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Wiley, American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 2(182), p. 237-263, 2023

DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24817

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Multivariate assessments of activity‐related skeletal changes: Interpreting Bell Beaker specialized male archery and social organization in Central Europe

Journal article published in 2023 by J. Ryan‐Despraz ORCID, S. Villotte ORCID, J. Desideri ORCID, M. Besse ORCID
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

AbstractObjectivesThe Bell Beaker period witnessed the rise of individual inhumations with “wealthy” burial contexts containing archery‐related grave goods, leading archaeologists to label the individuals in these tombs as “archers.” This study looks to (1) compare the skeletons from male “archer” burials with those from male “non‐archer” burials—those not having archery‐related grave goods—in order to assess a possible link between burial context and physical activity, and (2) apply a biomechanics profile to evaluate whether the individuals associated with these “archer” burials practiced specialized archer activity.Materials and MethodsThe corpus (males only) included 46 “archers” and 40 “non‐archers” from Bell Beaker individual inhumations. Osteological data included measurements, scores of entheseal changes, and a diagnosis of certain pathologies. Data analyses involved visual observations, hypothesis tests, dimension reduction, and MANOVA, with approaches aimed at exploring the treatment of data missingness.ResultsMeasurement data revealed no differences between the two groups. Evaluations of entheseal changes found that “non‐archers” had consistently more instances of bone surface modifications than “archers.” Individual assessments of specialized archer occupation identified 11 possible specialized archers.DiscussionThese findings indicate a possible labor differentiation represented through the presence of a probably prestigious “archer” burial context. This suggests a link between grave good presence and labor, but not between a Bell Beaker archery occupation and an “archer” burial context. Data analyses support the application of biomechanics to osteological analyses in order to assess specialized activity on the skeleton.