The parry problem

Injuries classified as parry fractures, normally the result of a direct blow when the forearm is raised to shield the face, are significant in bioarcheological interpretations because the parry fracture is perceived as an indicator of interpersonal (or extramural) violence. It is therefore necessary that these injuries be correctly identified in order to properly interpret the trauma pattern and its social implications for abuse, gender and power relations among ancient people. Common acute forearm fractures are reviewed here and quantitative guidelines that define the parry fracture configuration are presented. The parry criteria include: (1) an absence of radial involvement, (2) a transverse fracture line, (3) a location below the midshaft (<0.5 adjusted distance to the lesion's center), and (4) either minor unalignment (<10°) in any plane or horizontal apposition from the diaphysis (<50%). A sample of 278 adults from northern Sudan dated to the Nubian Bronze Age (ca. 2500–1500 BC) contained 38 individuals with forearm fractures. Of these fractures, 21 out of the 28 ulna injuries were identified as parry fractures using the parry criteria. Fewer females suffered from parry fractures than when ulna injuries were identified by location on the ulna alone. The use of the parry criteria may not always affect the results significantly, but here interpersonal violence directed against women and amongst ancient Nubians was found to be less prevalent than implied in earlier studies. The absence of perimortem parry fractures suggests that the Kermans interred within mass burials were not physically forced to their graves. Chronic ulna stress fractures associated with sports and habitual activities must also be considered as a differential diagnosis of this injury.     

‘Parry’ fractures and female-directed interpersonal violence: Implications from the Late Archaic Period of west Tennessee

The recognition of a high frequency of ‘parry’ fractures in the females from the Late Archaic Period (2500–1000/500 BC ) west Tennessee site of Eva prompted a more thorough examination of female-directed interpersonal violence in prehistoric Tennessee sites. The study examined forearm fractures in eight (N = 308) Late Archaic Period hunter-gatherer sites and five (N = 501) Mississippian Period (c. AD 1200–1600) agriculturalist sites. On the basis of chi-square test results, there does not appear to be any gender bias in forearm fracture occurrence in the Archaic Period. The high frequency of female ‘parry’ fractures at Eva was an artefact of the ratio of females to males. More importantly, craniofacial trauma data do not support an aetiology that would explain mid-shaft forearm fractures as a result of interpersonal violence.     

The first archaeological case of Madelung's deformity?

An elderly male medieval skeleton excavated from St Gregory's Priory presented with unilateral Madelung's deformity. The right radius and ulna were shortened due to premature fusion of the distal growth plate. The radius displayed lateral and dorsal bowing and the ulna was dislocated posteriorly. Pronation and supination was not possible and the available hand bones presented with disuse atrophy. Degenerative changes had reduced the mobility of the elbow joint and marked cubitus valgus was demonstrated. The unilateral presentation, shortening of the ulna and atrophy of the hand bones and the sex of the skeleton suggest a post-traumatic rather than an idiopathic form of Madelung's deformity. As far as we are aware this is the first archaeological example of this condition.     

Kings and commoners at Copan: Isotopic evidence for origins and movement in the Classic Maya period

Eight human interments were excavated in the 1990s beneath the Acropolis at the Classic Maya site of Copan in Honduras, which was the capital of a Maya kingdom from ca. AD 400 to 800. These human remains come from both royal tombs and less elaborate burials dating to the early part of this period and lie deep in the accumulated architectural layers of the Acropolis. We present a brief summary of the context, contents, and external links represented by these interments. Several lines of evidence point to connections between early Copan and Teotihuacan in the Central Highlands of Mexico, and Tikal in the central Maya lowlands of the Petén in Guatemala.     

De-mystifying Pottery Production in the Maya Lowlands: Detection of Traces of Use-Wear on Pottery Sherds through Microscopic Analysis and Experimental Replication

During the Late Classic period at the site of K'axob in Belize, Central America, inhabitants recycled ceramic fragments as tools for the making of pottery. Considering pottery as a tool is by no means an easy task and requires, for its study, significant methodological innovation. The K'axob pottery tools demanded a comprehensive study to determine their use and function within this widespread economic activity. Research presented here incorporated fabrication of replicas of archaeological pottery tools and their experimental use for the making of ceramic vessels. Combined microscopic analysis of archaeological and fabricated tools defined and reproduced wear traces from use activities. Therefore, this investigation entails a methodological innovation to archaeology, yielding a broader perspective into prehistoric technologies.     

