Bioarchaeology in the ancientNearEast: Challenges and future directions for the southern Levant

Abstract

The synthesis of biological anthropology, archaeology, and social theory provides a bioarchaeological model to reconstruct nuanced aspects of demography, diet, disease, death, daily activities, and biodistance, even in the absence of discrete burials. Numerous skeletal assemblages in the southern Levant are composed of mixed and fragmented bones resulting from generational use of cemeteries, mass burial, and additional communal burial practices. Others become commingled due to taphonomic processes such as flooding, geological events, or human mediated mechanisms like looting, improper excavation, and poor curation. Such collections require one to ask broader questions of human adaptability, exercise a holistic approach, use broad demographic categories, and remain cognizant of the limitations posed by fragmentation. Expanded research questions and ethical considerations, the use of centralized databases and understudied collections, as well as the application of social media, citizen science, and crowd sourcing provide new tools for bioarchaeological analyses of the many commingled ancient Near Eastern collections in the southern Levant.

A microarchitectural assessment of the gluteal tuberosity suggests two possible patterns in entheseal changes

“…However, despite numerous articles on bone microstructure in other bone regions, microanalysis of the bone at entheses has seldom been assessed microscopically in a quantitative manner. Recently, several studies have applied micro‐CT methodology to assess bone microstructural features at entheseal sites (Djukic et al, ; Rothschild, Wilhitec, McLeodd, & Tingd, ; Karakostis & Lorenzo, ; Kivell, ; Scherf, Wahl, Hublin, & Harvati, ; Yonemoto, ; Karakostis, Hotz, Scherf, Wahl, & Harvati, ; Sheridan, ; Wilczak, Mariotti, Pany‐Kucera, Villotte, & Henderson., ). However, the relationship between the microstructure and macroscopic appearance is not well understood.…”

Commingled crypts: Comparative health among Byzantine monastics in the Levant

“…Few bioarchaeological studies of Byzantine monastic or secular communities are published, largely due to systematic looting over the years, hasty excavations, construction, poor preservation and in many cases funerary commingling (Albashaireh & Al‐Shorman, ; Al‐Shorman & El‐Khouri, ; Grauer & Armelagos, ; Haas, ; Hershkovitz et al, ; Judd, ; Perry, ; Rose & Burke, ; Sheridan, , ; Zias, ). However, a detailed paleopathological description and overall assessment was published for monastics from the Sanctuary of Agios Lot at Deir 'Ain 'Abata, a contemporary desert monastery south of Mount Nebo (Gruspier, ; Politis, ).…”

The monastic mosaic at Mount Nebo, Jordan: biogeochemical and epigraphical evidence for diverse origins

“…As a result, individually lived experiences shaped by gender, ethnicity and place of origin were masked, and bioarchaeological investigations rendered problematic but not impossible. While secondary interments of skeletal remains among Early Christian monastics are well known in the southern Levant, bioarchaeological research has been constrained by the commingled nature of these collections, as well as by repatriation efforts (Judd 2009a; Perry 2012; Sheridan 2017). There are some notable exceptions from Israel (e.g.…”