Paper presented at "Uluslararası Harran ve Çevresi Tarih ve Arkeoloji Sempozyumu" (International Archaeology and History Symposium: Harran and its Vicinity), 03 November 2017
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18th European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Wien, October 23-26, 2010
18th European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Wien, October 23-26, 2010
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11. Tagung der Gesellschaft für Archäozoologie und Prähistorische Anthropologie e.V. vom 10. – 14. Oktober 2016 im Archäologischen Landesmuseum im Paulikloster in Brandenburg an der Havel
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A paleopathological investigation on skeletal remains from the Old Kingdom mastabas of Elephantine, Egyptian Nubia (approx. 2300 BC), revealed an adult male with specific lesions in the tibiae, fibulae and foot bones, characteristic of... more
A paleopathological investigation on skeletal remains from the Old Kingdom mastabas of Elephantine, Egyptian Nubia (approx. 2300 BC), revealed an adult male with specific lesions in the tibiae, fibulae and foot bones, characteristic of leprosy (MØLLER-CHRISTENSEN 1961;SCHULTZ, ROBERTS 2002)
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Research Interests: China and Ancient Nomads
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The 38 season of the German Institute of Archaeology and the Swiss Institute for Architectural and Archaeological Research on Ancient Egypt at Elephantine was carried out from October 30, 2008 till December 15, 2008 and from January 8 to... more
The 38 season of the German Institute of Archaeology and the Swiss Institute for Architectural and Archaeological Research on Ancient Egypt at Elephantine was carried out from October 30, 2008 till December 15, 2008 and from January 8 to April 4, 2009. The work on finds from earlier seasons was continued. This included studies of small finds, seal impressions and lithics dating to the Old Kingdom, pottery of the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms, and the Roman era, Nubian pottery, as well as botanical, animal and human remains. The study of architectural fragments of the temples of Satet of the Middle Kingdom, and the Greco-Roman temples of Khnum was continued, together with the conservation of the wooden columns from the palace bakery of the First Intermediate Period. Excavations were carried out in the area between the temple of Satet and the sanctuary of Heqaib, in the precinct of Khnum, and its later occupation layers and at the south-western part of the town enclosure of the 2 mille...
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For the first time, the severed right hands of 12 individuals have been analysed osteologically. The hands were deposited in three pits within a courtyard in front of the throne room of a 15th Dynasty (c.1640–1530 BC) Hyksos palace at... more
For the first time, the severed right hands of 12 individuals have been analysed osteologically. The hands were deposited in three pits within a courtyard in front of the throne room of a 15th Dynasty (c.1640–1530 BC) Hyksos palace at Avaris/Tell el-Dab‘a in north-eastern Egypt. Although this kind of practice is known from tomb or temple inscriptions and reliefs from the New Kingdom onwards, this is the first time that physical evidence has been used to learn more about the procedure and the individuals whose hands were taken. Here, we show that the right hands belonged to at least 12 adults, 11 males, and possibly one female. It is unclear if the hands were taken from dead or living individuals. After removing any attached parts of the forearm, the hands were placed in the ground with wide-splayed fingers, mainly on their palmar sides. The osteological analysis not only supports the archaeological interpretation of this evidence but also adds more detail regarding trophy-taking pra...
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Growing reliance on animal and plant domestication in the Near East and beyond during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) (the ninth to eighth millennium BC) has often been associated with a “revolutionary” social transformation from... more
Growing reliance on animal and plant domestication in the Near East and beyond during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) (the ninth to eighth millennium BC) has often been associated with a “revolutionary” social transformation from mobility toward more sedentary lifestyles. We are able to yield nuanced insights into the process of the Neolithization in the Near East based on a bioarchaeological approach integrating isotopic and archaeogenetic analyses on the bone remains recovered from Nevalı Çori, a site occupied from the early PPNB in Turkey where some of the earliest evidence of animal and plant domestication emerged, and from Ba'ja, a typical late PPNB site in Jordan. In addition, we present the archaeological sequence of Nevalı Çori together with newly generated radiocarbon dates. Our results are based on strontium ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr), carbon, and oxygen (δ 18 O and δ 13 C carb ) isotopic analyses conducted on 28 human and 29 animal individuals from the site of Nevalı Çori. 87...
