The funerary use of caves during the Holocene in the Atlantic Western Pyrenees: New information from Atxuri-I and Txotxinkoba caves (Biscay, Northern Iberian Peninsula)

Non-metric dental analysis of human interactions around the Pyrenees during the Neolithic and their biological impact

“…BCE is fairly anecdotal (Bosch and Tarrús 1991;Blasco et al, 2005;Gonzalez et al 2011;Oms et al 2017). In the northeast of the peninsula, only around 10 sites with funerary structures of this period are known to date (García, 2007;García and Sesma, 2007;Pou et al, 2010;López Quintana et al, 2015;Oms et al, 2016;Garcia-Sagastibeltza et al, 2020a;2020b). Nevertheless, the situation changes if the focus moves towards the second half of the 5th Millennium cal BCE.…”

The Kissing Spines of Carthage

“…The cases of kissing spines in paleopathology studies tend to occur in individuals between the ages of 30 and 50. 1,8,9 Some of the kissing spine literature has examined possible activity-related etiology, from tumpline usage in pre-Columbian Amerindians of the lower Tennessee River Valley 10 to demands of marching and load carrying in Napoleonic soldiers, 11 to general hyperextension of the lumbar region. 12 However, other etiologies have been considered, and even those suggesting that activity can increase kissing spine development realize that the etiology is likely multifactorial.…”

“…Canci et al 7 found evidence of kissing spines in the fifth lumbar of a first-century AD Roman male who was between 25 and 35 years old at the time of death. The cases of kissing spines in paleopathology studies tend to occur in individuals between the ages of 30 and 50 1,8,9 …”