of the family vaults. It was considered how these
might be reflected in the skeletal and dental records. The site will be compared with
the analysis undertaken of named individuals from other sites such as Christ Church
Spitalfields and St Brides Fleet Street.
The funerary behaviour and the social value of children in a proto-industrial
urban community
Silvia M Bello and Louise T Humphrey, Natural History Museum
This paper aims to document the funerary behaviour of a proto-industrial
urban population from London during the 18th and 19th centuries and to explore
whether and according to which mechanisms this behaviour reflects the socioeconomic organisation of this population with particular emphasis on the social value
of children. For this purpose, two sources of data have been analysed: the burial
registers for Christ Church, Spitalfields , which are stored at the Metropolitan Archive
in London (15, 760 records) and the osteoarchaeological sample recovered during the
excavation of Christ Church, Spitalfields (968 human skeletal remains). The
comparative analysis of historical and osteoarchaeological sources aims to determine
whether there was any selective recruitment of the population buried in the crypt of
Christ Church according to the individuals’ age, sex, family relationships and/or
socio-economic status. In particular, the osteoarchaeological named sample from
Spitalfields (387 individuals for whom the age and sex were derived directly from the
coffin plates) is characterised by an under-representation of subadult individuals (23%
of the total sample) and, among subadults, by an under-representation of females
(43% of the subadult sample). It is not clear whether these palaeodemographic
anomalies relate to differential survivorship or preferential burial in the crypt of that
part of the population with a higher social status within the community.
Results indicate that the under-representation of subadults in the named sample was
mainly caused by the preferential burial of children in the cemetery rather than a
prestigious burial in the crypt, while the under-representation of young girls may
reflect, at least in part, a lower mortality rate for this group of individuals.
18th – and 19th – century burials from St Luke’s Church. Islington, and St
George’s Church, Bloomsbury
Angela Boyle, Oxford Archaeology
In recent years, Oxford Archaeology has excavated two post-medieval church sites in
London – at St Luke’s, Islington and St George’s, Bloomsbury. On both sites many
coffins and coffin fittings were well preserved, ensuring that a large proportion were
named and their chronological age-at-death known. At St Luke’s, 241 of the
examined skeletons were named, whilst 72 were named at St George’s. This offered a
valuable opportunity to blind test a number of widely used osteological ageing and
sexing methods and to build on research previously undertaken on other postmedieval assemblages, such as Christ Church, Spitalfields and St Bride’s Church,
Fleet Street.
The skeletal assemblages from St Luke’s and St George’s displayed a wide range of
pathologies, some seldom seen in archaeological assemblages. Influences of lifestyle
and dress are also strongly suggested from bony changes in a number of skeletons.
This paper will give a general overview of the two sites, highlighting the more
interesting discoveries and the contribution these sites have made to our
understanding of 18th- and 19th- century life in the Metropolis
Culturally Determined Patterns of Violence: Physical Anthropological
Investigations at a Historic Urban Cemetery.
Megan Brickley & Martin Smith
Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham
Issues relating to violence have an important role to play in understanding many
aspects of both past and present cultures. Recent research demonstrates that physical
anthropological investigations can contribute significant information on patterns of
violence in past communities. Using data derived from a historic urban cemetery, St.
Martin’s, England, we consider the possibility of determining socially related
patterning within a society, and the variability of violence related injuries between
cultures. In particular, following ideas first proposed by Walker (1997), the
possibility of a relationship between types of violence regarded as socially acceptable
and those that are popular in sport were considered. Data from St. Martin’s were
considered alongside historic reports and modern articles on patterns of violence
related injuries from around the world. This research demonstrates the importance of
considering culturally specific information in conjunction with skeletal analyses to
gain the maximum information on patterns of violence.
Reference
Walker, P. (19970. Wife Beating, Boxing and Broken Noses: Skeletal Evidence for
the Cultural Patterning of Violence. In: Martin, D.L. and Frayer, D.W. (eds.)
Troubled Times –Violence and Warfare in the Past. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach.
pp. 145-179.
Analysing the socio-economic and ideological changes in Holocene late Saharan
hunter-gatherer and early pastoral societies
Michael Brass
Debates over the degree of cultural complexity, and its attendent material
manifectations, have been at the centre of research into the development of early
pastoralism in North Africa. A number of approaches, each differently emphasing the
relative importance of socio-economic, ideological and technological changes, have
been brought to bear on settlement data and variable funerary practices from the early
to mid-Holocene. These data actually reflect distinctive ancient social practices
between the Early and Late Acacus and the Pastoral periods of the Central Sahara, as
well as between the Central Sahara and the Egyptian Western Desert.