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Paleopathological investigations on archaeological skele· tons of the population from liushui in Xinjiang, West China dating from the late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age were carried out on 68 individuals from 21 burials. The settlement... more
Paleopathological investigations on archaeological skele· tons of the population from liushui in Xinjiang, West China dating from the late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age were carried out on 68 individuals from 21 burials. The settlement belonging to the population has not yet been found, therefore, information about the living conditions of the population can only be obtained from paleopathological Ilndings. Even if the 50ft tissue is lacking, evi· dence of diseases of the musculoskeletal system can be seen clearly from the bone. The skeletons were examined with macroscopic and optical-microscopic techniques. To arrive at same idea about the living and working conditions of this population, stress markers of the musculoskeletal system such as, for instance, ligamentopathia, myotendo· pathia and stress fractures were diagnosed. Pathological processes of tendons occur as dylitis of the humerus (Fig. 1), knee dinitis of the Achilles' tendon (Fig. as well as tendovagi· nitis 4) an...
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The process of Neolithization in eastern Anatolia is still little known but the excavations realized since the discovery of Çayönü highlight this phenomenon, along with others Aceramic Neolithic sites discovered during Ilısu Dam... more
The process of Neolithization in eastern Anatolia is still little known but the excavations realized since the discovery of Çayönü highlight this phenomenon, along with others Aceramic Neolithic sites discovered during Ilısu Dam construction (Körtik Tepe, Gusir Höyük and Hasankeyf Höyük). The name of Boncuklu Tarla must now be added to these sites as most significant, because of the singular richness of the material and of the finding of an impressive community building. Identified in 2008, the site was excavated twice in 2012 and 2017, allowing us to date the occupation from the Epipalaeolithic to the end of the late PPNB. As for now, the excavations reveled more than 120 individuals buried intramural, many of which are accompanied with offerings, in particular bead ornaments. Some of them depict animals. To this day, no figurine was found, a fact that must be underlined.
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OBJECTIVE Review of the current advancements in the field of paleogenetics that provide new opportunities in studying the evolution of rare genetic bone diseases. MATERIAL AND METHODS Based on cases from the literature, the genetics of... more
OBJECTIVE Review of the current advancements in the field of paleogenetics that provide new opportunities in studying the evolution of rare genetic bone diseases. MATERIAL AND METHODS Based on cases from the literature, the genetics of rare bone diseases will be introduced and the main methodological issues will be addressed, focusing on the opportunities presented by the application of aDNA analyses in the field of paleopathology. RESULTS Medical literature provides large datasets on the genes responsible for rare bone disorders. These genes, subdivided in functional categories, display important future targets when analyzing rare genetic bone disorders in ancient human remains. CONCLUSIONS Knowledge on both phenotype and genotype is required to study rare diseases in ancient human remains. SIGNIFICANCE The proposed interdisciplinary research will provide new insight into the occurrence and spread of genetic risk factors in the past and will help in the diagnostics of these rare an...
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OBJECTIVE This paper aims to provide a quantitative estimation of the representation of diseases defined as rare today in the bioarchaeological literature and to outline the reasons for this. MATERIALS A 45-year bibliometric study of... more
OBJECTIVE This paper aims to provide a quantitative estimation of the representation of diseases defined as rare today in the bioarchaeological literature and to outline the reasons for this. MATERIALS A 45-year bibliometric study of publications in seven bioarchaeological journals, along with two journals and editorial groups of broader scientific focus. METHODS Analyses of distribution patterns of the search hits and diachronic trends for achondroplasia, autosomal-dominant osteopetrosis, osteogenesis imperfecta, and osteopoikilosis, compared to those for tuberculosis as control measure of coverage. RESULTS Studies of ancient rare diseases (ARD) are mostly published as case reports in specialized journals and their number did not benefit from the introduction of biomolecular studies. The higher frequency of cases of achondroplasia suggests that not all rare diseases are equally under-represented. CONCLUSIONS Rare diseases are still largely under-represented in bioarchaeological lit...
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The study of ante-mortem trauma is a popular and important aspect of palaeopathological analysis. The majority of publications focus on a particular assemblage, skeletal element or type of fracture, with case studies of single individuals... more
The study of ante-mortem trauma is a popular and important aspect of palaeopathological analysis. The majority of publications focus on a particular assemblage, skeletal element or type of fracture, with case studies of single individuals with multiple/unusual traumata being much rarer in the literature. This paper presents the case of an adult male from the Bronze Age site of Sharakhalsun, Russia, buried, uniquely, in a sitting position on a fully assembled wagon, who displayed evidence for multiple healed ante-mortem fractures of the cranium, axial and appendicular skeleton. The mechanisms and likely etiologies of the fractures are presented, with reference to modern and 19th century clinical literature, and possible interpretations suggested: that the individual was involved in a severe accident involving a wagon or draft animals, or both, a number of years before his death. The suggestion is also made that the unique burial position of the individual was a form of commemoration ...
