TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring connectivity in Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Greece and the Balkans using cranial non-metric analysis
AU - Michael, Dimitra Ermioni
AU - Fibiger, Linda
AU - Moutafi, Ioanna
AU - Šlaus, Mario
AU - Katsimicha, Maria
AU - Novak, Mario
AU - Molloy, Barry
N1 - Funding Information:
Open access funding provided by HEAL-Link Greece. This research has been funded as part of the European Research Grant project “The Fall of 1200 BC” (Grant number 772753).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/11
Y1 - 2023/11
N2 - The present study aims to explore connectivity and networking in Late Bronze Age (LBA)/Early Iron Age (EIA) Greece and the Balkans using morphological biodistance analysis and test the potentiality of newly introduced statistical tests, which were designed for challenging datasets, in this particular cultural area. Cranial non-metric traits were recorded in ten skeletal collections, spanning from East Crete to Romania. We followed an experimental statistical approach encompassing two different measures of divergence, the conventional and well-tested mean measure of divergence (MMD) and the newly introduced untransformed measure of divergence (UMD). Though different, results based on these two measures are mutually supporting and show that biodistances in our regional case studies mainly follow the isolation by distance model. This cautiously confirms our main hypothesis that during the LBA and EIA periods in Greece and the Balkans, personal mobility was a slow process characterized by integration, rather than displacement or transformation. The current study is the first one to infer biological affinities using cranial non-metric analysis combined with artifactual evidence, in LBA/EIA Greece and the Balkans. Building a larger dataset through future non-metric analyses will better enable exploring networking and mobility to further complement ongoing bioarchaeological, genetic, and material culture studies.
AB - The present study aims to explore connectivity and networking in Late Bronze Age (LBA)/Early Iron Age (EIA) Greece and the Balkans using morphological biodistance analysis and test the potentiality of newly introduced statistical tests, which were designed for challenging datasets, in this particular cultural area. Cranial non-metric traits were recorded in ten skeletal collections, spanning from East Crete to Romania. We followed an experimental statistical approach encompassing two different measures of divergence, the conventional and well-tested mean measure of divergence (MMD) and the newly introduced untransformed measure of divergence (UMD). Though different, results based on these two measures are mutually supporting and show that biodistances in our regional case studies mainly follow the isolation by distance model. This cautiously confirms our main hypothesis that during the LBA and EIA periods in Greece and the Balkans, personal mobility was a slow process characterized by integration, rather than displacement or transformation. The current study is the first one to infer biological affinities using cranial non-metric analysis combined with artifactual evidence, in LBA/EIA Greece and the Balkans. Building a larger dataset through future non-metric analyses will better enable exploring networking and mobility to further complement ongoing bioarchaeological, genetic, and material culture studies.
KW - bioarchaeology
KW - biological distance
KW - non-metric traits
KW - Bronze Age
KW - mobility
U2 - 10.1007/s12520-023-01862-w
DO - 10.1007/s12520-023-01862-w
M3 - Article
SN - 1866-9557
VL - 15
JO - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
JF - Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
IS - 11
M1 - 165
ER -