在人类骨架中追踪骑马和运输
Lauren Hosek1, Robin J James1, William T T Taylor1,2
1Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.
Science advances
|September 20, 2024
概括
关于早期骑马的考古学说依赖于骨变化,但这种方法缺乏比较数据. 研究人员概述了分析人类骨质学数据的最佳实践,以更准确地研究古代动物运输.
科学领域:
- 古人类学古人类学.
- 生物考古学的生物考古学
- 动物养的考古学
背景情况:
- 人类骨病理通常用于推断考古记录中的骑马骑行.
- 部,大腿骨和腰部的特定骨变化通常归因于长时间骑行.
- 这些特征被用来表明,在亚姆纳亚文化 (公元前第三到第四千年) 中,早期的骑马骑行.
研究的目的:
- 批判性地评估使用骨病理来推断骑马的方法论挑战和分析风险.
- 突出目前方法的局限性,因为缺乏可靠的比较数据集.
- 建议在古代动物运输的背景下对人类骨科数据进行准确分析的最佳实践.
主要方法:
- 审查现有的方法来识别与骑行相关的骨标志物.
- 分析解释这些标志物的局限性和潜在偏见.
- 讨论对比较骨科数据集的必要性.
主要成果:
- 特定的骨特征与骑马之间的直接因果关系通常在没有足够的证据的情况下被假定.
- 在解释古代人口中的这些特征时,方法上的障碍和分析风险是显著的.
- 由于没有有效的比较数据集,因此影响了当前解释的可靠性.
结论:
- 目前用于从骨遗骸中识别骑马的方法容易过度简化和潜在的误解.
- 未来的研究必须优先考虑开发和使用比较数据集来验证这些解释.
- 采用标准化最佳实践对于推进人类与动物相互作用和古代运输技术的研究至关重要.
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