ANT101H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Epiphyseal Plate, Enamel Hypoplasia, Bioarchaeology
Document Summary
Bioarchaeology: study the human biological components of the archaeological record. Age & sex profile of a population. Mortality profiles: age & sex data of burials. Human bones reflect the isotopic ratios of plants ingested during life. Look at ratio of carbon isotopes in bone collagen. Hi c4 plants in diet bones with higher ratio of c13 t0 c12 than diets low in c4 plants. Human behavior is involved in the assemblage. Bones lie more or less the way they were when the hunters left. Identify the bones (compare to faunal collection) 1st assign every fragment to an element (e. g, proximal end of rib; phalange)- skeletal part of the body) 2nd assign every fragment to a taxon (species, genus, family, order) Look for evidence of human activity on bones. Tooth marks (carnivorous tooth marks); cut marks. Meaningful patterns in bone evidence may indicate human activity. Raw number of identified bones (specimens) per species.
