Directional asymmetry in the human clavicle

The human right clavicle tends to be shorter than the left. A range of possible explanations can be advanced to account for this asymmetry. In the present work, clavicular morphology was studied in a medieval skeletal assemblage from Wharram Percy, England, with the aim of evaluating these competing explanations. At Wharram Percy, as anticipated, the right clavicle tended to be shorter. Patterns of asymmetry in curvature, robusticity, vascularization, and in the morphology of ligament and muscle attachment sites were also studied. The patterning in these data at Wharram Percy is consistent with inhibition of longitudinal growth of the clavicle on the dominant side due to lateral bias in mechanical loading, particularly in axial compression. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

THE FORMATION OF EARLY NEOLITHIC COMMUNITIES IN THE CENTRAL ZAGROS: AN 11,500 YEAR‐OLD COMMUNAL STRUCTURE AT ASIAB

Communal buildings have been reported from a number of early Neolithic sites from the Levant and Anatolia, but none were known from the central Zagros. Here we report on the recent excavations at Asiab, Kermanshah province, Iran, and argue that the principal feature found during Robert Braidwood’s excavation at the site in 1960 should be interpreted as an example of a communal building. We discuss the results of the previous and recent excavations, highlight the key features of this building, and the implications for our understanding of the early Neolithic in the ‘eastern wing’ of the Fertile Crescent.     

Book reviews

Women's Lives and Public Policy: the international experience. M. Turshen & B. Holcomb (Eds), 1993. Westport, CT, Praeger. xix + 217 pp. ISBN 0–275–94523–5 paperback, 0–313–27354–5 hardback.

Decolonizing Feminisms: race, gender and empire‐building. Laura E. Donaldson, 1992. Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Press.

African Encounters with Domesticity. K. T. Hansen (Ed.), 1992. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press. 315 pp., $42.00 hardback, $16.00 paperback. ISBN 0–8135–1803–2 hardback, 0–8135–1804–0 paperback.

Women and the Environment: a reader. S. Sontheimer (Ed.), 1991. New York, Monthly Review Press. 205 pp., $13.00 paperback. ISBN 0 85345–835 9.

Defining Females. S. Ardener (Ed.), 1993. Oxford, Berg. 216 pp., £10.95/$17.95 paperback.

Modernity and Identity. S. Lash & J. Friedman (Eds), 1992. Oxford, UK and Cambridge, MA, USA, Blackwell. 379 pp., £15.99/$19.95 paperback. ISBN 0–631–17586–5.