Carina A.
IEZZI The Mycenaean Women of Central
Greece
A detailed
bioarchaeological examination of Late Bronze Age
Mycenaean (Late Helladic III B and C) skeletons from the
East Locris region of Central Greece represents the first
analysis of a large-scale sample of human remains from
this time period and geographic area. The burials were
derived from twenty-nine rock cut chamber tombs spanning
four different environmental zones (coastal, plain,
mountain, and valley) and were recovered by the Greek
Archaeological Service during rescue excavations
subsequent to discovery and damage done by modern tomb
looters. The majority of the excavated individuals are
from secondary commingled burials, although several
incomplete primary burials are also present.
While the archaeological study of burial
customs can offer important information about prehistoric
cultures and their social structure and can be used to
predict a
number of things about the people once buried within
graves, it is imperative to consider the biological
dimension of the individuals who occupy these graves.
After all, it is these humans who created the material
culture that is studied.
The physical anthropological examination of
skeletonized remains provides direct
evidence for what life held for past populations. This
data, when coupled with other avenues of study, including
archaeology, provides an integrated approach that can
coax more information out of archaeological contexts than
any one method could alone.
This paper describes and discusses health
levels of each of the four, aforementioned, excavated
sites by comparing and contrasting them to one another.
The contrasting environments are used as predictors of
biological well-being and to detect potential health
differences between age groups or the sexes.
Archaeological and environmental data from the region
provide estimates of social status and potential
inter-site connections. For purposes of this
investigation, the term "health" refers to a combination
of six variables, each of which leave telltale indicators
on bone: anemia, osteoporosis, flattening of the upper
leg bone (platymeria), osteoarthritis, femoral neck
reaction area, and age at death. Together, these factors
represent and contribute to different aspects of health
status.
Osteological analysis of
the Locrian burials indicates that the remains represent
a minimum of 186 individuals of all age ranges and both
sexes. There were 61 women, 62 men, 20 individuals of
indeterminate sex, and 43 subadults. A brief overview of
the entire collection will be presented, followed by a
focus on specific health factors affecting the women.
Skeletal variables indicating health levels within and
between each of the sites were assessed and compared
statistically to determine the strength of each
relationship.
Results of the statistical analyses indicate
that, overall, there is a significant (95% likelihood)
difference in health levels between coastal and inland
sites. When "health" is broken down into its component
parts, it becomes clear that the frequency of certain
variables is higher at some sites than others.
Specifically, there are significantly higher frequencies
of anemia, platymeria, and osteoarthritis at both of the
inland sites. When the data are investigated in terms of
health differences between the sexes, variables, such as
anemia and osteoporosis, are significantly more frequent
among women, while others- osteoarthritis and femoral
neck conditions- are consistently associated with men.
The potential significance of these findings- and what
was not found- are then discussed in terms of the roles
environment and culture of the Mycenaean era may have
played.