Michele R. Buzon

Strontium Isotope Evidence for Prehistoric Migration at Chokepukio, Valley of Cuzco, Peru

Although Spanish chroniclers referred frequently to coerced migration in the Inca Empire, these migrations have been difficult to document archaeologically. One approach to migration studies, strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) analysis, has emerged as an effective technique. Until now, however, this method has not been applied to the Inca heartland region of Cuzco, Peru. In this study, we use strontium isotope analysis to examine patterns of prehistoric migration in the Cuzco Valley. Human dental enamel samples from the Cuzco Valley site of Chokepukio are analyzed and compared to the local 87Sr/86Sr signature established through faunal specimens. Though tentative due to a small sample size, the isotope results do not provide evidence for migration at this site from the time periods preceding the rise of the Inca Empire (200 B.C. to A.D. 1400). In contrast, there is substantial evidence for migration during the time of Inca imperialism (A.D. 1400–1532). Among these migrants, variation in 87Sr/86Sr values suggests that individuals emigrated from geologically diverse locations, while sex differences in the migrant group include a higher percentage of females and a greater diversity in female 87Sr/86Sr values. These data, along with ethnohistoric evidence, reveal how Inca labor policies reconfigured the composition of populations in the imperial heartland.

Biological and Ethnic Identity in New Kingdom Nubia: A Case Study From Tombos

Past studies of culture contact have often used the concepts of unidirectional modification of a subordinate population by a socially dominant group. Reevaluations of these ideas suggest that this paradigm is not appropriate for all situations. The examination of power relations in such alternative circumstances provides insights into human agency, as it highlights the dynamic, bidirectional interactions that can occur between two cultures. The relationship between the peoples of ancient Nubia and Egypt provides an excellent opportunity to study alternative power relations in a welldocumented cultural context. During the New Kingdom period (ca. 15501050 BC), Egypt succeeded in occupying most of Nubia. At the site of Tombos, located in northern Sudan, Egyptianization of Nubians makes it impossible to judge from textual and archaeological evidence who ruled Nubia: Egyptian colonists or Nubian leaders. Analysis of cranial measurements of individuals from Tombos and other comparable sites, in conjunction with archaeological indications of ethnicity, suggests that Tombos was inhabited by an ethnically and biologically mixed group of people who used ethnic symbols in advantageous ways.

Strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) variability in the Nile Valley: identifying residential mobility during ancient Egyptian and Nubian sociopolitical changes in the New Kingdom and Napatan periods.

As a successful technique for identifying residential mobility in other areas, this study investigates the feasibility of using 87Sr/86Sr analysis to track the movements of the ancient peoples of Egypt and Nubia in the Nile Valley, who interacted via trade, warfare, and political occupations over millennia. Dental enamel from faunal remains is used to examine variability in strontium sources in seven regional sites; human enamel samples are analyzed from eight Nile Valley sites in order to trace human movements. The faunal samples show a wide range of 87Sr/86Sr values demonstrating that some animals were raised in a variety of locales. The results of the human samples reveal overlap in 87Sr/86Sr values between Egyptian and Nubian sites; however, Egyptian 87Sr/86Sr values (mean/median [0.70777], sd [0.00027]) are statistically higher than the Nubian 87Sr/86Sr values (mean [0.70762], median [0.70757], sd [0.00036], suggesting that it is possible to identify if immigrant Egyptians were present at Nubian sites. Samples examined from the site of Tombos provide important information regarding the sociopolitical activities during the New Kingdom and Napatan periods. Based on a newly established local 87Sr/86Sr range, human values, and bioarchaeological evidence, this study confirms the preliminary idea that immigrants, likely from Egypt, were present during the Egyptian New Kingdom occupation of Nubia. In the subsequent Napatan period when Nubia ruled Egypt as the 25th Dynasty, 87Sr/86Sr values are statistically different from the New Kingdom component and indicate that only locals were present at Tombos during this developmental time.

Investigating health at Kerma: Sacrificial versus nonsacrificial individuals

This analysis examines heterogeneity in risks by assessing the health status of individuals in two distinct burial contexts from the Nubian site of Kerma: sacrificial (n = 100) and nonsacrificial (n = 190) burial areas dated to the classic Kerma period ( approximately 1750-1500 BC). Indicators of physiological stress that were examined include cribra orbitalia, dental enamel hypoplasia, tibial osteoperiostitis, and femur length. The analysis presented here shows that the people interred in the sacrificial and nonsacrificial burial contexts at Kerma in Upper Nubia had similar health profiles that were comparable with other contemporaneous samples from the region. If sacrificial individuals did not experience the same risk of death as nonsacrificial individuals, it was not evident in the frequencies of nonspecific stress indicators. However, this differential risk of death may be blurred by our inability to examine nonadults for childhood disease. This research demonstrates the complexities involved in understanding the multiple factors that result in heterogeneity in skeletal samples.

Bilateral fractures of the scapula: Possible archeological examples of beatings from Europe, Africa and America

Traumatic injuries to the scapula have received little attention in the paleopathological literature. They are rarely encountered in medical emergencies today due to the overlying muscles that protect the bone; they comprise just 1% of all fractures. This collaborative project brings together five cases of bilateral fractures of the scapulae in four ancient populations from three different time periods and three continents (France, Sudan and USA). It is thus an opportunity to interpret bilateral scapula fracture etiology by suggesting a cause that could have been present in all contexts, namely direct trauma such as might take place during beating with heavy sticks or other blunt force weapons. We also argue that oval defects with rounded margins in scapular bodies are less likely to be congenital anatomical variants than the result of healed trauma.

