Preliminary Investigations of The Bioarchaeology of Medieval Giecz (XI-XII C.): Examples of Trauma and Stress

• Authors: Amanda M. Agnew , Hedy M. Justus
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Human skeletal remains from past populations are an invaluable source to objectively study biological history. The combined biological and cultural assessment of bioarchaeology offers a unique perspective on the adaptation of people to their environment. This study summarizes a portion of ongoing work to decipher trends related to health and lifestyle in early medieval (XI-XII c.) Giecz, Poland. The skeletal assemblage from Giecz, the “Giecz Collection”, represents a community positioned at a major center of political, economic, and religious power during this important time in Polish history. Non-violent traumatic injuries were investigated to elucidate trends related to possible types and rigor of activities and linear femoral growth trends were analyzed to assess patterns of stress. Preliminary results suggest that all members of the community (men, women, and adolescents) contributed to a lifestyle characterized by repetitive hard-work. Furthermore, it appears that most individuals suffered from health insults negatively affecting their development and perhaps their mortality.

Keywords

EN

Eastern Europe; fracture; growth; lifestyle; Poland

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Anthropological Review
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 77
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 189-203

Dates

received

2014-01-31

accepted

2014-05-27

online

2014-07-15

Contributors

author

Amanda M. Agnew

• Skeletal Biology Research Lab, Division of Anatomy, The Ohio State University College of Medicine
• Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University

author

Hedy M. Justus

• Department of Anthropology, The Ohio State University

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/anre-2014-0015