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Innovation is the social act of appropriating new practices or techniques into an existing life. During the late 4th millennium BC, the populations of the North Caucasus and the neighbouring steppe adopted animal traction and vehicles... more
Innovation is the social act of appropriating new practices or techniques into an existing life. During the late 4th millennium BC, the populations of the North Caucasus and the neighbouring steppe adopted animal traction and vehicles into their lifescapes. The representation of this innovation, however, suggests different intellectual discourses in the appropriation process. The Maikop communities selected the powerful driving force - cattle teams - for their burial representations, whereas the steppe communities chose to highlight the means of transportation - wagons. While the one emphasised a new form of extended labour and neglected the objects of traction, the other highlighted the new means of transportation and mobility, disregarding the ‘engines’ in the process. This article discusses the different ways the same innovation can be appropriated in different communities and draws upon bioarchaeological studies to question the practical relevance of these innovations for the ev...
Embedded within the research history of Greater Petra Area’s Early Neolithic (since 1981, cf. Gebel et al. 2017), the 12 season of the Ba`ja Neolithic Project took place from June 23 – July 20, 2018. The season represents the second of fi... more
Embedded within the research history of Greater Petra Area’s Early Neolithic (since 1981, cf. Gebel et al. 2017), the 12 season of the Ba`ja Neolithic Project took place from June 23 – July 20, 2018. The season represents the second of fi eld work for the DFG-Project Household and Death in Ba`ja, hosted by the Institute for Near Eastern Archaeology at Free University of Berlin and co-directed by Hans Georg K. Gebel, Marion Benz and Christoph Purschwitz. Ba`ja is located in a secluded setting of the rugged sandstone mountains (Fig. 1; cf. Gebel et al. 2017 for more general site and project information) north of Beidha village near Wadi Musa. The site is best accessible by climbing through the narrow siq al-Ba`ja; therefore, any excavation requires a lot of logistical investment, physical strength by the team, and the acceptance of technical and conservational limits. This season’s main aims were to further enlarge the corpus of fi ndings and data for the Household and Death subject, ...
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OBJECTIVE A reappraisal of the available evidence of osteopetrosis in the archaeological record as first step in promoting new approaches to rare diseases in paleopathology. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three different approaches are combined: a... more
OBJECTIVE A reappraisal of the available evidence of osteopetrosis in the archaeological record as first step in promoting new approaches to rare diseases in paleopathology. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three different approaches are combined: a survey of the last 50 years of bioarchaeological publications; an online search addressing six of the more widely used search engines; macroscopic and radiographic analyses of the human remains from the Neolithic site of Palata 2 (Italy). RESULTS The combined results of the literature survey and the online search identified six cases of osteopetrosis. The majority of search hits place this disease into differential diagnoses. The investigation of the remains from Palata 2, one of the six cases in literature, indicates a non-specific sclerosis of the cranial vault. CONCLUSIONS Of the six cases of osteopetrosis, only two, one of the autosomal-recessive type (ARO) and one of the autosomal-dominant type (ADO), are supported by direct osteoarchaeological evidence. Therefore, inaccurate differential diagnoses generate an inflated number of cases in the paleopathological record. SIGNIFICANCE This reappraisal calls for a more informed and evidence-based approach to osteopetrosis and, more generally, to rare diseases in paleopathology. LIMITATIONS Lack of specific publications on osteopetrosis; more case studies may be present in "gray literature". SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH Cases of osteopetrosis from archaeological and historical collections as well as medical literature are needed to increase knowledge about this rare disease. More precise differential diagnoses are required, particularly when dealing with rare diseases.