Ancient injury recidivism: an example from the Kerma period of ancient Nubia

A topical trend in clinical research has been the study of repeat trauma, referred to by clinicians as “injury recidivism,” which lends itself to the assessment of accumulated injuries among ancient people. The present investigation examined the healed injuries among two archaeological skeletal samples from the Kerma period (ca. 2500–1500 BC) of Sudanese Nubia. Both groups were known to have a high prevalence of multiple trauma—80% of 54 adults from the rural sites (O16 and P37) located near Dongola and 42% of 212 adults from the urban site of Kerma sustained nonfatal injuries. It was observed that a higher frequency of multi‐injured adults displayed one or more violence‐associated injury (cranial trauma, parry fracture). When all injuries were considered 38% of individuals with violence‐related injuries had other traumatic lesions in contrast to 22% of individuals who experienced injuries associated with accidental falls (e.g., Colles', Smiths', Galeazzi, and paired forearm fractures), although this difference was not significant. When only the skulls and long bones were evaluated 81% of adults with multiple injuries to these major bones bore one or more violence‐related injuries, while 60% of adults with single injuries sustained violence‐related injuries. Most individuals with multiple injuries were male and less than 35 years of age; there was no significant difference in the frequency of violence‐ or accident‐related multiple injury between the rural and urban communities. Although it cannot be established whether or not some of an individual's injuries were experienced during simultaneous or independent incidents, the pattern of multiple injury among these two ancient Nubian skeletal samples reflected the profile of injury recidivism observed by modern clinicians cross‐culturally. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bone remodelling following a lower leg fracture in the 11,000‐year‐old hunter‐gatherer from Vado all' Arancio (Italy)

The Upper Palaeolithic skeleton from Vado all'Arancio (Italy), dated to about 11,330 BP, exhibits a severe ankle fracture healed with residual deformation. Following recovery, this young hunter‐gatherer continued to walk for an extended period of time, albeit in a mechanically altered manner. While right‐left differences in external lower limb bone measurements are relatively low, biomechanical analysis of femur and tibia indicates unusually pronounced asymmetry in all cross‐sectional measures of diaphyseal strength. Asymmetry results primarily from normal side endosteal hypertrophy, and not from hypotrophy of the injured limb, suggesting that this individual resumed active life following recovery. This pattern of asymmetry underscores the role of physical activity in maintaining bone mass. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evidence of interpersonal violence at the Chalcolithic village of Shiqmim (Israel)

Three circumscribed depressed fractures were found on the skull of an adolescent boy recovered from a primary intramural burial at the Chalcolithic site of Shiqmim, northern Negev, Israel dated to (∼4500–3200 BCE). The fractures were located on the left side and back of the skull. They are circular in outline and have sharp margins containing numerous small bone fragments. These indicate that the skull was fractured when the bone was still fresh and were the probable cause of death. The location of the fractured areas is typical of blows inflicted by a right‐handed individual in face‐to‐face conflict. The size and shape of the fractures, suggests that they were inflicted by a blunt instrument, possibly a mace head. The absence of any signs of healing or infection indicates that all fractures occurred within a short space of time and resulted in death. Neither biological characteristics nor burial pattern show any unique features that distinguish this individual from others recovered at this site. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Raman microprobe analysis of stucco samples from the buildings of Maya Classic Copan

Micro-Raman spectroscopy has been applied to painted stucco samples from three buildings at the Maya site of Copan, Honduras. The buildings, Clavel (AD 450–550), Ani (AD550–650) and Structure 10L-22 (AD730,) date from three phases of the Classic Period (AD400–820) acropolis construction. The red pigment has been identified as haematite and the stucco as a mixture of calcite particles dispersed throughout a calcite based lime wash stucco. The physical structure of the stucco changed through time, indicating a refining of production techniques over this period. By combining Micro-Raman spectroscopy with other micro-ATR infrared spectroscopy and environmental scanning electron microscopy a detailed investigation of the materials and production techniques used to decorate these buildings has been made. Differences in the mineralogy of the red pigment used on each building indicate a different geological pigment source for each period.     

Perspectives on ancient Maya bone crafting from a Classic period bone-artifact manufacturing assemblage

This paper explores the nature of utilitarian bone-artifact crafting from the perspective of an unusual assemblage of manufacturing debitage dated to the Terminal Classic. This large assemblage contains unprecedented quantities of debris from the production of utilitarian artifacts, primarily bone perforators (needles, pins, awls). The collection was recovered from Group L4-3, a small, non-elite, Late and Terminal Classic residential complex located adjacent to the central palaces and residences of the ruling nobility of the ancient Maya site of Dos Pilas, Petexbatún, Guatemala. This study evaluates the standardization of raw materials, methods, and finished artifacts of the assemblage based on criteria used in discussions of scale of production and craft specialization. These evaluations are used to explore whether the L4-3 bone crafters were part- or full-time specialists, whether they produced their products on a large or a small scale and for domestic or external consumption, and for whom they crafted these products. The continuous occupation of the L4-3 complex through the transition from Late to Terminal Classic, a time of social change, offers a rich background for this evaluation of Maya utilitarian bone-artifact crafting.     

