This week at the BONE Lab was quite interesting and fun. Now that I'm scrolling through my pictures, I realized that I did not take any pictures of bones since I only spent to day cleaning bones. Instead, I spent my week inputting data and photo logs into the BONE database on the laptop in the BONE lab. Also, I did some more analysis for my project using R. Below is a photo of the data I was inputting and I thought it was pretty funny that the local informants for the archaeological site were noted as "boy on a donkey".
As for my data analysis using R I focused on looking at any patterns in body positions in grave sites 03-01 and 03-14 (el-Ginefab school site). I found that half of people in 09-01 were buried in a flexed position on their right side. Also, most of the people in 09-01 and 03-14 are female which is interesting since Dr. Baker says that there is a hypothesis that females are buried on their right while males are buried on their left. In 03-14, 63.3% of the remains are buried in a flexed position on their right side. Below I have pictures of both graphs for you. The first graph is of 09-01 and the second is of 03-14. The graphs are of the proportion of body positions the remains were buried in.
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| 09-01 |
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| 03-14 |
Anyways, I hope that my post was not too confusing and I'm sorry if I rambled on the Osteological Paradox but I just find the whole concept so amazing. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week and has a great weekend!
well, that osteological paradox sounds to be a giant obstacle in the face of archaeology, but I'll leave questions about that for someone else. What I'm more interested in is your artifact of the day, the faience beads. You mentioned that they come in many colors, so as far as we have been able to tell, is the coloring based more on social status or personal preference of the wearer?
ReplyDeleteHi Caleb! Thanks for commenting. It doesn't seem that the coloring is based off of social status. Due to lack of historical records(that we can actually decipher), I'm afraid that the answer to your question remains a mystery.
DeleteHi Nicole. Your research is amazing. What was the average age that people used to live during this time? Also, did mortality rates vary by gender?
ReplyDeleteHi Ethan! In the grave sites I'm looking at it seems that there are more women than men present in the graves. I'm not sure what this indicates yet.
DeleteHi Nichole. You have brought us another bundle of interesting facts this week! I found your analysis of the different burial positions very intriguing. Also, the Osteological Paradox blew my mind. Just wondering, which do you like more: cleaning bones or inputting data?
ReplyDeleteHi Sophia! Thanks for commenting. I really like analyzing data because it can reveal so much about the grave sites.
DeleteHi Nichole! Thank you for this week's blog post. Is there a specific reason the burial patterns between men and women were different?
ReplyDeleteHi Brian! Great question. I'm definitely going to speak to Dr. Baker about it because I'm not sure myself.
DeleteHi Nicole! Sounds like you had a very interesting week, and the Osteological Paradox is pretty ingenious. Only question is, is there a specific reason or custom that might cause the women to be buried right?
ReplyDeleteHi Nicole! Putting all that data into the computer must be rigorous work, huh? I know I would be tired after spend so much time on the computer inputting data. Anyways, you said that other cultures say that people that are 15 years old are considered adults. Do you count 15 year old's to be adult in your research, or for that matter do you know anyone that does do this within your research group, as it might screw up some data when counting the number of children and adults.
ReplyDeleteIn Dr. Baker and Annie's research, they classify 15 as subadult or young adult I believe.
DeleteHello Nichole! So I'm a bit confused as to what the Osteological Paradox actually is. Is it the definition of health across different cultures? Awesome work by the way.
ReplyDeleteHi Adam! The osteological paradox is that bioarchaeologists are trying to reconstruct life from death. So this paradox is pointing out the flaws of trying to look at death as if it would be an accurate representation of life.
DeleteHey Nichole! The Osteological Paradox seems pretty confusing. I think I read your explanation about 3 times to understand it better. It's insane how archaeologists are trying to digest the past when all there is remaining to life of the past are the remains of death. Anyways, great post! It's great to see the results.
ReplyDeleteHi Urmi! Thanks for commenting. I hope to get more results next week.
DeleteHi Nichole! When you first started the Research Project, did you choose your topic out of interest for archaeology? If so, how has your interest changed since then?
ReplyDeleteHi Liam! I first chose my topic of interest because of my fascination for global health and the past. As of now, my interest has pretty much remained steady and I would like to still pursue global health in the future.
DeleteThe Osteological Paradox is really interesting, and it kind of answers a question I had. Are there any instances where the initial judgement of the life of a dead individual is wrong? and have you seen that happen?
ReplyDeleteHi Like! Those are great questions. There are definitely many instances where judgement of life from death has been wrong. For example, bioarchaeologists can only tell if someone has been afflicted with a disease if it affects their skeleton in any way. There are many diseases that don't affect the skeleton and we are not able to figure that out yet.
DeleteIt sounds like a lot of us would love to hear more about theories on why women might have been buried to the right, whereas men to the left. Keep up the great work and love your graphs!
ReplyDeleteHi Mrs. Silbaugh! Thank you for commenting and I hope to post my graphs next week!
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