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Recent genomic analyses show that the earliest peoples reaching Remote Oceania-associated with Austronesian-speaking Lapita culture-were almost completely East Asian, without detectable Papuan ancestry. However, Papuan-related genetic... more
Recent genomic analyses show that the earliest peoples reaching Remote Oceania-associated with Austronesian-speaking Lapita culture-were almost completely East Asian, without detectable Papuan ancestry. However, Papuan-related genetic ancestry is found across present-day Pacific populations, indicating that peoples from Near Oceania have played a significant, but largely unknown, ancestral role. Here, new genome-wide data from 19 ancient South Pacific individuals provide direct evidence of a so-far undescribed Papuan expansion into Remote Oceania starting ~2,500 yr BP, far earlier than previously estimated and supporting a model from historical linguistics. New genome-wide data from 27 contemporary ni-Vanuatu demonstrate a subsequent and almost complete replacement of Lapita-Austronesian by Near Oceanian ancestry. Despite this massive demographic change, incoming Papuan languages did not replace Austronesian languages. Population replacement with language continuity is extremely rar...
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Archaeological excavations at Göbekli Tepe, a transitional Neolithic site in southeast Turkey, have revealed the earliest megalithic ritual architecture with characteristic T-shaped pillars. Although human burials are still absent from... more
Archaeological excavations at Göbekli Tepe, a transitional Neolithic site in southeast Turkey, have revealed the earliest megalithic ritual architecture with characteristic T-shaped pillars. Although human burials are still absent from the site, a number of fragmented human bones have been recovered from fill deposits of buildings and from adjacent areas. We focus on three partially preserved human skulls, all of which carry artificial modifications of a type so far unknown from contemporaneous sites and the ethnographic record. As such, modified skull fragments from Göbekli Tepe could indicate a new, previously undocumented variation of skull cult in the Early Neolithic of Anatolia and the Levant.
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We discuss here the differential diagnosis of carpal ankylosis along with the second and third metacarpals of the right hand in an adult male skeleton buried in a kurgan from Mayemer, Kazakhstan (86-242 AD, 95.4% cal.). Our assessment was... more
We discuss here the differential diagnosis of carpal ankylosis along with the second and third metacarpals of the right hand in an adult male skeleton buried in a kurgan from Mayemer, Kazakhstan (86-242 AD, 95.4% cal.). Our assessment was conducted via macroscopic analysis as well as with the use of radiographic methods. Several groups of pathologies were considered: congenital diseases, inflammatory and infectious diseases, and trauma. Differential diagnosis was challenging due to the very poor preservation of the skeleton, and while several diseases are possible (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, spondylarthropathy), we think the fusion is most likely of traumatic origin. Evidence for trauma was found, suggesting a scaphocapitate fracture syndrome, followed by ankylosis.
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The fortified settlement Fidvár near Vráble is situated in southwestern Slovakia. The surrounding landscape is rich in resources and has large areas with fertile loess soil as well as copper, gold and tin deposits in the neighbouring... more
The fortified settlement Fidvár near Vráble is situated in southwestern Slovakia. The surrounding landscape is rich in resources and has large areas with fertile loess soil as well as copper, gold and tin deposits in the neighbouring mountains. Fidvár is part of a chain of fortified settlements surrounding the southern border of the northwestern Carpathian mountains. This region was an interface between central and southeastern Europe in different periods in prehistoric and medieval times. Since 2007 the settlement has been the subject of research by a common project of the Slovak Academy of Science, the Roman-Germanic Commission, the Archaeological Institute of the University of Heidelberg, the NIhK (Niedersachsisches Institut für historische Kiistenforschung) and the Bergbaumuseum Bochum. The interdisciplinary project is focusing on the genesis of the fortified settlement in the context of its surrounding archaeological landscape. Key questions are the role of early metallurgy, the impact of this proto-urban centre on the environment and the reasons for its formation and decline. Large-scale geophysical prospection, field surveying, auger programs, chemical analysis of soils, and test trenches enable us to outline the genesis of the settlement. In the first stage at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age a small settlement was fortified by bank and ditch. In the following stage in the period of the Hatvan Culture it grew into one of the largest settlements in the Pannonian Basin. Later in the Mad'arovce Culture a reduction of the settlement took place and marks the final stage. The first results illustrate the potential of the site Fidvár and the Žitava river valley to investigate the socioeconomic and cultural change in Early Bronze Age societies, the role of bronze metallurgy and the human impact. The ongoing research is embedded in an interdisciplinary project, funded since 2010 by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the VEGA Scientific Grant Agency (project no. 2/0013/10).
