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Estimating sex from burnt human remains is a challenging task in bioanthropology, mainly due to their high level of alteration and fragmentation. Protected within the petrous part of the temporal bone, the bony labyrinth may be particularly valuable for assessing the sex of burnt remains. This prospective study aims at testing predictive models, already found reliable on unburnt bony labyrinths, to burnt specimens. Six discriminant functions were applied on six bony labyrinths of donated adult cadavers of known sex, before and after outdoor burning experiments. Comparisons between unburnt and burnt measurements were executed using Mann-Whitney U tests while shape and size differences induced by fire exposure were examined through a geometric morphometrics (GM) analysis. Predicted sex on unburnt bony labyrinths was consistent with known sex in five cases while a systematic misclassification for males was highlighted on burnt specimens. Higher values of shrinkage were found in males for two measurements included in the equations. GM analysis revealed significant differences in centroid size among males after calcination. Visualization of mean consensus of both female and male bony labyrinths evidenced a reduction in cochlear size and variations in the width and length of semicircular canals of burnt specimens. This exploratory study seems to confirm that designing sex estimation standards specifically for burnt bony labyrinth may be advisable. Understanding how the burning process could impact its morphology is highly recommended through further experiments on larger samples and in controlled environments.

Urnfields were the common type of cemetery in the Late Bronze Age (LBA) and Early Iron Age (EIA) in much of Northwest Europe. Rarely are there clear social or chronological differences between burials apart from changing pottery types. The cemetery of Destelbergen stands out because of the relatively high prevalence of monumental ditches surrounding a selection of graves, indicating a certain status difference between the deceased. Strontium concentrations ([Sr]) combined with radiocarbon (14C) dates and spatial analysis bring to light clear differences between LBA and EIA traditions. The end of the LBA went hand in hand with the abandonment of the oldest part of the cemetery, which new 14C dates demonstrate was strict. Additionally, [Sr] reveal changing diets in individuals buried centrally within monumental ditches. In the EIA these individuals present significantly lower [Sr] than the surrounding burials, potentially the result of a diet richer in animal protein at the expense of plantbased food, a distinction not seen in LBA burials. Even though continuity and equality are reflected in the uniform burial tradition seen within urnfields, this paper’s analyses unlock subtle changes in social attitudes between the LBA and EIA and suggest increasing (dietary) social differentiation in the EIA.

Cremation is a complex mortuary practice, involving a number of activities of the living towards the dead before, during, and after the destruction of the bodily soft tissues by fire. The limiting information concerning these behavioral patterns obtained from the pyre remains and/or cremation deposits prevents the reconstruction of the handling of the corpse during the burning process. This pioneering study tries to determine the initial positioning of the corpse in the pyre and assess whether the deceased was wearing closed leather shoes during cremation through isotopic (δ13C, δ18O) and infrared (ATR-FTIR) analyses of experimentally burnt pig remains, used as a proxy for humans. The results obtained show that both the position of feet on or within the pyre and the presence of footwears may moderately-to-highly influence the oxygen isotope ratios of bone apatite carbonates and the cyanamide content of calcined bone in certain situations. By forming a protective layer, shoes appear to temporarily delay the burning of the underlying pig tissues and to increase the heat-shielding effect of the soft tissues protecting the bone mineral fraction. In such case, bioapatite bone carbonates exchange oxygen with a relatively more 18O-depleted atmosphere (due to the influence of lignin-derived oxygen rather than cellulose-derived oxygen), resulting in more pronounced decrease in the δ18Ocarb values during burning of the shoed feet vs. unshoed feet. The shift observed here was as high as 2.5. A concomitant isotopic effect of the initial location of the feet in the pyres was also observed, resulting in a top-to-bottom decrease difference in the δ18Ocarb values of shoed feet of about 1.4 between each deposition level tested. Finally, the presence of cyanamide (CN/P 0.02) seems to be indicative of closed footwear since the latter creates favorable conditions for its incorporation into bone apatite., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The funerary Bronze Age culture in the Belgian part of the Meuse valley is poorly understood due to the challenging nature of cremation deposits that dominate the archaeological record. Only a few sites were analysed in that region, limiting the possibilities to reconstruct the development of Bronze Age populations in Belgium. Due to its good preservation and detailed excavation reports, the site of Herstal (Belgium) offers a unique opportunity to finally gain new insights into the life and death of those buried in the Meuse Valley during the Late Bronze Age. A total of 21 graves were analysed using a multi-proxy approach, combining grave typology, osteoarchaeology, strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr), and radiocarbon dating. The 87Sr/86Sr results show that the individuals of Herstal most likely used a variety of local food supplies while having interactions with other populations in and beyond the Meuse Valley, as demonstrated by the bronze artefacts and ceramics displaying clear influences from Germany, Southern Netherlands, and North-West France. The cemetery most likely shows a local burial style with the presence of two (or even three) individuals in several cremation deposits containing a number of privileged individuals who had access to bronze trading networks., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The IsoArcH Open Science in Archaeology event took place on the 20th of May. This overview presents a brief overview of the main takeaways of the event (1-IsoArcH-Event_Summary), the programme (2-IsoArcH-Event_Programme), as well as the slides used by the speakers (3-7).

