University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2019 Minimum Number of Individuals: A Methodological Comparison using Human Remains from Caves Branch Rockshelter in the Cayo District of Belize Caitlin Elizabeth Stewart University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Stewart, Caitlin Elizabeth, "Minimum Number of Individuals: A Methodological Comparison using Human Remains from Caves Branch Rockshelter in the Cayo District of Belize" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1693. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1693 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Minimum Number of Individuals: A Methodological Comparison using Human Remains from Caves Branch Rockshelter in the Cayo District of Belize A Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology The University of Mississippi by Caitlin Stewart May 2019 Copyright © 2019 by Caitlin Stewart All rights reserved. ABSTRACT The analysis of human remains in archaeological contexts is often complicated by the presence of highly fragmented and commingled remains. The standard methods used to help quantify the number of individuals and elements in these contexts are based upon the segmentation of whole bones. The methods provide standardization and are flexible enough to allow for the idiosyncratic nature of each context. However, this results in a lack of transparency, which is necessary to reanalyze the same sample or to compare “like” contexts, as the data collected will vary.