Bronze Age cemetery reveals history of a high-status woman and her twins
And migration patterns within her Vatya community

Date:
July 29, 2021
Source:
PLOS
Summary:
Ancient urn graves contain a wealth of information about a
high-ranking woman and her Bronze Age Vatya community, according
to a new study.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Ancient urn graves contain a wealth of information about a high-ranking
woman and her Bronze Age Vatya community, according to a study published
July 28, 2021 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Claudio Cavazzuti
from the University of Bologna, Italy, and Durham University, UK,
and colleagues.


========================================================================== People of the Vatya culture that flourished during the Hungarian Early and Middle Bronze Ages (approximately 2200-1450 BCE) customarily cremated
the deceased -- making the human remains difficult to analyze from
a bioarchaeological perspective. In this study, the authors used new osteological sampling strategies to learn more about the people buried
in the urnfield cemetery at Szigetszentmiklo's-U"rgehegy, one of the
largest Middle Bronze Age urn cemeteries in Central Hungary.

Cavazzuti and colleagues analyzed human tissues from 29 graves (three
whole burials, or inhumations, and 26 urn cremations) and applied
strontium isotope comparison techniques to test if sampled individuals
were local to the geographic area. For the majority of sampled graves,
each contained the remains of a single individual and simple grave goods
made of ceramic or bronze; however, gravesite 241 was of special interest:
this grave contained an urn with the cremated remains of an adult woman
and two fetuses, buried alongside prestigious grave goods including a
golden hair-ring, a bronze neck-ring, and two bone hairpin ornaments.

Though the three inhumed individuals were poorly preserved, the authors
were able to confirm these had been adults, though they couldn't determine
the sex.

Of the 26 cremated individuals, seven appeared to be adult males,
11 adult females, and two appeared to be adults whose sex couldn't be determined. They also identified children's remains: two individuals
likely 5-10 years of age, and four individuals ranging from 2-5 years
of age -- the youngest present aside from the twin fetuses buried with
the adult woman in grave 241, which were approximately 28-32 gestational
weeks of age. The authors believe the woman in grave 241 may have died due
to complications bearing or birthing these twins. Her remains indicate
she was 25 to 35 years old at her time of death and the remains were
especially carefully collected post-cremation, as her grave exhibited
a bone weight 50 percent higher than the average sampled grave. The
strontium analysis also revealed she was likely born elsewhere and moved
to Szigetszentmiklo's in early adolescence, between the ages of 8-13. One
other adult woman also appeared non-local to Szigetszentmiklo's, with
the adult women in general featuring a more varied strontium isotope composition than the adult men, whose isotopes were concentrated in
an especially small range -- even narrower than those of the children
analyzed in the study.

The authors note their findings at the Szigetszentmiklo's urnfield
reinforce evidence that women, especially of high rank, commonly
married outside their immediate group in Bronze Age Central Europe --
and confirm the informative potential of strontium isotope analyses even
for cremated remains.

The authors add: "Thanks to a wide spectrum of new bioarchaeological
methods, techniques and sampling strategies, it is now possible
to reconstruct the life- histories of cremated people of the
Bronze Age. In this case, the authors investigate the movements
and the tragic events of a high-status woman's life, settled along
the Danube 4000 years ago, in the territory of modern-day Hungary." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Claudio Cavazzuti, Tama's Hajdu, Federico Lugli, Alessandra
Sperduti,
Magdolna Vicze, Aniko Horva'th, Istva'n Major, Miha'ly Molna'r,
La'szlo' Palcsu, Vikto'ria Kiss. Human mobility in a Bronze Age
Vatya `urnfield' and the life history of a high-status woman. PLOS
ONE, 2021; 16 (7): e0254360 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254360 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210729121814.htm

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