Robusticity and osteoarthritis at the trapeziometacarpal joint in a Bronze Age population from Tell Abraq, United Arab Emirates

2005 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet M. Cope ◽  
Alison C. Berryman ◽  
Debra L. Martin ◽  
Daniel D. Potts
Author(s):  
Debra L. Martin ◽  
Kathryn M. Baustian ◽  
Anna J. Osterholtz

The tomb at Tell Abraq (c. 2200–2000 BC) was the repository for over 400 individuals of all ages and sexes. Situated on the Arabian Gulf near Sharjah and Um al-Quwain in the United Arab Emirates, the tomb contained the commingled remains of at least 276 adults and 127 subadults. Of the subadults, there was a relatively high frequency of premature (28%) and newborn (9%) infants in the tomb. This overview provides the demographic structure of the tomb population based on a detailed MNI study and the complex nature of the mortuary program. Based on the overall MNI determined by the talus bone, observed versus expected ratios show that many long bones and hands and feet bones are underrepresented. We propose that these can be accounted for by other excavation and retrieval strategies. The mortuary program appears to be what Boz and Hager have described as being “primary disturbed.” Grossly underrepresented elements, such as the cranium, could have been removed and used in other contexts. This late Bronze Age tomb is unusual in many ways and does not fit any Umm an Nar patterns.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Marie Taylor

This research investigates the use of heritable nonmetric traits as a means for assessing population variation and biological relatedness within an archaeological sample using the commingled human skeletal tomb assemblage from the Bronze Age site of Tell Abraq, United Arab Emirates (2100-2000 BCE). A total of 410 individuals representing all ages and both sexes were interred in the Umm an-Nar period tomb. An analysis of sixteen heritable nonmetric traits was conducted on the adult human skeletal remains for both cranial and postcranial elements. Of the eight elements analyzed, one element in particular displayed anomalies rarely described in archaeological contexts. Seven patellae were identified as emarginated, six as bipartite and one as tripartite. The frequency of traits found here are inconclusive in suggesting biological homogeneity or heterogeneity. However, the baseline data provided here may be useful in investigating biological homogeneity in other studies in the future and may allow us to look at social practices such as marriage patterns. These data may also provide an additional line of evidence to the previous hypotheses concerning consanguineous marriage for this assemblage.


Antiquity ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 73 (279) ◽  
pp. 49-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lloyd Weeks

The ‘tin problem’ forms the focus for discussion on the earliest use of tin and bronze in western Asia and the Aegean. New research on lead isotope data from Tell Abraq in the UAE has important implications for the advent of bronze in the region.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 1041-1075 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lloyd Weeks ◽  
Charlotte M Cable ◽  
Steven Karacic ◽  
Kristina A Franke ◽  
David M Price ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe archaeological site of Saruq al-Hadid, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, presents a long sequence of persistent temporary human occupation on the northern edge of the Rub’ al-Khali desert. The site is located in active dune fields, and evidence for human activity is stratified within a deep sequence of natural dune deposits that reflect complex taphonomic processes of deposition, erosion and reworking. This study presents the results of a program of radiocarbon (14C) and thermoluminescence dating on deposits from Saruq al-Hadid, allied with studies of material remains, which are amalgamated with the results of earlier absolute dating studies provide a robust chronology for the use of the site from the Bronze Age to the Islamic period. The results of the dating program allow the various expressions of human activity at the site—ranging from subsistence activities such as hunting and herding, to multi-community ritual activities and large scale metallurgical extraction—to be better situated chronologically, and thus in relation to current debates regarding the development of late prehistoric and early historic societies in southeastern Arabia.


2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Magee ◽  
Hans-Peter Uerpmann ◽  
Margarethe Uerpmann ◽  
Sabah Abboud Jasim ◽  
Marc Händel ◽  
...  

Antiquity ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 67 (256) ◽  
pp. 591-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. T. Potts

A new and handsome find, a decorated bone comb from Tell Abraq in the United Arab Emirates dated about 2100–2000 BC, provides another link between eastern Arabia and the distant Bactrian lands.


Author(s):  
Xosefina Otero ◽  
Mercedes Farjas ◽  
Manuel Santos ◽  
Jorge Angás

In this paper we present new methods of the documentation and registration of the petroglyphs of the exceptional archaeological site located on Khor Fakkan, emirate of Sharjah, on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates along the Gulf of Oman, and coordinates 24º59'06.06'' N - 56º20'36.70'' E. The engravings on the surface of the serpentine rock fragments, of the Semail ophiolite complex that was generated when the Saudí plate was introduced under the Iran-Zagros, in the Cretaceous, are made with the technique and striped characteristic of the Bronze Age and Iron Age. We conducted the study respecting its conservation without any intervention on them, using the latest available technologies and performing aerial, terrestrial and near object digital photogrammetry and applying at the same time the methodology of Landscape Archaeology.http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/CIGeo2017.2017.6593


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