Analyzing entheseal changes in commingled human remains from Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in Portugal

Abstract

The analysis of entheseal changes requires knowing the biological profile of the sample analyzed, given that, mainly, the sex and age of the individuals influence the prevalence and degrees of the entheseal features. However, the bioarcheological record of several past populations presents isolated and commingled human bone remains, which constrains the estimation of such data. In this work, we propose to analyze the entheseal changes with the Coimbra method in a sample composed mainly of commingled human bone remains and, to a lesser extent, of semi-complete individuals. For this purpose, we analyzed 312 bone elements from the upper and lower limbs of Late Mesolithic (Muge complex) and Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic archeological sites from Portugal. The results support previous information that individuals older than 40 present higher entheseal changes. In addition, body size has a low effect on entheseal changes and bone's biomechanical properties are positively correlated with some entheseal features. Some entheseal traits show higher prevalence during the Mesolithic, but there is mainly an increase in entheseal changes during the Neolithic. Although these differences could be due to different biological profiles between both samples, differences in lifestyle may also have contributed to the results.