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Close-up view of the occipital region of the 14 cranium. Note the moderately developed occipital torus. A slight retromastoid process is present (photo A. Khudaverdyan).
Source publication
The Late Bronze Age skeletal remains found at the Black Fortress burial site, Armenia, were examined. Thirteen skeletons from cemetery were analyzed macroscopically and radiographi-cally for pathological conditions. The results revealed a range of palaeopathologies, including trauma, joint diseases, dental pathology, and various other conditions th...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... occipital torus, the site where the trapezius muscle originates, is developed in burial 14 from the Black Fortress (male, 25-30 years) and discrete tubercles are present (Fig. 4). Further pathologies include a slight retromastoid process, which is whe- re the oblique muscle is inserted. The occurrence of these structures in the occipital bone has been attri- buted to physical activity and habitual motion, such as lifting and transporting heavy ...
Citations
... A female warrior was discovered in the burial N 37 in Black Fortress burial ground (Late Bronze Age), which is situated in the Shirak Province of Armenia (Khudaverdyan, 2014a). The woman had been most likely exposed to direct blows to the defensive shield (parry fracture). ...
Study of the bone remains of two female warriors from Jrapi (Shirak province, Armenia) burial ground (Burial 3) revealed a multiple array of traumatic lesions, which shed light on their daily activities, occupation, and warfare practice. Both women had compressive cranial lesions with the signs of healing. A bronze arrowhead once embedded in the soft tissues of the intercostal space was discovered as well as a canal in the lower epiphysis of the tibia probably left by the broken point of a bronze arrowhead. The women were likely horse riders and archers. The remains unearthed in Burial N 3 belonged to two females who seemed to live as professional warriors and were buried as individuals of rank. This tomb is the third burial discovered in Armenia that provides evidence on female warriors.
... Perimortem trauma generally does not exhibit evidence of healing, however both antemortem and perimortem traumata will follow patterns that relate to mechanisms of injury, which are usually consistent and predictable to some degree and relate to the biomechanics of the body(Lovell 2007, Passalacqua and;Figure 4.2). Well-recognised eponymous injury patterns, such as Colles' and Monteggia fractures or Bankart and Hill-Sachs lesions, are all recognisable in dry bone, and have been found in archaeological contexts where they can be linked to activity or simply accidental injury (e.g.Khudaverdyan 2014, Lovell 2014a, Martin and Harrod 2015, Miles 2000. Other injuries, especially ...
In the Late Bronze Age, the city of Azekah was a regional centre that probably prospered under the sponsorship of Egyptian rulers. However, the city was destroyed in the late 12th Century BCE by an unknown cause and abandoned thereafter. Building T2/627 was destroyed in this event: the building burned and collapsed, trapping four of Azekah’s inhabitants inside. The arrangement of artefacts shows that this was a sudden disaster, leaving little time to prepare to evacuate. Between 2012 and 2014, the remains of these four individuals were excavated by the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition. The lives and deaths of these individuals were reconstructed using the approach of osteobiography. Age at death and sex estimations were integrated with discussions of pathology, trauma, and musculoskeletal stress, to propose reconstructions of habitual activity and aspects of health and diet. Bone fractures and colour changes were classified and staged to give an estimate of fire conditions from the time of death, and postmortem scavenging patterns were discussed to attempt to explain the missing limbs and characterise the site after the destruction. The information from these analyses was taken into context with what is currently known about the history and archaeology of this region, to produce four portraits of life at ancient Azekah.
It was found that these individuals suffered from anaemia and other systemic illness during their lives. Patterns of musculoskeletal stress markers showed that they were likely highly active. In the context of artifacts recovered from the building, the markers suggest that specific activities included grinding grain and carrying heavy objects. After the destruction, it seems that the bodies burned quite extensively. The overall impression of high-temperature fire conditions drawn from bone colour changes contrasted with the relative lack of heat-induced fracturing of the remains and the absence of clear pugilistic posture. Possibly, a very hot fire aided by flammable goods stored in the building caused the building to collapse on top of these individuals and protect their bodies from some of the effects of heat alteration. Together, these lines of evidence enhanced our understanding of these individuals’ ways of life and manners of death against the backdrop of Azekah’s destruction.
... 21 As we see in several Late Antique cemeteries in the plain of Chirak, in Armenia. The study of 213 skeletons from six cemeteries in this region shows that the injuries are detected primarily in male tombs and the skeletal markers of activity evidenced lesions resulting from combat predominantly in the skull (Khudaverdyan 2014). 22 It is not easy to distinguish antemortem, perimortem and postmortem fractures. ...
In this paper we want to present some biomolecular and bioanthropological research concerning Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in Europe. Limiting ourselves to this subject we highlight how Science can help archaeologists, and of course historians, through analytical methods regarding issues such as geographical origin, migration, social mobility, kinship, diet, disease and in the same way address questions such as Ethnicity, Identity and Otherness. We want to underline how Science can help us in this way, with an analytical methodology, to rethink, through interdisciplinary and interdisciplinary analysis, issues with a high ideological content in historical and archaeological research such as Ethnicity and Identity.
... У двух женщин 40-49 лет из могильника Черная Крепость (погр. 6, 18) пораженные участки находились на теменных костях [Khudaverdyan, 2014]. Для деструктивных очагов были идентифицированы процессы перестройки и формирования новой костной ткани с признаками заживления. ...
