Tumplines, baskets, and heavy burden? Interdisciplinary approach to load carrying in Bronze Age Abu Fatima, Sudan

IF 2 1区社会学 Q1 ANTHROPOLOGY

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology Pub Date : 2024-12-17 DOI:10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101652

Jared Carballo-Pérez, Uroš Matić, Rachael Hall, Stuart T. Smith, Sarah A. Schrader

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Abstract

This paper investigates different body techniques for carrying heavy loads by individuals buried at Abu Fatima, a Nubian Bronze Age cemetery in Sudan. Drawing on iconographic evidence from ancient Egypt and Nubia, as well as African and other ethnographic records, the paper aims to understand gendered patterns behind load-carrying practices and their traces on skeletal remains. A multi-proxy approach was employed, using various skeletal modifications associated with mechanical loading. Examination of entheseal changes, osteoarthritis-related alterations, and degenerative vertebral changes was conducted to investigate the impacts of muscle loading, joint stress, and spinal adaptations. Additionally, unintentional cranial modifications, specifically changes caused by tumpline use, were also considered. The results indicate gender-specific load-carrying techniques among the individuals buried at Abu Fatima. Men displayed evidence of unilateral entheseal changes and humeroscapular osteoarthritis, indicating involvement in activities that necessitated bearing load on one shoulder. Women displayed distinct degenerative changes to the cervical vertebrae indicating frequent musculoskeletal use of the upper neck.

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来源期刊

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology Multiple-

CiteScore

4.00

自引率

11.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： An innovative, international publication, the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology is devoted to the development of theory and, in a broad sense, methodology for the systematic and rigorous understanding of the organization, operation, and evolution of human societies. The discipline served by the journal is characterized by its goals and approach, not by geographical or temporal bounds. The data utilized or treated range from the earliest archaeological evidence for the emergence of human culture to historically documented societies and the contemporary observations of the ethnographer, ethnoarchaeologist, sociologist, or geographer. These subjects appear in the journal as examples of cultural organization, operation, and evolution, not as specific historical phenomena.