Open sepulchers and closed boundaries? Biodistance analysis of cemetery structure and postmarital residence in the late prehispanic Andes

Biological distances between Late Holocene hunter‐gatherers from the lower Paraná wetland (Argentina)

INTRODUCTION

This study assesses the biological affinity between Late Holocene hunter-gatherers that inhabited the region of the lower Paraná wetland (Argentina) at the end of the Late Holocene (1800-700 years BP).

METHODS

Cranial nonmetric traits were registered in 159 adult individuals of both sexes. Biodistances were estimated between environmental and archaeological units through Smith's Mean Measure of Divergence, Mahalanobis distance, multidimensional scaling, F_st index, and R-matrix. Biological distances concerning temporal and geographic distances between the archaeological sites were also evaluated through Mantel and partial Mantel tests.

RESULTS

The environmental units showed statistically significant biodistances according to a distance spatial pattern but low genetic differentiation between groups. Additionally, some archaeological sites with median radiocarbon dates around 700 years BP also presented statistically significant biodistances.

CONCLUSIONS

Gene flow and genetic drift could be responsible for the observed biodistance results. These processes gave rise to different subpopulations of hunter-gatherers with a shared material culture, whose territorial limits could have been reinforced around 700 years BP or earlier.

Population level comparisons in central Mexico using cranial nonmetric traits

OBJECTIVES

We study the genetic diversity between Classic Teotihuacan and its neighboring towns trying to understand how far or close they are at the genetic level.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We use cranial nonmetric traits to study a sample of 280 adult skulls from archaeological sites running from the late Preclassic to the early Postclassic. Samples of Classic Teotihuacan were studied for La Ventilla and San Sebastián Xolalpan neighbors. For the Epiclassic period, samples from Xaltocan, Toluca valley, Mogotes and Xico were used. For the Preclassic and Postclassic samples from Xico were also used. We used a parametric bootstrap for the mean measure of divergence for the statistical analysis.

RESULTS

Samples from Xico have small biodistance from Preclassic to Postclassic. Samples from Los Mogotes differ depending on the functional context of deposition, with individuals from household burials (funerary) differing from non-funerary, ceremonial interments and exhibiting affinities to Epiclassic samples from Toluca valley. Epiclassic populations from Xaltocan vary significantly from any samples analyzed. Samples from Classic period Teotihuacan vary considerably among them but form a separate genetic group from all the other populations under study.

CONCLUSIONS

The great biodistance separation among Classic Teotihuacan and its neighbor villages of central Mexico let us conclude that, contrary from the classical idea that those villages were confirmed by the inhabitants of Teotihuacan's collapse: They indeed remain as separate populations by themselves.

Three cases of brachydactyly type E from two commingled tombs at the Late Intermediate period - Late Horizon site of Marcajirca, Ancash, Peru

OBJECTIVE

Here we present the first known examples of brachydactyly from an Andean archaeological context by describing the affected bones, presenting a differential diagnosis, and discussing the cultural implications of there being shortened metapodials in multiple tombs.

MATERIALS

3232 well-preserved tubular bones representing an MNI of 250 human adults.

METHODS

Each bone was visually inspected. Measurements were taken with an osteometric board, sliding calipers, and a flexible tape measure.

RESULTS

Of 1210 metapodials excavated from eight burial contexts, ten were atypically short.

CONCLUSIONS

The ten shortened elements represent an MNI of three individuals with brachydactyly from two tombs. The presence of at least two individuals with brachydactyly in one tomb adds support to a previous suggestion that tombs were used for familial interment. It is plausible that the third individual from a different tomb was related to the other two, and the different burial contexts may reflect postmarital practices.

SIGNIFICANCE

These cases offer insight into tomb use and underscore the importance of identifying rare developmental anomalies in the archaeological record as their presence may indicate genetic relationships within or among archaeological cemeteries.

LIMITATIONS

With commingled contexts and incomplete recovery of skeletal remains, individualizing the brachydactylous elements was not possible. There is also a lack of comparative data from other Andean sites.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Identify more Andean cases of brachydactyly to learn if the relatively frequent involvement of the first digit is more common among Andean skeletal samples than North American, or if it is unique to Marcajirca.

Cranial modification and the shapes of heads across the Andes

This broad literature review considers advances in the study of cranial vault modification with an emphasis on investigations of Andean skeletal remains over the last two decades. I delimit three broad categories of research, building on Verano's synthesis of the state of Andean paleopathology in 1997. These are associations with skeletal pathological conditions, classification and morphology, and social identity. Progress is noted in each of these areas with a particular emphasis on methodological advances in studying morphology as well as the growth of contextualized bioarchaeology and the incorporation of social theory in the consideration of cranial modification as a cultural practice. The article concludes with avenues for future research on head shaping in the Andes specifically and paleopathology more broadly.