International audience; Rome saw its number of foreign individuals increase considerably as the empire expanded. These foreigners arrived as either free persons or slaves from the newly conquered provinces and nearfrontier zones and came to influence the whole life of the city. Yet relatively little is known about their life histories. In this study, we bring direct evidence for the first example of an African-born migrant, with an origin beyond the southern imperial border, discovered in Rome. Based on a multi-tissue sampling strategy including molar teeth and mandibular cortical bone, a multi-analytical approach including isotopic (δ 13 C, δ 15 N, δ 18 O, δ 34 S, 87 Sr/ 86 Sr), dental morphology (geometric morphometrics, nonmetric traits) and ancient DNA (mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosome) analyses allows reconstructing the journey and lifeway patterns of the individual US215/Mand1 buried in the mass grave from the catacombs of Saints Peter and Marcellinus. The successful isotopic and dental morphology analyses suggest that the individual was probably born in the vicinity of the Nile Valley or within the central Sahara Desert. Results also suggest a diachronic change of residence in the area during their early life. The way US215/Mand1 reached Rome is still hypothetical, although it seems likely that the individual could have undergone forced migration as a slave to the capital.

This study aims to better understand the development of group identity, mobility, and health in the Early Medieval Meuse Valley. This is achieved by combining existing demographic and palaeopathological information from 73 cremation deposits from Echt, the Netherlands, with new strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) and strontium concentrations ([Sr]) that are performed on pars petrosa, diaphysis, and rib fragments. Although the surrounding Early Medieval cemeteries practiced inhumation, the initial burial community of Echt persisted in expressing the divergent burial ritual of cremation. Thirty-two radiocarbon dates demonstrate the fifth- to sixth-century cremation deposits to be chronologically separated from the seventh-century inhumations that were preserved in situ, suggesting a subsequent burial community replaced cremation with inhumation in the seventh century. Nutritionally inadequate diets may have contributed to the relatively high prevalence of porotic hyperostosis (~ 34%), resulting from decreasing foods supplies caused by deteriorating climatic conditions. The inhabitants are postulated to have mainly consumed foods originating from the land directly surrounding their farmsteads, expressed by the great variability in the 87Sr/86Sr of the diaphyses and ribs (0.7096 to 0.7131), matching the geological complexity of the area. The lack of significant differences between the 87Sr/86Sr and [Sr] of ribs and diaphyses connotes little change in the geological origin of the foods occurred over time, stressing the importance of the yield of local harvests. In contrast, large differences in childhood (i.e. pars petrosa) vs. adult (i.e. ribs and diaphyses) 87Sr/86Sr suggest the regional movement of individuals to possibly support inter-farmstead relationships (e.g. via marriages)., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Objectives: This study aims to increase the rate of correctly sexed calcined individuals from archaeological and forensic contexts. This is achieved by evaluating sexual dimorphism of commonly used and new skeletal elements via uni- and multi-variate metric trait analyses. Materials and methods: Twenty-two skeletal traits were evaluated in 86 individuals from the William M. Bass donated cremated collection of known sex and age-at-death. Four different predictive models, logistic regression, random forest, neural network, and calculation of population specific cut-off points, were used to determine the classification accuracy (CA) of each feature and several combinations thereof. Results: An overall CA of ≥ 80% was obtained for 12 out of 22 features (humerus trochlea max. and lunate length, humerus head vertical diameter, humerus head transverse diameter, radius head max. femur head vertical diameter, patella width, patella thickness, and talus trochlea length) using univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis showed an increase of CA (≥ 95%) for certain combinations and models (e.g. humerus trochlea max. and patella thickness). Our study shows metric sexual dimorphism to be well preserved in calcined human remains, despite the changes that occur during burning. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated the potential of machine learning approaches, such as neural networks, for multivariate analyses. Using these statistical methods improves the rate of correct sex estimations in calcined human remains and can be applied to highly fragmented unburnt individuals from both archaeological and forensic contexts., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Studies of funerary practices provide information about many aspects of death in past societies. However, only limited archaeological evidence documents the circumstances under which cremations occurred and the person(s) who were performing the funerary rituals. Lying at the border between Atlantic and Continental cultural traditions, the Scheldt and Meuse basins of Belgium represent a unique location to investigate variations in ancient pyre technology and body management, as well as the transfer of knowledge related to cremation techniques during the Metal Ages (ca. 2100-52 BCE). The combined use of Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, and carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of different skeletal elements from cremation deposits from four archaeological sites clearly shows differences between the Meuse and Scheldt basins. Different wood availability or selection, and variations in the skills and/or experience of the cremation operator may explain these results. These observed differences are likely linked to ways in which cremation was performed in the two basins, indicating that during the Metal Ages, burning processes were not homogeneous in the Belgian region. Instead, cremation practices appear to align with the different cultural influences also observed in ceramics and bronze artifacts from the same time period. These observed differences in funerary practices between the two basins in Belgium show the immense potential of combining infrared and carbon and oxygen isotope analyses to investigate cremation rituals in any period and region around the world.