A scientific analysis of cranial trepanation from an Early Iron Age cemetery on the ancient Silk Road in Xinjiang,China

This study uses multiple scientific methods to analyse a case of trepanation from a cemetery located at the westernmost point along the ancient Silk Road in China dating back to the Early Iron Age. The skull of interest belonged to a middle-aged male; the opening is located on the left posterior side of the skull in the occipital bone. Computer tomography (CT) and microscopic observation show that the incision was unhealed, indicating an immediate death either during or after the operation. The procedure of trepanation might have been used to treat a depressed fracture from inflicted trauma on the individual’s right parietal bone, suggesting the presence of surgical trepanation in early Western China.     

Adult fracture patterns in prehistoric Thailand: a biocultural interpretation

The prevalence and distribution patterns of trauma in samples of human skeletal remains can reflect the risks to which the community was exposed in daily activities or as a result of interpersonal violence. This paper describes the patterns of non‐vertebral fractures in skeletal samples from four prehistoric Thai sites in terms of long bone fracture rates and individual prevalence rates. The sites range in date from c. 2000 BC (Neolithic) to 400 BC (late Bronze Age), and in environment from coastal estuarine to seasonally dry upland plains. These differences in the natural and cultural environment provided a basis for comparison among the samples representing nearly 300 adult individuals. The types of fractures ranged from simple to severe, but most had healed successfully with few limiting complications. The small bones of the hands and feet as well as clavicle and forearm bones were most frequently fractured among all samples. Overall there was an increase in the major long bone fracture rates from the Neolithic (0.3%) to the Bronze Age (3.0%) that may reflect a change in subsistence activities such as land clearance for the intensification of rice agriculture. The prevalence of ulnar fractures is particularly high in the Bronze Age, and the analysis of their possible cause, combined with evidence for craniofacial fractures, is suggestive of the presence of interpersonal violence in a small number of individuals. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mortuary behaviour reconstruction through palaeoentomology: a case study from Chachapoya,Perú

This paper explores the contribution that applied forensic entomology can make to our understanding of prehistoric mortuary behaviour. Samples of insect remains were recovered from a mummy bundle that has been attributed to the Chachapoya people who occupied the northern highlands of Perú from ca. AD 800 to ca. AD 1532. The insects were identified to the family level and used to create a hypothetical timeline of post‐mortem interval before the construction of the mummy bundle. The individual in question suffered from a number of blunt force insults to the head, followed by two and possibly three trepanation events. We speculate the initial insect colonisation to have taken place almost immediately following injury and subsequent surgery, occurring before the individual's death. Insect succession patterns and timing estimates for the appearance of periosteal reactive bone suggest that the individual was wrapped shortly following death. The application of such modern forensic techniques holds vast promise for addressing issues concerning Chachapoya mortuary behaviour and, further, these results can expand our understanding of mummy studies in general. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Violence,Social Differentiation and the Self

The article considers aspects of violence in everyday life among the Tiwi of Melville and Bathurst Islands. It briefly compares the role of violence in bureaucratically and juridically mediated forms with self-help and social regulation in Aboriginal societies, focussing on the expressive or performative aspects of violence in everyday interaction. Myers' discussion of violence among the Pintubi posits a dialectical polarity of relatedness and differentiation, corresponding with the affective poles of compassion and anger. This is compared with Sansom's account of semi-ritualized forms of violence in Aboriginal fringe-camp life, where a point of commonality in Myers' and Sansom's approaches is found: this consists of the attunement of action, of violence, self-violence and destructiveness to the witnessing public. In Tiwi life too, conflict is dynamically shaped by actors' attempts to impinge upon, to seek to arouse and in some cases to manipulate, compassion or concern in the witnessing group as defence or as a form of moral attack. Open, dramatic ‘appealing’ violence, often in the form of a more or less controlled loss of self-control, seeks to parry indirect interpersonal tension and antagonism, to reassert or restore social distance and protect or privilege important relationships from intrusive demands. However, these violent appeals in rhetorical threat, in self-violence, destructiveness or sometimes in dramatic suicidal gestures also invariably indicate extreme personal difficulty displaced into open forms of confrontation. The article proposes that the generative moment of violence for social differentiation be sought in an examination of dynamic interrelationships between individual life-history, inner group processes and their articulation with external social forms.     

