Browsing by Subject "Copper age"

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    Emphasising the community: demographic composition of an exceptional tomb—the Chalcolithic burial site of Camino del Molino, Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia
    (Springer Nature, 2023-08-29) Díaz‑Navarro, Sonia; Haber Uriarte, María; Tejedor‑Rodríguez, Cristina; Lomba Maurandi, Joaquín; Prehistoria, Arqueología, Historia Antigua, Historia Medieval y Ciencias y Técnicas Historiográficas; Facultad de Letras
    Reconstructing the biological profile of a skeletal sample is essential for defining a particular demographic group or classifying isolated remains. These results allow us to complete the population pyramid of a settlement, analyse mortality trends and relate individuals of a particular sex or age-at-death category to possible funerary rituals, lifestyles and/or states of health and disease. In this work, we carry out a paleodemographic analysis of a singular tomb: the chalcolithic burial site of Camino del Molino, Murcia, SE Spain. The tomb hosted 1348 individuals (30.7% non-adults and 69.3% adults) over two contiguous funerary phases, spanning a large part of the third millennium BC, which makes it a reference site for knowledge of the Recent Prehistoric populations. For this purpose, we estimated different paleodemographic parameters (life tables, mortality rates and sex ratios) and compared them to model life tables of preindustrial populations and data from other contemporary peninsular series to evaluate possible demographic anomalies. The results suggest that Camino del Molino was home to individuals of all ages and sex. However, there is a clear under-representation of newborns and nursing/breastfeeding infants and an over-representation of 5–15-year-old individuals. These findings could indicate potential issues related to diet/weaning, disease and early inclusion in the economic activities of the group.
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    New insight into prehistoric craft specialisation. Tooth-tool use in the Chalcolithic burial site of Camino del Molino, Murcia, SE Spain
    (Elsevier, 2023-06-09) Díaz-Navarro, Sonia; García-González, Rebeca; Cirotto, Nico; Haber Uriarte, María; Prehistoria, Arqueología, Historia Antigua, Historia Medieval y Ciencias y Técnicas Historiográficas; Díaz-Navarro, Sonia; Facultad de Letras
    The study of non-alimentary tooth wear is an excellent tool to identify the development of specific activities and thus, to delve deeper into the social organisation and complexity of past populations. This paper analyses extra-masticatory wear in the dentition of a sample of 102 articulated skeletons from Camino del Molino, a unique collective tomb that housed 1,348 individuals throughout two contiguous phases spanning much of the 3rd millennium BC. After preliminary macroscopic observation of the dental sample, 8 individuals with cultural dental wear were identified and 5 of them were analysed with SEM. In all cases, the maxillary anterior dentition displays evidence that can be defined as occlusal and interproximal grooves consisting of fine, parallel striations, as well as labial notches and chipping of the enamel. The results suggest that 8 individuals, mostly women, used their dentition in craft tasks, such as in the processing of fibres for textile production, hence representing the earliest evidence of craft specialisation in the Iberian Peninsula and potential proof of a possible sex-based division of labour in a Chalcolithic community.