Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.33254/piaz.38.1.3
Histological and Macromorphological Method of Burned Bones Analysis of Humans and Animals on the Example of Roman Period Graves of the Northwestern Necropolis of Siscia (Sisak, Croatia)
Zdravka Hincak Daris
orcid.org/0000-0002-0576-0119
; Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Krešimir Filipec
; Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The permeation of the macroscopic and histological method of analysis of burned bones from an archaeological context provides an opportunity to understand better the taphonomic processes which change osteological material during the burning process and after laying it in the ground. They also allow a better understanding of funeral customs. The burned remains of humans and animals from 21 graves of a Roman-age necropolis from Siscia (Sisak, Croatia) were analyzed. Only in two graves, the burned remains were preserved in urns, while the rest were laid in the ground, in a grave pit. The preservation level of bone and dental remains of human and animal origin is very low, these are fragments whose length was up to 10 mm, and the weight of the samples rarely exceeded 30 g per person. The histological method of analysis enabled a more precise separation of human from animal bone fragments and the determination of age at death in the range of 5 or 10 years. For poorly preserved samples, it was possible to determine whether it was human material and to determine the age at death in the child-adult relationship. The analysis results confirm the importance of the microscopic method in examining the age of human and taxonomic affiliation of animal burned remains.
Keywords
anthropological analysis; histological analysis; burned bones; determination of age at death; Roman period necropolis; Siscia
Hrčak ID:
260710
URI
Publication date:
22.7.2021.
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