Early urbanization and mobility at Tell Brak, NE Syria: The evidence from femoral and tibial external shaft shape

Publication date: Available online 15 November 2014 Source:HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology Author(s): Arkadiusz Sołtysiak Urbanization at Tell Brak began in the late 5th millennium BCE and the site reached its maximum size in the Late Chalcolithic (LC) 3, c. 3900-3600 BCE. During that time a large midden was formed at the edge of the early city, now known as Tell Majnuna. Rescue excavations at Tell Majnuna revealed several clusters of commingled human remains and a cemetery on the top. Several human skeletons dated to the LC 3 and Early Bronze Age (EBA) were found also at Tell Brak itself and it was possible to investigate differences in cross-sectional femoral and tibial shaft shapes between LC 3 and EBA to test the hypothesis that rapid and extensive urbnization in the LC 3 induced increase in mobility. External midshaft and subtrochanteric measurements of at least 152 femora and measurements of 55 tibiae at the nutrient foramen were taken to investigate the differences in the level of terrestrial mobility between four LC 3 and one EBA chronological subsets. Also the correlation was examined between shaft cross-sectional shapes and frequency of linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) in canines, as a proxy indicator of population stress. Due to post-mortem damage, sex assessment was based only on the size of measured bones. In spite of the limited quality of the gathered data, significant differences in femoral midshaft shape in males were observed between the LC 3...
Source: HOMO Journal of Comparative Human Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: research