The article studies remains from the ancient monuments of Mastara and Vardbakh, located on the territory of the Aragatsotn and Shirak provinces of Armenia. In this work, the authors analyse possible reasons for the incomplete fusion of cranial sutures in two female individuals. The relevance of the work consists in it being carried out within the framework of integrative anthropology, incorporating two of its subdisciplines: physical anthropology and paleopathology. The authors studied the physical appearance of individuals from the point of view of paleoanthropology and determined the main indicators characterising their physical development. Paleopathology, in turn, revealed traces of diseases found in the individuals. Bone remains from the above-mentioned burials were studied using X-ray diagnostic methods. In both examined cases, the skull and pelvis, as well as the near-epiphyseal part of the femur, tibia and other bones exhibit numerous, mainly lytic, lesions. A pressure increase is observed in both skulls. Both individuals exhibit unintended cradle deformation, occipital superstructures, periostitis, degenerative-dystrophic lesions of the osteoarticular apparatus, exostoses and periapical abscess. The intravital status of general health in the individuals can be characterised as dysfunctional. The changes in the individual from the Mastara (30–39 years old) in its shape and size are typical of early myeloma. In addition, Harris lines on the tibiae were identified in this individual. Lytic defects in the individual from the Vardbakh burial ground (40–49 years old) indicate metastatic carcinoma. The discovered remains suggest that the incomplete closure of the cranial sutures in the studied individuals could be caused by a malignant brain tumour.
Приведены морфологические и палеопатологические оценки останков из античных памятников Мастара и Вардбах, которые демонстрируют множество изменений скелета. Анализируются возмож-ные причины неполного смыкания черепных швов у двух индивидов женского пола. У индивида № 1 (по-селение Мастара) 30-39 лет сквозные и несквозные изменения имели характерные для ранней стадии миеломы очертания и размеры. Мы также выявили на большеберцовых костях у данного индивида ли-нии Гарриса. У индивида № 2 (могильник Вардбах) 40-49 лет отмечены дефекты литической формы, характерные для метастатической карциномы. У обоих индивидов наблюдаются непреднамеренная деформaция черепа колыбельного типа, затылочные структуры (затылочный валик (индивид № 1), позадисосцевидный отросток (индивид № 2)), периостит, дегенеративно-дистрофические поражения костно-суставного аппарата, экзостозы и периапикальный абсцесс. Ключевые слова: Армения, I в. до н.э.-III в. н.э., неполное смыкание черепных швов, миело-ма, метастатическая карцинома, мастоидит. Введение В настоящее время часто проводится всесторонний анализ палеоантропологического ма-териала с привлечением палеопатологических данных, полученных с использованием методов смежных дисциплин, в частности медицинской науки. Изучение заболеваний на костях скелета, органично дополняя палеоантропологическое исследование, позволяет более полно реконст-руировать биологическую и социальную среду обитания древних обществ. Такой подход дает воз-можность не только определить антропологический тип и остеологическую конституцию индивида (или популяций в целом), но и выявить различные морфотипы физической активности исходя из анализа остеологических маркеров, реконструировать повседневные действия древнего человека. Существуют аномалии черепа, не вызывающие патологических изменений головного мозга, и аномалии, сочетающиеся с пороками развития головного мозга и его дериватов. К первой группе относятся: наличие непостоянных (вставочных, вормиевых) костей швов, костей роднич-ков, островковых кости, непостоянных швов (метопического, внутритеменного, швов, разде-ляющих затылочную чешую), больших теменных отверстий, истончение теменной кости или теменное вдавление в виде локального отсутствия наружной костной пластинки, дырчатый че-реп и др. Аномалии и пороки развития, выделяемые во вторую группу, могут быть связаны с нарушением развития головного мозга. К этой группе относятся врожденное (краниосхизис) и приобретенное несмыкания костей черепа, краниостеноз, микроцефалия, гидроцефалия и т.д.
... Presence on the jaw is probably due to the fact that this region is not well protected by soft tissue and is prone to dental abcesses. Paleoanthropologists are frequently faced with tooth eruption anomalies during the gradual emergence of complete adult dentition, and notably disorders related to tooth impaction (34). The crown of the tooth is in position vestibular or buccal compared to others teeth is observed in Pidjut site (burial ) on the maxilla (Figure 7). ...
Antropological data from a (n=140) Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age skeletal series provide insight into health, disease, and stress levels in Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in Armenia. The samples were recovered from the Lori region during excavations in 2009 and 2015. Macroscopic (observational) analysis of the teeth relied on inspection and exploration of the teeth in their totality. The southern gracile type is characteristic for individuals of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age from Lori region. The Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age was a time of greater nutritional stress. The most common findings were the dental caries with related complications and enamel hypoplasias.
... В последующих работах затронуты различные аспекты, изучаемые специфическими направлениями палеопатологической науки: аномалии на костных останках человека [44,55,56], трепанации [21,27,29,37,43,50,57], травматизм [45, 48-51, 53-55, 61], специфика распространения стресса у древнего населения Армении [25,28,47,52,59,60], а также особенности образа жизни древнего населения различных исторических периодов, от эпохи ранней бронзы и до позднего средневековья [25,26,45,48,59,62]. ...
Since ancient times, women have been seen primarily as keepers of the home, but this has not prevented them from showing courage throughout history. Most often, women took part in battles when their home, territory or country was attacked. Anthropological material was obtained from the Jrapi cemetery as a result of the 2013-2022 rescue archaeological work in northwestern Armenia (Shirak Province). The female burials from the 8th to 6th century BC in the cemetery contained weapons. The anthropological study used a combination of visual inspection and radiography. The article lists the types of injuries found in the skeletal bones of the women. The consequences of the trauma suffered by the women are presented as antemortem and perimortem injuries. Their nature (head injuries, arrow and weapon wounds) indicate a violent event that led to serious injury or death of these women. These data provide evidence of the paramilitary nature of the local population.