This paper presents a model which integrates analyses for human skeletal and dental
data in relation to those for cattle remains. New proposals are then made for tracking
the attendant societal changes in (a) the sexual division of labour over time, and, (b)
population movements and their affinities. An attempt is then made to show the
relative contributions of these two factors in relation to the pattern of increasing
social complexity in the region.
A new look at an old asymmetry: The hypoglossal canal in primates
Margaret Clegg University of Southampton
The cranial nerves exit the skull via foramina in the cranial base. Although in some
cases other vessels also exit using the same routes, it has been proposed that a
relationship exists between the size of the cranial nerve, particularly the hypoglossal,
and the foramina through which it passes. Two research groups have looked at the
problem of hypoglossal canal size and its relationship to the human ability to speak.
The hypoglossal nerve controls three of the four tongue muscles and therefore has an
important role in speech articulation. The previous research conducted by both groups
has pooled the data on canal size for left and right canals. There are however,
asymmetries in canal size found throughout primate species. This calls into question
the use of pooled data for determining the range of variation exhibited in any given
primate species. Furthermore, the hypoglossal canal is divided by bony septum in up
to forty percent of specimens. The use of digital photographs rather than casts of the
canals allow these individuals to be included. This is particularly important as in life
the majority of humans have a cartilaginous septum dividing many of the cranial
foramina. The relationship may be with the subsection through which the nerve passes
rather than the canal as a whole.
The hypoglossal canal data in this study includes a large number of primate species,
as well as a larger number of individuals from each species than in any previous
study. Species include, modern humans, Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus, Gorilla
gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus, Hylobates sp., and a variety of old and new world
monkeys. The data are controlled for factors such as brain size, body mass and oral
cavity size.
Treponematoses in Medieval London
Brian Connell, Rebecca Redfern, Amy Gray-Jones and Don Walker
Museum of London Archaeological Services
The cemetery population from St. Mary Spital, London (1150-1539) contains the
remains of 36 individuals showing skeletal lesions compatible with a diagnosis of
treponemal disease. This is the largest single sample of archaeologically derived cases
in Europe. The analytical phase of the post-excavation project is currently underway
and a total of thirteen of these skeletons have so far been fully recorded.
The St. Mary Spital osteological project aims to investigate how these cases fit in with
ideas about the introduction and emergence of this disease in Britain. This paper will
outline our progress to date, focussing on our diagnostic criteria, the phasing of the
cemetery and the dating of this material. This should help us make a significant
contribution to answering some of the important bioarchaeological questions about
this disease in Britain.
Cracking the Code: Biography and (reconstructed) stratigraphy at St Pancras
burial ground
Phil Emery (Gifford Archaeology)
Archaeological works took place in 2002–3 within an extension to St Pancras Burial
Ground in use between 1793 and 1854, in advance of construction of the new London
terminus for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. This resulted in the mapping of over 1300
burials, of which some 780 individuals were recovered for osteological analysis. Over
1100 items of associated metal coffin furniture were recorded, along with parts of 730
memorial stones. Documentary evidence indicates that the buried population was
remarkably heterogeneous, in religious and social terms, including increasing
numbers of paupers as well as prominent citizens and aristocrats (including many
Roman Catholics and French émigrés).
This tightly-dated body of evidence has many strands — osteological, biographical,
social and art-historical — and offers exceptional potential for close-grained studies
of Londoners’ lives and circumstances in a turbulent era. The fieldwork environment
was demanding, however, with archaeologists working alongside a cemetery
clearance contractor. The key challenge has been that of maximising the size of the
sample of recorded burials while ensuring the integrity of the record, and thus the
analytical value of the resulting datasets.
This paper will outline the project methodology. Although the circumstances largely
defied any rigorously stratigraphic approach, accurate three-dimensional recording of
burial locations has permitted much detailed stratigraphic reconstruction of the likely
inter-relationships between groups of burials, and thus correlation with parish burial
register entries. This ‘decoding’ operation is proving crucial to integration of the
wealth of osteological and documentary information available.
The Injuries of Two Soldiers from the Battle of Toulouse in 1814, and the Care
of Disabled Veterans of the Napoleonic Wars in London.