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Pastoral nomadism, as a successful economic and social system drawing on mobile herding, long-distance trade, and cavalry warfare, affected all polities of the Eurasian continent. The role that arid Inner Asia, particularly the areas of... more
Pastoral nomadism, as a successful economic and social system drawing on mobile herding, long-distance trade, and cavalry warfare, affected all polities of the Eurasian continent. The role that arid Inner Asia, particularly the areas of northwestern China, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia, played in the emergence of this phenomenon remains a fundamental and still challenging question in prehistoric archaeology of the Eurasian steppes. The cemetery of Liushiu (Xinjiang, China) reveals burial features, bronze bridle bits, weaponry, adornment, horse skulls, and sheep/goat bones, which, together with paleopathological changes in human skeletons, indicate the presence of mobile pastoralists and their flocks at summer pastures in the Kunlun Mountains, ∼2,850 m above sea level. Radiocarbon dates place the onset of the burial activity between 1108 and 893 B.C. (95% probability range) or most likely between 1017 and 926 B.C. (68%). These data from the Kunlun Mountains show a wider frontier within th...
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Discrete, small, roundish lesions of localized porous bone can be occasionally seen in the craniofacial skeleton. Such lesions are rarely mentioned and only occur as an incidental discovery being assigned to plenty of diagnoses. As an... more
Discrete, small, roundish lesions of localized porous bone can be occasionally seen in the craniofacial skeleton. Such lesions are rarely mentioned and only occur as an incidental discovery being assigned to plenty of diagnoses. As an example, such multiple small lesions of the facial skeleton in a well-preserved skeleton of a 40-60 year old male of the Hunno-Sarmatian Period from Kazakhstan, are discussed. Some of the lesions were examined by digital microscopy, plain radiography, and plain and polarizing microscopy. Considering possible differential diagnoses of vascular, traumatic, inflammatory/reactive, metabolic, and neoplastic entities, as well as developmental conditions, its microscopic characteristics point to a fibro-osseous process. This paper intends to open a discussion on the diagnosis of such lesions, which have been relatively neglected in previous research.
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In 2005, two Early Dynastic, relatively well-preserved skeletons were excavated in the ancient living area of Elephantine. Both individuals, a robust male and a gracile female, who probably belonged to the ethnic Egyptian and not to the... more
In 2005, two Early Dynastic, relatively well-preserved skeletons were excavated in the ancient living area of Elephantine. Both individuals, a robust male and a gracile female, who probably belonged to the ethnic Egyptian and not to the Nubian group, died at the age of 22-24. The male had a body length of 168 cm whereas the female had a body length of 160 cm, which were both in accordance with the average size of Early Dynastic people of this geographic area. The main goal of this study was to establish, within limits, a kind of "biography" of these two ancient individuals. The young male suffered from an inflammatory process of the scalp, probably due to chronic affliction by head lice, which possibly secondarily caused an endocranial process. Additionally, for many years he endured a chronic inflammation of the frontal and maxillary sinuses. Furthermore, there are vestiges of inflammatory processes on the hard palate and the alveolar region, the latter probably due to de...
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Прошедшая в Ереване конференция – пятнадцатая по счету в ряду ежегодных научных встреч, организуемых в Армении с 2009 г. по сквозной теме «Русские классики: русская и национальные литературы». Конференция, посвященная 130-летнему юбилею... more
Прошедшая в Ереване конференция – пятнадцатая по счету в ряду ежегодных научных встреч, организуемых в Армении с 2009 г. по сквозной теме «Русские классики: русская и национальные литературы». Конференция, посвященная 130-летнему юбилею Анны Ахматовой, состоялась в Ереванском государственном университете языков и социальных наук им. В. Я. Брюсова при поддержке Института литературы им. М. Абегяна, Национальной академии наук Армении, Российского нового ун-та (РосНОУ), Института гуманитарных наук Московского городского педагогического ун-та (МГПУ), Армянского общества дружбы «Армения – Россия». Организатор конференции (как и всех предыдущих) – д-р филологических наук, проф. М. Д. Амирханян. В работе конференции приняли участие 18 исследователей, в сборнике материалов, опубликованных к началу симпозиума, представлены статьи еще 34 авторов. Выступления участников конференции касались поэзии Ахматовой в целом, отдельных этапов ее творчества, ее произведений, а также пересечений жизненного...
