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Status, kinship, and place of burial at Early Bronze Age Bab adh‐Dhra': A biogeochemical comparison of charnel house human remains
Author(s) -
Gregoricka Lesley A.,
Ullinger Jaime,
Sheridan Susan G.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.23982
Subject(s) - bronze age , archaeology , kinship , strontium , isotopes of strontium , subsistence agriculture , geography , bronze , isotope analysis , demography , ancient history , ecology , history , chemistry , biology , agriculture , anthropology , sociology , organic chemistry
Objectives The Early Bronze Age (EBA; ca. 3,600–2000 BCE) of the southern Levant underwent considerable transformation as agro‐pastoral communities began to utilize their land more intensively, constructing larger, fortified towns prior to site abandonment at the end of the third millennium. At the site of Bab adh‐Dhra' in Jordan, the dead of the Early Bronze (EB) II–III (ca. 3,100–2,500 BCE) period were communally interred within charnel houses, but important disparities between these structures and their contents may be reflective of ownership and use by particular extended kin groups whose activity patterns, subsistence strategies, and even social status may have differed from one another. Subsequently, we hypothesized that differences in mobility and dietary intake may differentiate tomb groups from one another. Materials and Methods Dental enamel from 31 individuals interred in three different Early Bronze Age charnel houses (A56, A22, A55) at Bab adh‐Dhra', Jordan were analyzed for strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope values. Results Strontium isotope ratios (range: 0.70793–0.70842) possessed medians that did not differ statistically from one another, but had ranges that exhibited significant differences in variance. Carbon isotope values ( x ¯ = −13.2 ± 0.5‰, 1σ) were not significantly different. Discussion General similarities in human isotopic signatures between EB II–III charnel houses A22 and A55 suggest that their activities were likely similar to one another and agree with findings from excavated domestic spaces with little archaeological evidence for economic, social, or political differentiation. More variable strontium isotope ratios and lower carbon isotope values from A22 could reflect a greater involvement with pastoralist practices or regional trade, including the consumption of more 13 C‐depleted foods, while those in A55 may have led a more sedentary lifestyle with greater involvement in cultivating orchard crops. All charnel houses contained nonlocal individuals likely originating from other Dead Sea Plain sites with no EB II–III cemeteries of their own, supporting the idea that extended kin groups throughout the region returned to Bab adh‐Dhra' to bury their dead.