Teresa Greenslade, Neeraj Malhan and Piers Mitchell,
Imperial College London
Historical descriptions of injuries sustained during the Napoleonic Wars are well
known, but there has been very little palaeopathological analysis of wounds from
these battles. In this paper we describe the lower limb lesions of two soldiers who
were injured in the Battle of Toulouse in 1814. The specimens are curated at the
Imperial College London pathology collection, and there is evidence to suggest that
George Guthrie donated them. He was chief military surgeon for the British troops at
the battle itself, and while working at the Westminster Hospital was also surgeon to
those disabled soldiers later cared for in the Royal Hospital at Chelsea. In
consequence, it is very likely that both these soldiers were Chelsea Pensioners.
The lesions are interpreted to estimate the likely cause of each injury, the
probable battlefield treatment following Guthrie’s own medical records of the wars,
and the likely disability experienced by each soldier in the long term. The role of the
Royal Hospital in providing healthcare for these disabled veterans in the 19th century
is then briefly discussed.
Strontium—calcium ratios in modern tooth enamel: Implications for the study of
infant diet in past populations
Louise T. Humphrey
Department of Palaeontology,
The Natural History Museum
M. Christopher Dean
Evolutionary Anatomy Unit
Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology,
University College London
Teresa E. Jeffries
Department of Mineralogy,
The Natural History Museum
Analysis of human tooth enamel using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass
spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) provides a basis for systematic evaluation of variation in
the chemical composition of enamel in relation to tooth crown geometry. The use of
thin sections allows the position of samples to be cross-referenced to incremental
growth structures in tooth enamel. Strontium and calcium are incorporated into
developing teeth in a manner that reflects changing physiological concentrations in
the body. Sr/Ca ratios are expected to decease at birth in breastfed infants, because
the mammary gland exerts a greater activating effect on calcium transfer than the
placenta, but increase at birth in infants fed on a formula derived from cow’s milk.
Here we present the results of an investigation into changes in Sr/Ca ratio across the
neonatal line in deciduous teeth from children with different dietary histories
(exclusive breastfeeding, exclusives formula feeding and transitional diets).
Implications for the reconstruction of longitudinal records of infant diet from tooth
enamel are discussed.
Care and treatment of human remains in England: some recent developments.
Simon Mays
Ancient Monuments Laboratory,
During 2005 there have been major developments concerning care and treatment of
human remains in England. Firstly, in January 2005, the Church of England and
English Heritage published a joint document on best practice for treatment of human
remains excavated from Christian burial grounds in England. The aim of this was to
give legal, ethical and practical guidance to those involved in archaeological projects
yielding human remains. Secondly, during 2005, a working group, convened by the
Government Department of Culture, Media & Sport, prepared a document entitled
‘Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums’. The document was
submitted to the Minister in August 2005. It attempts to give a legal and ethical
framework for treatment of human remains, gives advice on best practice for curation
and use of human remains, and provides a framework for handling claims for return /
repatriation. In this presentation I will provide an update on the progress with regard
to implementing some of the major recommendations of the Church of England /
English Heritage document, and I will discuss some aspects of the DCMS document,
particularly with regard to return / repatriation of human remains to claimant
communities.
Burial rites, death and disease of the late Gallinazo/Moche period -- observations
from Huaca Santa Clara, Vira, northwest Peru
Richard N.R. Mikulski
Centre for Human Bioarchaeology, Museum of London
Excavations in 2003 at Huaca Santa Clara, Viru, Peru recovered a sample of
14 individual burials and disarticulated remains representing a minimum of
(have to check exact no.) additional individuals. The burial practices
varied considerably given the small sample size and included subadults
buried with subadult llamas, 'mummy bundles' with the individual encased in
textiles, full length burials with cane coffins as well as one individual
who appeared to have literally been thrown into a grave cut at or around
the time of their death. In addition, the human remains exhibited a wide
variety of palaeopathological conditions including perimortem head trauma,
fractures with secondary infection, probable achondroplasia and possible
mycotic infection. Of further interest is the presence of tattoos on two
individuals, one of which appears very similar to iconographic images
depicted on contemporary ceramics.
The broad variety of data retrieved from such a small sample at Huaca Santa
Clara, demonstrates the significant potential for future research on human
remains from such precolumbian urban populations.
Population Biological History in the South Aegean: The case of Crete during the
Bronze Age
Argyro Nafplioti, University of Southampton
Material culture studies of the Bronze Age South Aegean frequently make inferences
on the population biological history by invoking population movements in the form
either of migrations or invasions in order to interpret discontinuities in the cultural
sequence. However, equating cultural “identities” to biological “identities” is oversimplistic and attempting to infer population’s biological history from material culture
should be treated as an over-interpretation. Recent approaches to biocultural history of
populations demonstrated the significance of using human skeletal biology to test
archaeological models and enhance our understanding of past populations founded
upon material culture alone. However, there is a dearth of modern bioarchaeological
studies attempting to examine in a systematic mode the question of population
biovariability, movements and biological interaction or isolation within the Bronze
Age South Aegean context.