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Archaeogenetic studies have described the formation of Eurasian ‘steppe ancestry’ as a mixture of Eastern and Caucasus hunter-gatherers. However, it remains unclear when and where this ancestry arose and whether it was related to a... more
Archaeogenetic studies have described the formation of Eurasian ‘steppe ancestry’ as a mixture of Eastern and Caucasus hunter-gatherers. However, it remains unclear when and where this ancestry arose and whether it was related to a horizon of cultural innovations in the 4th millennium BCE that subsequently facilitated the advance of pastoral societies likely linked to the dispersal of Indo-European languages. To address this, we generated genome-wide SNP data from 45 prehistoric individuals along a 3000-year temporal transect in the North Caucasus. We observe a genetic separation between the groups of the Caucasus and those of the adjacent steppe. The Caucasus groups are genetically similar to contemporaneous populations south of it, suggesting that – unlike today – the Caucasus acted as a bridge rather than an insurmountable barrier to human movement. The steppe groups from Yamnaya and subsequent pastoralist cultures show evidence for previously undetected farmer-related ancestry f...
The fortified settlement Fidvár near Vráble is situated in southwestern Slovakia. The surrounding landscape is rich in resources and has large areas with fertile loess soil as well as copper, gold and tin deposits in the neighbouring... more
The fortified settlement Fidvár near Vráble is situated in southwestern Slovakia. The surrounding landscape is rich in resources and has large areas with fertile loess soil as well as copper, gold and tin deposits in the neighbouring mountains. Fidvár is part of a chain of fortified settlements surrounding the southern border of the northwestern Carpathian mountains. This region was an interface between central and southeastern Europe in different periods in prehistoric and medieval times. Since 2007 the settlement has been the subject of research
by a common project of the Slovak Academy of Science, the Roman-Germanic Commission, the Archaeological Institute of the University of Heidelberg, the NIhK (Niedersachsisches Institut für historische Kiistenforschung) and the Bergbaumuseum
Bochum. The interdisciplinary project is focusing on the genesis of the fortified settlement in the context of its surrounding archaeological landscape. Key questions are the role of early metallurgy, the impact of this proto-urban centre on the environment and the reasons for its formation and decline. Large-scale geophysical prospection, field surveying, auger programs, chemical analysis of soils, and test trenches enable us to outline the genesis of the settlement. In the first stage at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age a small settlement was fortified by bank and ditch. In the following stage in the period of the Hatvan Culture it grew into one of the largest settlements in the Pannonian Basin. Later in the Mad'arovce Culture a reduction of the settlement took place and marks the final stage. The first results illustrate the potential of the site Fidvár and the Žitava river valley to investigate the socioeconomic and cultural change in Early Bronze Age societies, the role of bronze metallurgy and the human impact. The ongoing research is embedded in an interdisciplinary project, funded since 2010 by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the VEGA Scientific Grant Agency (project no. 2/0013/10).
by a common project of the Slovak Academy of Science, the Roman-Germanic Commission, the Archaeological Institute of the University of Heidelberg, the NIhK (Niedersachsisches Institut für historische Kiistenforschung) and the Bergbaumuseum
Bochum. The interdisciplinary project is focusing on the genesis of the fortified settlement in the context of its surrounding archaeological landscape. Key questions are the role of early metallurgy, the impact of this proto-urban centre on the environment and the reasons for its formation and decline. Large-scale geophysical prospection, field surveying, auger programs, chemical analysis of soils, and test trenches enable us to outline the genesis of the settlement. In the first stage at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age a small settlement was fortified by bank and ditch. In the following stage in the period of the Hatvan Culture it grew into one of the largest settlements in the Pannonian Basin. Later in the Mad'arovce Culture a reduction of the settlement took place and marks the final stage. The first results illustrate the potential of the site Fidvár and the Žitava river valley to investigate the socioeconomic and cultural change in Early Bronze Age societies, the role of bronze metallurgy and the human impact. The ongoing research is embedded in an interdisciplinary project, funded since 2010 by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the VEGA Scientific Grant Agency (project no. 2/0013/10).
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A paleopathological investigation on skeletal remains from the Old Kingdom mastabas of Elephantine, Egyptian Nubia (approx. 2300 BC), revealed an adult male with specific lesions in the tibiae, fibulae and foot bones, characteristic of... more
A paleopathological investigation on skeletal remains from the Old Kingdom mastabas of Elephantine, Egyptian Nubia (approx. 2300 BC), revealed an adult male with specific lesions in the tibiae, fibulae and foot bones, characteristic of leprosy (MØLLER-CHRISTENSEN 1961;SCHULTZ, ROBERTS 2002)