Evaluating Entheseal Changes from a Commingled And
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EVALUATING ENTHESEAL CHANGES FROM A COMMINGLED AND FRAGMENTARY POPULATION: REPUBLIC GROVES by Jennifer K. Dewey A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL May 2018 Copyright by Jennifer K. Dewey 2018 ii EVALUATINGENTHESEAL CHANGES FROM A COMMINGLEDAND FRAGMENTARYPOPULATION: REPUBLIC GROVES by JenniferK. Dewey This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. MeredithEllis , Department of Anthropology,and has been approved by the members of her supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Artsand Letters and was acceptedin partialfulfillment of therequirements for thedegree of Masterof Arts. SUPERVISORYCOMMIITEE: Date()p1.il t,,, « 12/'f iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS <3 iv ABSTRACT Author: Jennifer K. Dewey Title: Evaluating Entheseal Changes from a Commingled and Fragmentary Population: Republic Groves Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Meredith Ellis Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2018 The most direct way available to modern day researchers to reconstruct individual and population level behavior is to analyze markers of activity from skeletal remains (Ruff et al., 2004). An analysis of the population at the Republic Groves site (8HR4) was conducted, using the entheseal change score system, the Coimbra method, developed by Henderson et al. (2015). This study examined the implication of analyzing a commingled and fragmentary population with this methodology. Reconstructing specific behavior cannot be done with this type of approach; however, entheseal changes can be compared to specific patterns of behavior for consistency. An atlatl was found with the human remains and thus provided a suggestion of behavior for comparison. Entheses were chosen in line with a throwing motion of the atlatl and focused exclusively on the humerus, radius, and ulna. The application of the Coimbra methodology to the Republic Groves population was successful, at least in part. Overall, there was low variability of results, mostly 0, some 1, and with very few high 2 scores. The entheseal changes from v Republic Groves were consistent with the throwing of an atlatl; however, this does not mean that this is the only behavior that could have generated that kind of change. vi EVALUATING ENTHESEAL CHANGES FROM A COMMINGLED AND FRAGMENTARY POPULATION: REPUBLIC GROVES LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 1.1 Entheses ..................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Research Questions ................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND ......................................................................................... 5 2.1 Entheses Structure and Function ............................................................................... 5 2.2 Entheses Types .......................................................................................................... 7 2.3 Primary Assumption:................................................................................................. 9 2.4 Methods ................................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 3: FLORIDA ARCHAEOLOGY .................................................................. 21 3.1 Archaic Period in Florida ........................................................................................ 21 3.2 Impact ...................................................................................................................... 24 3.3 Republic Groves ...................................................................................................... 24 3.4 Human Remains Recovered .................................................................................... 27 3.5 History of Previous Research on Republic Groves ................................................. 28 vii 3.6 Comparable Archaic sites........................................................................................ 29 CHAPTER 4: MATERIALS AND METHODS .............................................................. 30 4.1 Summary of the Coimbra Methodology.................................................................. 31 4.2 Adapting the Coimbra Method to Republic Groves................................................ 33 CHAPTER 5: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................ 35 5.1 Humerus .................................................................................................................. 38 5.2 Radius ...................................................................................................................... 43 5.3 Ulna ......................................................................................................................... 45 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 52 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 54 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: List of overuse injuries ......................................................................................... 6 Table 2: Pathological conditions ......................................................................................... 7 Table 3: Characteristics of entheses .................................................................................... 9 Table 4: Confounder Variables ......................................................................................... 12 Table 5: Summaries of Methodologies ............................................................................. 14 Table 6: Reproduction of Table 1 of Henderson et al. (2015). Summary of the “New Coimbra method” ................................................................................. 19 Table 7: Entheses examined .............................................................................................. 34 Table 8: Inventory ............................................................................................................. 35 Table 9: Results of Entheses scorable ............................................................................... 36 Table 10: Descriptive statistics showing the variability of enthesis scores for the humeri ....................................................................................................... 41 Table 11: Sample size and descriptive statistics for the humeri ....................................... 42 Table 12: Descriptive statistics showing the variability of enthesis scores for the radii ........................................................................................................... 44 Table 13: Sample size and descriptive statistics for the radii ........................................... 44 Table 14: Descriptive statistics showing the variability of enthesis scores for the ulnae .......................................................................................................... 46 Table 15: Sample size and descriptive statistics for the ulnae. ......................................... 47 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Extent of zone demarcations from Henderson et al. (2015). ............................. 18 Figure 2: Delineated entheses. .......................................................................................... 34 x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Reconstructing the daily behavior of prehistoric individuals, in correlation with demographic information such as sex, age, or ancestry, can provide insight into individuals’ roles within a broader sociocultural context. This can lay the foundation for bioarchaeologists to ask wide-ranging questions of social organization, socioeconomic activities, and life conditions of ancient populations (al-Oumaoui et al., 2004; Foster et al., 2014). The most direct way available to modern-day researchers to reconstruct individual and population level behavior is to analyze markers of activity from skeletal remains (Ruff et al., 2004). To do this, bioarchaeologists have created and implemented methodologies to infer habitual activities through evaluating skeletal changes due to occupational stress. The focus of this research is to evaluate a baseline method for investigating behavior patterns within commingled populations, specifically the Republic Groves (8HR4) skeletal population housed at Florida Atlantic University. The collection of skeletal remains from this site are not contemporaneous. The dates range from 4600 B.C. to 500 B.C. This population’s skeletal remains are at times fragmentary, incomplete, and commingled. When critiquing this methodology researchers are ordinarily investigating behaviors in historic populations where known individuals with life histories can be consulted in correlation with entheseal changes. In these cases, the individuals are usually complete and those that have taphonomic damage or evidence of pathology are