This paper assesses from an archaeological perspective the intra-population biological
distance and biological variability as well as the inter-population biological
relationships and how they both fluctuate through the Bronze Age in Crete. The
results are seen in conjunction with those derived from the material culture studies
aiming to provide a more comprehensive appreciation of these populations’
biocultural history. The specific archaeological question explored concerns to the
destructions in several Cretan sites and the disruption of the “Minoan” culture at the
end of the Late Minoan IB.
The biological relationships are assessed using metric and non-metric morphological
analysis of the skeleton. This is supplemented by the chemical analysis of the osseous
and dental tissue to establish the Strontium isotopic ratio (87Sr/86Sr) of the examined
elements in order to explore the question of population movement and residential
change.
A new and simple system for the recording of periodontal disease in skeletal
material.
A.R. Ogden
Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford
The assessment of periodontal disease in archaeological material has in the past been
mainly based on estimates of the extent of alveolar bone loss. However it is now
clear that much of the alveolar recession found in archaeological material is mainly
due to compensatory eruption caused by the high levels of attrition found in such
populations. Over the past thirty years some 20 systems of analysis have been
suggested, with more-recent systems paying less attention to root exposure and more
to assessment of the nature of the alveolar margins. The fact that there have been so
many systems, introduced in such a steady stream, reflects a continuing dissatisfaction
with existing methods combined with an improving understanding of the processes
underlying periodontal disease.
In recent years the significance of periodontal disease as a marker of general health
and biocultural influences has considerably increased. Many clinical workers have
investigated relationships between periodontal disease and diet, social class, lifestyle,
psychosocial factors and stress; psychoactive substances; arterial atheroma, heart
disease and strokes; diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis; pregnancy, premature and
underweight offspring, body-mass index; leprosy, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, impaired lipid metabolism, and even prospects for survival in the elderly.
The new system presented is based, not on exposed root length, but on comparison of
alveolar margins with diagrams and/or models representing four possible grades of
alveolar damage. This enables the rapid and repeatable assessment of skeletal
remains even by non-specialists, for the presence of periodontal disease.
Overweight and the human skeleton
Dr Pip Patrick,
Institute of Archaeology, UCL
The paper will present methodological observations arising from recent research into
obesity and overweight in medieval monks from London. Skeletal pathology in
which obesity is cited as an aetiological factor will be discussed, as well as
considerations arising from attempts to reconstruct physique using a variety of
techniques proposed in the anthropological literature, highlighting concerns raised
when applying such methods to a large assemblage of anatomically modern humans.
A cross-population analysis of the effect of rickets and other stressors on long
bone growth during infancy and early childhood.
Ron Pinhasi
School of Human & Life Sciences, Roehampton University.
Peter Shaw
Whiteland’s College, London
Bill White
Centre for Human Bioarchaeology, Museum of London
Studies on both present day and past populations indicate that nutritional stress has a
significant effect on skeletal growth and maturation. While clinical case studies
indicate that vitamin D deficiency rickets is associated with short stature, bowed legs
and delayed dental eruption, there is scarce information on its effect on growth and
development during infancy and childhood.
Here, we investigate the effect of vitamin D deficiency rickets on long bone growth in
two post-medieval populations from London in which a high number of subadults
were diagnosed with this pathological condition. First. we examine whether long bone
growth curves of individuals with rickets differ significantly from those without the
condition. Second, we examine inter-population variation in growth velocity and
pattern during infancy (0-3 years of age) and early childhood (3-7 years of age) in
four medieval and post-medieval English populations. Third, we examine whether the
secular trend in growth, noted in western populations since the middle of the 19thy
century, can be traced in earlier post-medieval London skeletal populations.
Results indicate no difference in the growth curves of the samples with and without
rickets for any of the long bones studied. However, pronounced variations in growth
velocity and pattern between the four populations are noted during infancy. This
pattern contrasts with non-significant variation between the populations during early
childhood in all long bone dimensions except the humerus. The most significant
difference is between Broadgate, a 16th-17th century population from London, and the
other samples. Growth variations in Broadgate suggest growth faltering at the age of
two ears followed by drastic catch-up growth during the following year. This pattern
is addressed in the context of inter-population variation in weaning practices,
socioeconomic status, and nutrition. Finally, we did not detect any secular trend is
long bones growth in our post-Medieval samples.
