Gendered burial practices of early Bronze Age children align with peptide-based sex identification: A case study from Franzhausen I, Austria

Rebay‐Salisbury, Katharina; Bortel, Patricia; Janker, Lukas; Bas, Marlon; Pany-Kucera, Doris; Salisbury, Roderick B.; Gerner, Christopher; Kanz, Fabian

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2022.105549

Cited by 16 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…In a recent study we applied nanoflow Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectrometry (nanoLC-MS/MS) to identify sex-specific peptides in human tooth enamel in seventy children under twelve years old at death from the Early Bronze Age cemetery of Franzhausen I, Austria (Rebay-Salisbury et al, 2022), and confirmed that the sex of the children corresponds to the gendered body position in 98.4 per cent of cases. This suggests that boys and girls were strictly classified as male or female from a very young age.…”

Section: Katharina Rebay-salisburymentioning

confidence: 87%

To Gender or not To Gender? Exploring Gender Variations through Time and Space

et al. 2023

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This article is based on an EAA session in Kiel in 2021, in which thirteen contributors provide their response to Robb and Harris's (2018) overview of studies of gender in the European Neolithic and Bronze Age, with a reply by Robb and Harris. The central premise of their 2018 article was the opposition of ‘contextual Neolithic gender’ to ‘cross-contextual Bronze Age gender’, which created uneasiness among the four co-organizers of the Kiel meeting. Reading Robb and Harris's original article leaves the impression that there is an essentialist ‘Neolithic’ and ‘Bronze Age’ gender, the former being under-theorized, unclear, and unstable, the latter binary, unchangeable, and ideological. While Robb and Harris have clearly advanced the discussion on gender, the perspectives and case studies presented here, while critical of their views, take the debate further, painting a more complex and diverse picture that strives to avoid essentialism.

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Section: Katharina Rebay-salisburymentioning

confidence: 87%

To Gender or not To Gender? Exploring Gender Variations through Time and Space

et al. 2023

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“…There are certainly striking examples from some areas which strongly suggest binary understandings in particular communities (e.g. Sofaer Derevenski, 2000; Rebay-Salisbury et al, 2022), but other places lack such evidence. The beginning of the Bronze Age clearly did not bring static and ‘stable’ gender ( contra Robb & Harris, 2018: 133) to either Scotland or Ireland.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cemeteries, on the other hand, are widespread, and examples of binary orientations and/or grave good associations split between male and female bodies are well documented. Recent evidence shows this extended to children's graves at Franzhausen in Austria (Rebay-Salisbury et al, 2022). However, such cemeteries are temporally diverse: Copper Age examples in Hungary and Bulgaria (e.g.…”

Section: Gender Binaries In the European Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Gender in Earlier Bronze Age Ireland and Scotland

Haughton

2022

Eur. j. archaeol

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Gender has long been recognized as an important structuring agent in Bronze Age communities across Europe. A strong impression of binary gender emerges from some Early Bronze Age cemeteries, and models of social organization developed from this evidence have greatly influenced understandings of gender across the continent. This article focuses on two regions with more equivocal evidence: Ireland and Scotland, where idiosyncratic practices characterize individual cemeteries alongside wider trends. Expressions of gender varied in radical ways between different communities, and this cannot be captured or explained by the current grand narratives for the European Bronze Age. Instead, the author argues that gender could be subtle, contextual, and of varying importance to individual communities at different times, not necessarily a common feature unifying the European Bronze Age.

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“…Individuals were placed in the grave according to gender, with girls and women placed on the right side of the body, head south, whereas boys and men were placed on the left side of the body, head north. That gendered treatment of bodies extended to children has recently been confirmed via peptide-based sex determination [ 25 ]. Grave good selection is also gender based, and differences in the amount and value of grave goods suggest socio-economic inequalities within the community [ 30 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies of intra-population childhood diet based on isotope ratio analyses have also highlighted gendered differences in childhood diet in past populations [23,24]. Strongly gendered burial practices, even among younger children in the context of Franzhausen I, suggest gender was an important component of childhood identity in the community [25]. Recent developments in amelogenin peptide-based sex determination provide a reliable means to determine the sex of non-adult human remains [26][27][28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dental wear and oral pathology among sex determined Early Bronze-Age children from Franzhausen I, Lower Austria

et al. 2023

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The physical properties of diet and oral health throughout childhood play an important role in the development of human dentition, and differed greatly before the industrial revolution. In this study we examined dental wear and oral pathology in a sample of children from the Early Bronze-Age to investigate the physical and mechanical properties of childhood diet and related oral health. We explore cross-sectional age and sex-based variation of children in the sample. The analysis was carried out on the dentitions of 75 children, 978 teeth, excavated from the Early Bronze-Age cemetery Franzhausen I in Lower Austria. Presence of dental caries and calculus was recorded. Dental wear was measured using dentine exposure, occlusal topography, and dental microwear texture analysis. Sex determination was carried out using amelogenin peptide analysis. Caries were found in only 4 individuals (crude prevalence rate—5%, 95% CI 1% to 13%), affecting only 5 teeth (true prevalence rate—less than 1%). Dentine exposure was observed in over 70% of deciduous molars and dental wear measurements indicate a comparatively strong dental wear accumulation especially, among younger children, when compared to modern-day and later pre-industrial populations. Microwear textures presented a high complexity (Asfc > 2)/low anisotropy (epLsar < 1) profile, especially in older children. Differences between male and female children were not generally significant but increased dentine exposure was observed in the lower molars of younger female children. Our results suggest that the Early Bronze-Age children at Franzhausen I consumed a non-cariogenic diet, more abrasive and inclusive of harder/polyhedral foodstuffs than present-day children and some later Medieval children. Differences in dental wear accumulation were observed between children within the population, but with minimal variation between the sexes mostly occurring among younger children.

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Gendered burial practices of early Bronze Age children align with peptide-based sex identification: A case study from Franzhausen I, Austria

Cited by 16 publications

References 35 publications

To Gender or not To Gender? Exploring Gender Variations through Time and Space

To Gender or not To Gender? Exploring Gender Variations through Time and Space

Gender in Earlier Bronze Age Ireland and Scotland

Dental wear and oral pathology among sex determined Early Bronze-Age children from Franzhausen I, Lower Austria

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