Le projet CRUMBEL vise à étudier la mobilité ancienne des populations sur le territoire de la Belgique, du Néolithique au début du Moyen Âge. Pour atteindre ces objectifs de recherche, différents sujets seront étudiés. Dans une première phase, les anciennes collections d’os humains incinérés seront répertoriées. Des échantillons provenant des sites funéraires feront ensuite l’objet d’analyses archéométriques des isotopes stables et de datations radiocarbones. The CRUMBEL project aims to investigate the mobility of the former population in Belgium from the Neolithic period until the Early Middle Ages. To reach these research goals different topics will be studied. In a preliminary phase, the ancient collections of cremated bone will be documented. A selection of these funerary sites will be studied to understand the mobility using different archaeometric approaches as stable isotopes and radiocarbon dating to obtain reliable information on earlier mobility in Belgium.

Objectives: The Falys–Prangle-method assesses age-related morphological changes to the sternal clavicle end (SCE), enabling the observation of mature adults from the 5th decade onwards in unburnt human skeletal remains. The aim of this study is to investigate the applicability of the Falys–Prangle-method on burnt human remains. Materials and methods: Fifty-two SCE of 40 cremated individuals (out of 86) from the William M. Bass collection of the Forensic Anthropology Center (Knoxville, Tennessee) of known age-at-death and sex are available for assessment. Surface topography, porosity, and osteophyte formation are evaluated, after which the calculated composite score is associated with the corresponding age range as described by Falys and Prangle. The method is also applied on an archaeological case study from Oudenburg, Belgium, dating to the Roman period. Results: The assessed age ranges strongly agree with the true age ranges (α = 0.828), suggesting the Falys–Prangle-method to be applicable on burnt human remains. The case study from Oudenburg yields markedly improved age-at-death estimates, significantly enhancing our understanding of the age distribution within this community. Discussion: Information on age-at-death is key in the construction of biological profiles of past individuals. The mature adult is often invisible in the archaeological record since most macroscopic age estimation methods do not distinguish beyond 46+ years old. Our study stresses the usefulness of a large-scale application of the Falys–Prangle-method, which will increase the visibility of mature adults, especially in archaeological burnt human skeletal collections, where such information is, at present, extremely difficult to obtain., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The adoption of a new funerary ritual with all its social and cognitive meanings is of great importance to understanding social transformations of past societies. The first known occurrence of cremation in the territory corresponding to modern Belgium dates back to the Mesolithic period. From the end of the Neolithic onward, the practice of cremation was characterized by periods in which this rite was predominant and periods of contractions, defined by a decrease in the use of this funerary ritual. This paper aims to quantify such phenomenon for the first time by modeling discontinuities in burial practices through kernel density analysis of 1428 radiocarbon (14C) dates from 311 archaeological sites located in Belgium from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages. Despite possible taphonomic and sampling biases, the results highlight the existence of periods with a large uptake of cremation rite followed by periods of contractions; such discontinuities took place in correlation with changes in the socio-economical structure of local communities, as, for example, during the later Middle Bronze Age and at the end of the Roman Period., SCOPUS: cp.