Anomalous burials and the meaning of life
John Robb
Department of Archaeology, Cambridge University
All societies possess multiple ways of disposing of the dead, and
modes of burial are often used to define or commemorate what constitutes a
normal human life and alternative good and bad versions of humanity's
condition and fate. In particular, the contrast is often made between (a)
"normal" burial treatment, (b) an incomplete or abbreviated version of
this, often accorded to children or people dying in particular
circumstances, (c) alternative modes of burial such as mass burial carried
out in recognised times of social upheaval, (d) the recovery and
circulation of human remains as things of special substance (mementos,
trophies, relics or ancestral commemorations), and (e) the intentional
destruction of the body.
Following some general ethnographic illustration, this thesis is
illustrated through reconstruction of the mortuary programme used in
Neolithic Southern Italy. The stereotypical reconstruction of this focuses
almost exclusively upon single primary inhumations within habitation sites
and caves. However, the actual mortuary programme was much more varied, and
illustrates all of the categories noted above. Theoretically, we cannot
understand the meaning of burial without also considering the meaning of
non-burial. Methodologically, all forms of disposal of human remains
require careful taphonomic study, and some of the most informative may be
categories such as "stray bone" which archaeologists and osteologists have
systematically neglected.
An osteological study of the foramen of Huschke in two British populations and
its implications for ageing.
Louise Scheuer
Dept. of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Royal Free and University College
Medical School, London
Louise Humphrey
Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London
During early childhood the development of the tympanic plate of the temporal bone
displays a temporary dehiscence, the foramen of Huschke, which is widely reported to
close by five years of age. However, the foramen is observed in some adult skulls,
where it is regarded by osteologists as a non-metric trait (epigenetic variant), the
reported incidence of which varies with the population and the method of recording.
Observations on two osteological collections from birth to adult life suggest
that the commonly cited chronology for the foramen closure is inaccurate, as
persistent foramina occur at all ages. Nevertheless, results show a steady decrease in
the percentage of temporal bones exhibiting a persistent foramen in successive age
groups until approximately 10 to 15 years.
Observations of successive morphological stages in the development of the
foramen could contribute to a narrowing of the age at death estimate of an individual
from fragmentary remains in an archaeological or forensic situation, It might also be
useful in the estimation of the minimum number of individuals from a mixed
assemblage by identifying an individual through a developmental stage that is
incompatible in its timing with other individuals in the sample.
Auricular surface ageing – Revising the revised method.
H. Schutkowski
B.A.R.C. Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford
C.G.Falys
Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading
D.A.Weston
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Human
Evolution, Leipzig, Germany
Biological anthropologists experience adult skeletal ageing as one of most notoriously
difficult exercises. Sparked by sustained justified criticism, many attempts have been
undertaken to modify, improve and validate existing ageing methods. Among those
areas of the skeleton considered particularly promising is the auricular surface. This
study presents the results and recommendations arising from a blind test of the revised
age estimation method for the auricular surface as proposed by Buckberry &
Chamberlain (2002). Auricular surfaces of 167 individuals from St. Bride’s, London,
a documented skeletal assemblage spanning from the late 17th to the early 19th
century, were analysed for the following traits: transverse organisation, surface
texture appearance, macroporosity, microporosity, and morphological changes to the
apex. Composite scores of trait expressions were found to generally correlate with age
and to show a positive association with known chronological age (p<0.05). However,
when composite scores were combined to define auricular surface phases, which
ultimately assign age-estimations, only three distinct developmental stages, compared
with seven suggested by Buckberry and Chamberlain (2002), could be identified, all
showing a high degree of individual variation in age. The most well- defined stage in
the St. Bride’s assemblage was stage III, where the vast majority of individuals were
older than 60 years, whereas middle-aged adults displayed a large variation in
composite scores. These results provide little hope for a promising application of ageat-death estimation of auricular surface morphology traits other than for indications of
broad stages of life.
