Year of Award

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Anthropology (Forensic Anthropology Option)

Other Degree Name/Area of Focus

Biological Anthropology

Department or School/College

Anthropology

Committee Chair

Dr. Meradeth Snow

Commitee Members

Dr. Randall Skelton, Dr. Scott Arcenas

Keywords

Entheseal Changes, Bioarchaeology, Cyprus, Commingling, Fragmentary Remains

Subject Categories

Biological and Physical Anthropology

Abstract

Entheseal changes (EC) have been used to reconstruct past human activity patterns, but little research has been done in Cyprus or outside of complete, well-preserved remains. The Kourion Amathus Gate Cemetery (KAGC) is a necropolis located on the southern coast of Cyprus. The Late-Roman (1-7 c. CE) cist graves contained commingled and fragmentary remains. Due to the commingled and fragmentary nature of KAGC, the primary purpose of this study was to see if EC analyses could be conducted on this population. Following that, this study sought to observe possible patterns of preservation as well as trends in EC data between tombs and skeletal elements. The following hypotheses were generated: (1) EC analyses can be conducted at KAGC; though (2) will be heavily impacted by fragmentation and poor preservation, though this will allow for the observation of patterns of preservation; (3) differences in EC data will be observed between some tombs; and (4) similarities will be observed between EC scores of entheses of the same element, and some entheses will display differences between sides. These objectives were accomplished through EC analysis of all adult skeletal elements that were able to be scored for the 27 entheseal sites following the method of Kyriakou (2022). Analyses produced 307 scorable elements, from 15 of the 22 cist tombs analyzed. This signified an MNI of 45, which potentially represents over half of the estimated adult population of KAGC. EC analyses were able to be conducted at KAGC, though in a limited fashion. Preservation & fragmentation had a large impact on this thesis, yet this allowed for the detection of certain preservation trends by element, element region, and by tomb. Broad, general trends were observed for EC data between tombs, with only a select few displaying differences from the rest. Most entheses of the same bone displayed similar distributions, and there were some differences between sides. While these patterns are meaningful, they do not provide information regarding the specific activity at KAGC. Despite this, the results show that EC analyses can be done at KAGC, thus allowing for future research to be conducted.

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© Copyright 2023 Hannah Burgess Carson