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Objective: This paper aims at investigating the possible existence of isotopic offsets in δ13Ccol and δ15Ncol valuesin relation to tertiary syphilis.Material: Based on materials from the 19th c. A.D. deriving from the pathological-anatomical reference collection(the Jedlička collection) of the National Museum in Prague (Czech Republic), a comparative approach often individuals with syphilis and nine without the disease was undertaken.Methods: Bone powder samples were defatted according to the protocol of Liden et al. (1995). Bone collagen wasextracted following the protocol of Bocherens et al. (1991).Results: Our results show that individuals with syphilis have lower δ13Ccol values than individuals without thedisease; the observed difference between the two groups is about 0.3-0.4‰, which is relatively small but stillmeaningful. However, no difference between δ15Ncol values of the two groups has been noticed.Conclusions: Either diets prescribed by physicians to syphilitic patients or nutritional stress caused by cyclicappetite disturbance due to the disease itself or the administered medical treatment appeared to be possibleexplanations of the observed isotopic pattern. Overall, the response of the two isotopic proxies could argue forrelatively limited nutritional restrictions.Significance: This is the first study examining bone collagen isotopic response to syphilis based on clinicallydocumented human skeletal materials.Limitations: The sample sizes are relatively small and cautiousness must be taken regarding the interpretations ofthe data.Suggestions for further research: Compound-specific stable isotope investigations and analysis of mercury contentcould be helpful to better understand the observed isotopic effects., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

One of the oldest objects in the archaeological collection from Ghent University is an urn from the region of Tongerlo. The urn belongs to the Late Bronze Age as has been proven by the typochronological study as well as the radiocarbon date on a cremated bone. The osteological study has shown that the remains of two persons a young juvenile and an adult were deposited in the urn. This phenomenon is not unknown in other regional urnfield cemeteries, although until now mostly neonates together with women have been identified.

The paper deals with the history, results and perspectives of izotopic studies in archaeology of Mediterranean.

This paper describes IsoArcH, a new web-based database of isotopic data for bioarchaeological samples from the Graeco-Roman world and its margins. IsoArcH was designed as a cooperative platform for the dissemination of isotopic data and associated archaeological information. IsoArcH follows the open access model and is freely accessible online ( http://www.isoarch.eu ). Created for paleodietary, paleomobility and paleoenvironmental reconstruction research purposes, IsoArcH compiled to this day published isotopic data for human, animal, and plant remains, as well as organic residues, from nearly 300 sites. All data have been georeferenced allowing for their display on ancient world maps and placement into their contemporaneous geopolitical background. In this paper, several data-driven examples are shown to illustrate the research potential offered by IsoArcH.

Most of the studies investigating the diagenetic trajectory of fossil bones focus on open-air sites and very little work have been published in confined environments such as catacombs. While the stable thermal history of catacombs should favor bone preservation, the accumulation of corpses over a short period of time could favor their destruction. The aim of this study is to describe the diagenetic trajectory of 128 human bone samples coming from six different burial chambers of the catacomb of Sts Peter and Marcellinus (SSPM, Rome, Italy). A multi-proxy approach was undertaken to provide an assessment of the molecular preservation as well as a direct record of the isotopic composition itself. Collagen yield, carbon and nitrogen abundances, C:N ratio, FT-IR based collagen and carbonate contents and crystallinity index, radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis of bone collagen and carbonate indicate that both the mineral and the organic fractions are impacted by diagenesis to various degrees, and that bones originating from the small burial chambers are more affected than those coming from the large ones. While some of the bones were strongly recrystallized, the impact of bone diagenesis on the stable isotope values of bone carbonate was limited. Comparison with contemporary sites from the Latium showed that conditions prevailing in catacombs seem overall to favor, rather than disadvantage bone preservation.

