Browsing by Author "Bourgeois, Rebecca L."
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Item Bioarchaeological analysis of human remains from the destroyed Early Neolithic cemetery of Moty – Novaia Shamanka (Cis-Baikal)(2022) Bourgeois, Rebecca L.; Weber, Andrzej W.; Bazaliiskii, Vladimir I.; McKenzie, Hugh; Lieverse, Angela R.Moty – Novaia Shamanka (MNS) is an Early Neolithic (7560–6660 HPD cal BP) destroyed Kitoi cemetery, located on the lower Irkut River in Siberia. In 2014–2015, small rescue excavations were conducted by archaeologists from Irkutsk State University. MNS dates to the period between the two phases of use identified at the nearby Shamanka II Kitoi cemetery (Southwest Baikal). This paper presents the results of a bioarchaeological study of the human skeletal remains from MNS and discusses these findings in relation to hunter-gatherer life-history at this site and in the Cis-Baikal region. The human skeletal materials from MNS show life history markers, including isotopic signatures, consistent with the other Early Neolithic Kitoi samples. However, one individual shows anomalous isotopic signatures similar to those found, to date, only in one other Kitoi burial. Lastly and surprisingly, radiocarbon dating identified one Early Bronze Age individual (4970–3470 cal BP).Item A four-stage approach to re-associating fragmented and commingled human remains(2021) Bourgeois, Rebecca L.; Bazaliiskii, Vladimir I.; McKenzie, Hugh; Clark, Terence N.; Lieverse, Angela R.Bioarchaeological and forensic anthropological methods are limited in their ability to re-associate human skeletal remains that have been both fragmented and commingled. Although many methods for individualizing commingled remains exist, they are rendered ineffective when the level of fragmentation is high. In these contexts, human remains are often approached similarly to faunal assemblages, regarded as sets of fragmented elements rather than as groups of fragments representing an individual. This paper introduces a new, four-stage approach to identifying discrete individuals from unintentionally fragmented and commingled human remains and salvaging information from highly disturbed cemetery contexts. These stages include documentation, grouping, analysis, and evaluation, each incorporating multiple methods so as to be applicable to a wide variety of assemblages or data availability. Through this process, quantitative analyses are used to evaluate qualitative groupings. This method is applicable to skeletal collections of varying levels of preservation. To demonstrate its application, we apply this methodology to an Early Neolithic (7560–6660 HPD cal. BP) hunter-gatherer cemetery, Moty-Novaia Shamanka (MNS), located in the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia, Russia. MNS was destroyed in the 1990s for urban development and flood management, leaving the ancient skeletal remains severely fragmented and commingled. Our results identified five discrete individual groupings from 1245 human bone fragments, and eight further groupings of related fragments. Through a process of elimination, it was determined that these groupings represented at least seven distinct people. The methodological approach of this study challenges our perception of the informative value of fragmented and commingled human remains and provides an example of how future studies could approach individualization in situations where most context has been lost.