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Updated: Jul 20, 2025
Scanning Skeletal Remains for Bone Mineral Density in Forensic Contexts
Published on: January 29, 2018
Multivariate assessments of activity-related skeletal changes: Interpreting Bell Beaker specialized male archery and
J Ryan-Despraz1, S Villotte2,3,4, J Desideri5
1Laboratory of Prehistoric Archaeology and Anthropology, Department F.-A. Forel for Environmental and Aquatic Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Objectives:
The 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 Methods:
The 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.
Results:
Measurement 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.
Discussion:
These 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.
