Basics in paleodemography: a comparison of age indicators applied to the early medieval skeletal sample of Lauchheim.

Recent advances in the methods of skeletal age estimation have rekindled interest in their applicability to paleodemography. The current study contributes to the discussion by applying several long established as well as recently developed or refined aging methods to a subsample of 121 adult skeletons from the early medieval cemetery of Lauchheim. The skeletal remains were analyzed by 13 independent observers using a variety of aging techniques (complex method and other multimethod approaches, Transition Analysis, cranial suture closure, auricular surface method, osteon density method, tooth root translucency measurement, and tooth cementum annulation counting).

Trace elements in buried human bones: intra-population variability of Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios--diet or diagenesis?

A comparative analysis of trace element data of human skeletal material from four archaeological sites is presented. We show that the state of histomorphological preservation of bone, which is a measurement for the degree of its diagenetic alteration, closely corresponds to the Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios at an intra-population level. This study challenges the validity of dietary studies that are based on the presently used procedures for sample preparation and subsequent evaluation of strontium and barium concentrations.

Differentiation between occupational and dietary-related intake of barium in the skeleton.

On the basis of the reconstruction of general nutritional patterns by trace element data on historic populations, an examination on occupational Ba intakes in the skeleton was carried out for a historical metallurgy population. The concentrations of the trace elements Ba, Sr, and Pb as well as the matrix element Ca were determined by AAS analysis. Their correlations within the population were analysed statistically.