Dietary Stress and Animal Resource Use at the Postclassic Maya city,Mayapán (Mexico)

ABSTRACT

Environmental changes resulting in drought and reductions in the availability of animal resources during the Late Classic Maya have been linked with the Maya ‘collapse’. Decreases in availability of dietary staples such as artiodactyls, and particularly white-tailed deer, during the Late Classic period would have placed food stress on populations during later periods. To test this hypothesis, here bone breakage patterns are examined at the Postclassic Maya city, Mayapán, to assess whether artiodactyl bones were being intensively processed for bone fats (marrow and grease). Fragmentation morphology, size and surface markings, along with skeletal part representation and distribution of large mammal bones were recorded for bone assemblages from several houselots. Evidence suggests the Maya were likely utilising bone marrow from artiodactyls but not intensively and they were not extracting bone grease. These results indicate that decreased accessibility to artiodactyls during the Postclassic was not causing high levels of dietary stress for the Maya at Mayapán, which is consistent with recent evidence demonstrating dietary consistency during the Postclassic in northern Yucatan.     

Infrared and Isotopic Evidence for Diagenesis of Bone Apatite at Dos Pilas, Guatemala: Palaeodietary Implications

The use of stable carbon isotopic analysis of bone apatite to reconstruct prehistoric diets is hindered by the possibility of diagenetic alteration of carbonate during burial. We examine apatite preservation in Classic Period Maya skeletal remains from Dos Pilas, Guatemala, using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). We use weight % CO₂evolved from apatite, FTIR carbonate/phosphate absorbance ratios, phosphate peak splitting crystallinity indices, fluoride peaks, and stable oxygen isotopic ratios to identify diagenetic change in apatite chemistry. Isotopically light carbon taken up from burial soil is adequately removed from most Dos Pilas bone by treatment with dilute acetic acid, but more severe alteration cannot be reversed by standard preparation methods. Infrared criteria identify recrystallized apatite in a subset of Dos Pilas burials, that is accompanied by isotopic exchange, and that no longer preserves biogenic δ¹³C. These results illustrate that comparatively recent bone may be diagenetically altered and demonstrate a need for systematic evaluation of mineral integrity in all archaeological bone prior to interpreting paleodiets with apatite δ¹³C.     

Ancient Maya wood selection and forest exploitation: a view from the Paynes Creek salt works,Belize

Ancient building construction wood preserved in a peat bog below the seafloor in a shallow mangrove lagoon in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, provides an exceptional record of Classic Maya wood use. Identifications of construction wood at Early Classic Chan B'i, and Late Classic Atz'aam Na, are reported and discussed to assess forest exploitation and species selection over time. Black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) dominates the Early Classic assemblage. The Late Classic assemblage is characterized by greater variability and an absence of mangrove species. When considered in the environmental context, identified species conform to principles of optimal foraging. The change in the wood assemblage over time suggests overexploitation of forest resources, resulting in deforestation of the local landscape and subsequent adaptation of foraging behavior. Deforestation is linked to the wider social context in which growing inland populations created demand for salt, putting greater pressure on the forest resources exploited by the Paynes Creek salt works for fuel and timber.     

Applying forensic techniques to interpret cranial fracture patterns in an archaeological specimen

This paper presents some of the basic principles of bone fracture physics and outlines characteristics used by forensic anthropologists to distinguish gunshot trauma from blunt trauma. The fracture pattern of a cranium from a historic cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee provides an example of how the mechanism of trauma could be misinterpreted. The pattern of the perimortem fractures is indicative of gunshot trauma with a bullet entering one side of the vault and impacting the opposite side. Identification of radiating fractures, concentric heaving fractures, and observation of the direction of bevel on the fractured surfaces are essential for interpretation of the mechanism that produced the injury.     

Collapse,Sustainability, and the Environment: How Authors Choose to Fail or Succeed

Collapse is a perennial topic among historical scholars, and a favorite source of lessons for our future. Collapse literature often reflects contemporary fears and aspirations. The four books discussed here mirror today's concern with anthropogenic environmental degradation and climate change, and for better or worse, influence a reading public far beyond the academy. Two books focus on an individual collapse—the Classic Maya—and two aspire to a broader treatment. They are unequally successful in their outcomes.