Session: #474

Content:

The skeletal evidence for violence is often taken at face value within archaeology. Yet, it is easy to mis-interpret the significance of bony lesions, especially when reliable contextual data is lacking. The condition of skeletal remains results from a wide range of intrinsic (e.g. age-at-death, sex, health) and extrinsic (e.g. social status, physical environment, post-mortem interval) variables which have potential to influence interpretations of any changes to the surviving bone. Distinguishing between peri-mortem and post-mortem changes represents an on-going challenge and understanding the obstacles and limits to interpretation is key especially when errors may continue into interpretation of the associated archaeology.
This session seeks to open up the discussion concerning interpretations of violence as represented in the archaeological record. It encourages the fair but critical evaluation of evidence for violence in skeletal remains, highlighting the importance of considering both the biocultural context (represented by remains and their deposition or burial, associated archaeology and histories and their temporo-spatial context) and taphonomy (represented by evidence for the post-mortem environment up until the point of analysis).
The session encompasses case, group and population studies, and a variety of grave forms and assemblages from single individuals to mass graves to disparate collections, considering not only the evidence for past physical violence (incorporating evidence for warfare, domestic violence, ritual violence, ancient crime and punishment), but also wider manifestations of violence in society throughout the past and the present (e.g. the structural violence sometimes associated with curated human remains).
The session is focussed on, but not limited to, human remains from any archaeological context. Presenters are actively encouraged to critically evaluate their own cases of violence encountered in the bioarchaeological record, to explore alternative explanations and examine the potential influence misinterpretations might have upon the broader context into which their cases and results might be drawn.

Session: #474

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