Osteological stress markers and habitual behaviors: analyzing the connection at Hierakonpolis, Egypt

Abstract

The current project identifies skeletal patterns that indicate habitual behavior using muscle attachment sites, osteoarthritic changes and long-bone robusticity. Using a sample from HK43, a cemetery used by the Naqada II A-C working class (circa 3,800-3,400 B.C.), patterns were determined with respect to sex, and by age group. Those patterns were then compared to hypothesized models of skeletal markers predicted to occur with habitual use of an Egyptian hoe, an ox-drawn ard-style plow, a shaduf (a simple machine used in irrigation), and grinding grain using a saddle quern and grinding stone. The patterns displayed in the sample population correspond to predicted patterns created by habitual activity. Results were determined twice; first by sex, then by age. Females and males were grouped regardless of age, and vice versa. If divided by both, the resulting groups were too small to be compared. Females demonstrated a pattern that was most consistent with grinding grain. Males were determined to have a pattern most consistent with hoeing and using a shaduf The middle adult age group, composed of both males and females, showed a range of skeletal markers that is most consistent with that predicted for plowing. Not all patterns were easily explained, however. The young adult, or 17-24 year old age group displayed a pattern of muscle attachment very similar to the old adult group,>45 years of age. The source of that apparent similarity will have to be addressed by further research at Hierakonpolis, Egypt.