Funerary practices and bioarchaeological (sex and age) data suggest that a mortality crisis linked to an epidemic episode occurred during the fifth phase of the St. Benedict cemetery in Prague (Czech Republic). To identify this mass mortality episode, we reconstructed individual life histories (dietary and mobility factors), assessed the population's biological homogeneity, and proposed a new chronology through stable isotope analysis (δ(13)C, δ(18)O and δ(15)N) and direct radiocarbon dating. Stable isotope analysis was conducted on the bone and tooth enamel (collagen and carbonate) of 19 individuals from three multiple graves (MG) and 12 individuals from individual graves (IG). The δ(15)N values of collagen and the difference between the δ(13)C values of collagen and bone carbonate could indicate that the IG individuals had a richer protein diet than the MG individuals or different food resources. The human bone and enamel carbonate and δ(18)O values suggest that the majority of individuals from MG and all individuals from IG spent most of their lives outside of the Bohemian region. Variations in δ(18)O values also indicate that all individuals experienced residential mobility during their lives. The stable isotope results, biological (age and sex) data and eight (14)C dates clearly differentiate the MG and IG groups. The present work provides evidence for the reuse of the St. Benedict cemetery to bury soldiers despite the funeral protest ban (1635 AD). The Siege of Prague (1742 AD) by French-Bavarian-Saxon armies is identified as the cause of the St. Benedict mass mortality event.

info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Aan de hand van het Digitaal Hoogtemodel Vlaanderen werd in 2016 in het bosgebied ten noorden van de abdij van Postel (Mol) een tot dan toe ongekend en bijzonder goed bewaard grafheuvelcomplex ontdekt (Meylemans et al. 2017). Dit complex werd in 2018 beschermd als archeologische site (https:// id.erfgoed.net/aanduidingsobjecten/113329). Naar aanleiding hiervan organiseerde de erfgoeddienst k.Erf (nu Stuifzand) op 15 februari 2019 een geleide wandeling voor geïnteresseerden op deze site. Op "grafheuvel 5" (fi g. 1) werd door de heer Jo Lommelen (kamer voor heemkunde Mol) tijdens deze wandeling de aanwezigheid van een aantal scherven en crematieresten opgemerkt. Deze waren met de wortelkluit van een omgewaaide boom uit de grafheuvel getrokken, en lagen verspreid bij deze kluit. De vondst werd als toevalsvondst gemeld aan het agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed. In de ochtend van 16 februari 2019 werd een terreinonderzoek uitgevoerd, waarbij de wortelkluit van de omgewaaide boom werd onderzocht en crematieresten, aardewerkfragmenten en bulkmonsters van de aarde van de wortelkluit werden verzameld. Na het onderzoek werd het door de boomval gecreëerde gat in de heuvel met aarde van de rest van de wortelkluit terug opgevuld. Er werden fragmenten van twee verschillende urnen aangetroff en. Deze werden in de mate van het mogelijke terug aan elkaar gepuzzeld in het depot van het agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed te Vilvoorde. De crematieresten werden onderzocht in het kader van het CRUMBEL-project (Dalle et al. 2019). On the basis of the Digital Height Model Flanders, in 2016 in the forest area north of Postel . Abbey (Mole) a hitherto unknown and very well preserved burial mound complex discovered (Meylemans et al. 2017). This complex was protected as an archaeological site in 2018 (https:// id.erfgoed.net/designation objects/113329). In response to of this, the heritage service k.Erf (now Stuifzand) organized on February 15, 2019 a guided walk for those interested on this site. On "burial mound 5" (fig. 1), Mr. Jo Lommelen (room for local history Mol) noticed the presence of a number of shards and cremation remains during this walk. These were with the root ball of a blown down tree pulled out of the burial mound, and lay scattered about this clod. The find was reported as a coincidence to the Real Estate Agency. In the morning of 16 In February 2019, a field survey was carried out, in which the root ball of the fallen tree was examined and cremation remains, pottery fragments and bulk samples of the soil from the root ball were collected. After investigation the hole in the hill created by the tree fall was filled with backfilled with soil from the rest of the root ball. There were fragments of two different urns were found. This were put back together as far as possible in the depot of the Immovable Heritage Agency in Vilvoorde. The cremation remains were examined in the framework of the CRUMBEL project (Dalle et al. 2019).