INTERPRETING THE HUMAN SKELETON:
BIOARCHAEOLOGY
BIOARCHAEOLOGY

Anthropology 370
Anthropology 370

PH 311
PH 311
Grading
Grading

Grading Your grade will be based on class participation, short reading reports, 2 papers, laboratory exercises, and in-class exams.
Reading reports........10 %; Laboratory Exercises........20 %
Participation..............10%; Papers................20 %;
Midterm Exam (10/29)........20 % Final Exam (12/22) 11 AM to 1 PM........20%

      Participation is worth 10 % of your grade. For each class meeting you can gain 2 semester points by asking questions and actively contributing to discussion. Participation points for a class that you miss can be made up by submitting a 2-3 page paper summarizing the assigned readings.
Reading reports Each reading report should be approximately 2/3 of a page long, typed in Times New Roman, 12 pt, single spaced. It should begin with a proper bibliographic citation of the literary source and should provide a brief summary and critique of the paper, article, or book chapter. Late reports are accepted for 60% of the total credit. By the end of the semester you will be expected to have submitted reports for a total of 10 papers, articles, or book chapters.

Laboratory Exercises Four laboratory exercises based on the material covered in class will help you to master methods used in the field by bioarchaeologists. All laboratory exercises will involve analysis of human skeletal and /or dental remains.

Papers Two separate papers, each with a focus on specific questions, will be assigned during the semester. In order to answer these questions you will need to perform an independent literature search using WILEY Interscience and JSTOR, as well as browsing journals available in the library. Each paper is expected to be 5-7 pages long (Times New Roman 12pt, 1'' margins, double spaced. Name and title should appear on a cover page (not part of text). References should be properly cited in-text and listed after the main body of the paper, following the AJPA format: In text: (Coppa et al. 1998) or ... as Coppa and Brown (1965) suggested ...
In "References Cited" section: Coppa A, Cucina A, Mancinelli D, Vargiu R, Calcagno JM. 1998. Dental anthropology of central-southern Iron Age Italy: the evidence of metric versus nonmetric traits. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 107:371-386. In-class discussions of the paper topics will follow on the due dates. Consequently, ALL papers that are turned in late will receive no more than 80% of the total possible credit.

Paper Topics: (1) Did Neanderthals use their teeth as tools? Due: 10/20
(2) Was cannibalism common in the pre-contact Americas? Due: 11/19


Midterm and Final Exams are not cumulative. They will be focused on in-class evaluation of human skeletal materials, as well as theoretical essays on material covered in class during the semester.

Schedule
Schedule

week dates topic readings assignments, exams
1 8/27 Introduction: Bioarchaeology and a subfield    
2 9/1
9/3		 Labor Day - no class
Human skeleton, an overview
 Human skeleton
Anatomical planes
  
3
4		 9/8
9/10		 Using skeletal remains to estimate sex and age at death
Sex and age assessment of juveniles 		White and Folkens 2005
Estimateing Age
Reconstructing Sex		 Reading Report 1
5
6		 9/15
9/17		 Laboratory exercise 1: sex and age
Sex vs. gender, accuracy and precision of estimating age
Walker and Cook 1998 		Reading Report 2
Reading Report 3
7
8		 9/22

9/24		 Paleodemography and life-tables
Dental anthropology: introduction, oral pathology 		Buikstra et al. 1986
Hillson 1979
Lab 1 is due
9/29
10/1		 no class
no class 		   
9 10/6
10/8		 Oral health in Pre-industrial communities
no class		 Littleton and Frohlich 1993
Eshed et al. 2006		 Reading Report 4

10

11		 10/13
10/14
10/15		 Columbus Day - no class
[class on Tuesday]: "Teeth as tools" - types and patterns of dental wear;
macrowear vs. microwear
Effects of sex and age on oral health,
Laboratory exercise 2: Oral health
Lukacs and Pastor 1988

Lukacs and Lagaespada 2006
12

13		 10/20

10/22		 Did Neanderthals use their teeth as tools? -- discussion

Reconstructing diet from the chemical analysis of human remains;
stable isotope vs. trace element analysis 		Independent literature search

Larsen 1997, Ch 8
Tykot et al. 2006 		paper 1 is
due on 10/20
14
15		 10/27
10/29		 stable isotope analysis; Review
MIDTERM EXAM 		Pechenkina et al. 2005
 Lab 2 is due
16

17		 11/3
11/5		 Biomechanical analysis of archaeological human skeletons

Activity patterns: articular and muscular adaptations 		Ruff 2000; Larsen 1997, Ch 5

Bridges 1995; Merbs 1983 		 
18

19		 11/10
11/12		 Activity induced traumas; Activity vs. violence
Laboratory exercise 3: activity, trauma, ageing 		Standen and Arriaza 2000
Hershkovitz et al. 1996
Torres-Rouff et al. 2006
Tayles 2003
 
20
21		 11/17
11/19		 Patterns of violence around the world - discussion
Was cannibalism common in the pre-contact Americas? 		Larsen 1997, Ch 4
Independent literature search 		paper 2 is
due on 11/19
22

23		 11/24

11/26		 Biological distances, group structure

Paleopathology: interpreting skeletal lesions
Infectious diseases and physiological stress
Stojanowski 2006
Lab 3 is due

24
25		 12/1
12/3
 Health and disease in the Western Hemisphere Health Index
Case studies: circumpolar and cold adapted populations 		Steckel et al 2002
Keenleyside 1998
26
27		 12/8
12/10
 Laboratory exercise 4: disease and physiological stress
The individual in archaeological context: Elites vs. commoners
Pechenkina and Delgado 2006
Cannon 2006 		assignment 6
28 12/15 Review    
FINAL EXAMINATION :
Monday, 12/22 11AM to 1PM