Tombos during the Napatan period (∼750–660 BC): Exploring the consequences of sociopolitical transitions in ancient Nubia

This study examines the consequences of the sociopolitical transition in the Nile Valley from New Kingdom Egyptian control (18-20th Dynasties of Egypt, ∼1550-1069 BC) to Napatan Nubian rule (25th Dynasty of Egypt, ∼750-660 BC) through the analysis of skeletal remains and mortuary ritual at the site of Tombos in Upper Nubia (modern Sudan). Demographic variables as well as indicators of nutritional deficiency and infectious disease (linear enamel hypoplasia, cribra orbitalia, osteoperiostitis, and femur length) are used to assess the effects of governmental changes on people living in Nubia during these periods. It is evident from the skeletal sample that the Egyptian-Nubian community at Tombos continued to thrive after the fall of the New Kingdom Egyptian empire. Drastic differences in linear enamel hypoplasia and osteoperiostitis are not apparent in the New Kingdom and Napatan components at Tombos. However, an increased level of remodeled cribra orbitalia along with greater average femur length in the Napatan female cohort indicates better recovery from times of nutritional and infectious conditions in comparison with the New Kingdom individuals. Variable circumstances experienced by New Kingdom Egyptian colonists at Tombos, as well as genetic differences, may account for the observed frequencies of these paleopathological indicators.

Health and Disease in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco: Skeletal Evidence from a Forgotten Cemetery

Burials from the Legion of Honor cemetery provide osteological evidence of the living conditions experienced by economically disadvantaged people who died in San Francisco during the last half of the 19th century. Comparisons suggest their lives were similar to those of other lower-class 19th-century Americans. Rapid population growth, overcrowded housing, sanitation problems, and water contamination probably contributed to the shared disease patterns seen in urban areas throughout the United States in the mid-19th century. Some significant population differences, however, do exist. The relatively high frequency of enamel hypoplasia in the Legion of Honor population may be attributed to conditions unique to San Francisco’s urban poor as well as to the stressful conditions the city’s immigrants faced as children in their places of origin. The lower frequency of nasal fractures may be attributed to changing patterns of interpersonal violence associated with the commercialization of boxing during the early-20th century.

Symbolic equids and Kushite state formation: a horse burial at Tombos

Abstract The recent discovery of a well-preserved horse burial at the Third Cataract site of Tombos illuminates the social significance of equids in the Nile Valley. The accompanying funerary assemblage includes one of the earliest securely dated pieces of iron in Africa. The Third Intermediate Period (1050–728 BC) saw the development of the Nubian Kushite state beyond the southern border of Egypt. Analysis of the mortuary and osteological evidence suggests that horses represented symbols of a larger social, political and economic movement, and that the horse gained symbolic meaning in the Nile Valley prior to its adoption by the Kushite elite. This new discovery has important implications for the study of the early Kushite state and the formation of Kushite social identity.

Illuminating the Nubian 'Dark Age': a bioarchaeological analysis of dental non-metric traits during the Napatan Period.

The origins of one of the most powerful sociopolitical entities of the Nile Valley, the Napatan State (850-650BCE), are debated. Some scholars have suggested local development of this influential Nubian State, while others propose foreign involvement. This study uses a bioarchaeological approach to examine the biological affinity of these Ancient Nubians. The focal site of this research, Tombos, is one of few non-central Napatan Period sites that have been excavated and can, therefore, shed light on the broader Napatan populace. Dental non-metric trait frequencies were examined in the Tombos sample as well as in 12 comparative samples to elucidate the biological affinities of these populations. Analyses indicate that Tombos dental non-metric trait frequencies were not significantly different from the majority of Egyptian and Nubian samples examined here. Therefore, we propose that gene flow, encouraged by long-term coexistence and intermarriage in Nubia, created an Egyptian/Nubian transcultural environment. These findings suggest the Napatan population at Tombos included descendants of Egyptians and Nubians. The Napatan Tombos sample was found to significantly differ from the latter Kushite and Meroitic samples; however, these samples are so temporally removed from the Napatan Period, we suspect subsequent episodes of population movement may have contributed to this variation.

A diachronic examination of biomechanical changes in skeletal remains from Tombos in ancient Nubia

Using morphometric assessment, we diachronically analyse mechanical stress and limb function at the Tombos (modern Sudan) archaeological site through time and changing socioeconomic circumstances. Based on previous research, we expect that during the Third Intermediate/Napatan (c. 1070-656 BCE) people were larger and more physically active than in the New Kingdom (∼1400-1070 BCE). On the appendicular skeleton of adults 57 measurements were obtained on individuals from 67 discrete burials and 370 commingled skeletal elements. These raw measurements were analysed statistically. Individuals from the discrete burials were used to calculate body mass and estimate mechanical behaviour (torsional and bending rigidity of long bones) modeled using beam theory across several bones of the upper and lower limbs. Body mass estimates for both sexes show people during the Third Intermediate/Napatan period were statistically significantly larger. On the upper limb for both sexes, variation reflects joint stabilisation and actions of flexion and extension at the elbow and/or supination/pronation of the forearm. On the lower limb, females show variation related to weight bearing activities and foot flexion; male variation is related to weight bearing activities, joint movement and stabilisation. These data point to altered habitual behaviour and physical activity for both sexes at Tombos through time. Suggested causes for both sexes include increased agricultural activities, and for males increased granite quarrying and equestrian activities. Using analyses of multiple bones of the upper and lower limbs in conjunction with biomechanical analyses, this study demonstrates the importance of the examination of physical activities in past populations, highlighting changes that can occur with sociopolitical transitions.