'Enough to Wake the Dead'
Barney Sloane
English Heritage
The results of a major AHRB-sponsored research programme (at the University of
Reading, partnered with MoLAS and EH) on the archaeology of British medieval
cemeteries - particularly those of religious houses - will be available next month in the
form of a major monograph. A multi-disciplinary approach, using stratigraphic,
artefactual, osteological, documentary and art-historical evidence, has revealed that
the whole is most definitely greater than the sum of the parts. In addition to the
essential population overviews given by most osteological studies published
nowadays, the direct linking of basic age/gender (and sometimes pathology) data for
individuals sharing common burial rites has shed some remarkable light into medieval
approaches to death and the hereafter. This short introduction will introduce just a few
of the highlights from the project, including: dressing for the occasion; coffins,
women and pestilence; the power of the Pardoner; and miracle cures for the deceased.
We show the remarkable and relieving coincidence between the osteologists and the
art-historians over the use of 14th-century buckle-on trousers (!). We present evidence
that coffin use was applied discriminately both for the burial of women in monastic
precincts and for the burial of victims of the Black Death. We investigate the practice
of burial with papal bullae and find evidence of a parallel, unofficial burial mode
operating alongside the formal burial rite. And finally, we uncover evidence that
medieval Britons considered the dead to be in some manner capable of healing.
Mortuary Variability in the British Neolithic
Martin Smith
Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham
The stone chambered earlier Neolithic monuments of the Cotswold Severn region
share a variety of morphological features which together, define these structures as a
coherent typological group. In the past the collective burials found within these
monuments have been generally regarded as having been subject to similar types of
funerary treatment. This paper argues that this apparent homogeneity of burial
practice across the group has been overemphasised, largely due to the structural
similarity of the monuments. Re-analysis of a number of Cotswold Severn skeletal
collections has revealed evidence for a variety of different ways of treating the dead.
Different practices noted include intact inhumation, excarnation, manual defleshing
and even cremation –a rite not generally associated with the earlier Neolithic.
Variations in burial practice have been noted within, as well as between assemblages,
whilst it has also been possible to make distinctions between ‘funerary’ and
‘ancestral’ rituals involving human bone. This diversity between communities would
also seem consistent with recently published environmental evidence concerning the
period which has been argued to suggest the social transformations which took place
during the Neolithic to have been a much more varied and less unitary phenomenon
than previously accepted. Finally, this paper demonstrates that in spite of the variation
apparent, several common themes can be detected which suggest broadly similar
underlying principles governing the ways the dead were dealt with during this period.
Overview of osteology at the Museum of London
Bill White
Centre for Human Bioarchaeology, Museum of London
The Museum of London was established in 1974 by the merger of the collections of
the London Museum, Kensington Palace, and the Guildhall Museum, City of London.
From its inception the Museum had an archaeological arm involved in rescue
excavation in the City. Over 30 years the Museum’s Departments of Urban
Archaeology, Greater London Archaeology and latterly the Museum of London
Archaeology Service (MoLAS) have excavated thousands of archaeological sites,
several hundred of which have produced human remains. The curated human skeletal
remains from these excavations cover all historical periods and now account for more
than 17,000 individuals. This is one of the biggest collections of stratified human
remains in the world and is already the largest scientifically excavated and
documented group from a single city. The collection attracts national and international
interest. It represents a unique teaching collection and a resource that can and does
support an extraordinary range of studies on, for example, palaeopathology,
palaeodemography, population-based approaches to data analysis, ancient
biomolecular research, bone chemical analysis and forensic anthropology. This is
reflected in the fact that the Museum of London has a full-time staff of 10
osteoarchaeologists, who are recording the skeletons directly onto an electronic
database. Four are engaged in analysing the skeletal remains from the Augustinian
Priory and hospital of St Mary Spital, five are recording 5,000 skeletons from sites
excavated up to the mid 1990s and the remaining osteologist is working on the more
recently-excavated MoLAS sites and performing contract and forensic work. The
number of external academic researchers working on the collection has been
increasing. Applications to conduct postgraduate and post-doctoral research on this
large collection are set for an enormous increase when the aforesaid database is
made available online.
Highlights from the osteological and palaeopathological analysis of the sailors
from Greenwich Naval Hospital burial ground
Annsofie Witkind
Oxford Archaeology
The Naval Hospital cemetery was in use between 1742 and 1856 and approximately
20,000 individuals were interred there. In 1999, Oxford Archaeology excavated 104
individuals. Of these one was a child, three were females and the rest were males. The
majority of the males were aged over 40. This relatively large assemblage of postmedieval sailors displayed an enormous number of pathological lesions. The remains
have been the basis of several MSc dissertations in the last few years as well as a TV
programme. This paper aims to bring together some of the findings from the various
research that has taken place as well as highlighting pathological lesions, activity
related skeletal changes and ancestry in the form of case studies.