TY - JOUR
T1 - The impact of subsistence changes on humeral bilateral asymmetry in Terminal Pleistocene and Holocene Europe
AU - Sládek, Vladimír
AU - Ruff, Christopher B.
AU - Berner, Margit
AU - Holt, Brigitte
AU - Niskanen, Markku
AU - Schuplerová, Eliška
AU - Hora, Martin
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Kristýna Farkašová, Juho-Antti Junno, Andrew Merriweather, Heli Maijanen, Sirpa Ninimaki, Jaroslav Roman, Sarah Reedy, Kati Salo, Anna-Kaisa Salmi, Danielle Tompkins, Quan Tran, Tiina Väre, Rosa Vilkama, and Trang Diem Vu for their help in collecting and/or processing the data and Steve Churchill, Erik Trinkaus, and Trenton Holliday for Late Pleistocene data. We would like to thank Patrik Galeta for his discussion of the bootstrap technique and VBA calculation. We are also grateful to the many curators who granted access to study the Holocene human remains in their collections: Andrew Chamberlain, Rob Kruszynski, Jay Stock, Mercedes Okumura, Jane Ellis-Schön, Jacqueline McKinley, Lisa Webb, Jillian Greenaway, Alison Brookes, Jo Buckberry, Chris Knusel, Horst Bruchhaus, Ronny Bindl, Hugo Cardoso, Sylvia Jiménez-Brobeil, Maria Dolores Garralda, Michèle Morgan, Clive Bonsall, Adina Boroneant, Alexandru Vulpe, Monica Zavattaro, Elsa Pacciani, Fulvia Lo Schiavo, Maria Giovanna Belcastro, Eligio Vacca, Donato Coppola, Alessandro Riga, Nico Radi, Giorgio Manzi, Maryanne Tafuri, Pascal Murail, Patrice Courtaud, Dominique Castex, Fredérik Léterlé, Emilie Thomas, Aurore Schmitt, Aurore Lambert, Sandy Parmentier, Alessandro Canci, Gino Fornaciari, Davide Caramella, Jan Storå, Anna Kjellström, Petra Molnar, Niels Lynnerup, Pia Bennike, Leena Drenzel, Torbjörn Ahlström, Per Karsten, Bernd Gerlach, Lars Larsson, Petr Veleminsky, Maria Teschler-Nicola, Karin Wiltschke-Schrotta, Anna Pankowska, and Doris Pany-Kucera. We would like to thank Michael Plavcan, Vitale Sparacello, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the manuscript. Financial support was provided by the National Science Foundation (# BCS-0642297 , # BCS-0642710 ), Grant Agency of the Czech Republic ( 14-22823S ), and the Academy of Finland (No. 127241 ) and the Finnish Cultural Foundation .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2016/3/1
Y1 - 2016/3/1
N2 - Analyses of upper limb bone bilateral asymmetry can shed light on manipulative behavior, sexual division of labor, and the effects of economic transitions on skeletal morphology. We compared the maximum (absolute) and directional asymmetry in humeral length, articular breadth, and cross-sectional diaphyseal geometry (CSG) in a large (n > 1200) European sample distributed among 11 archaeological periods from the Early Upper Paleolithic through the 20th century. Asymmetry in length and articular breadth is right-biased, but relatively small and fairly constant between temporal periods. Females show more asymmetry in length than males. This suggests a low impact of behavioral changes on asymmetry in length and breadth, but strong genetic control with probable sex linkage of asymmetry in length. Asymmetry in CSG properties is much more marked than in length and articular breadth, with sex-specific variation. In males, a major decline in asymmetry occurs between the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic. There is no further decline in asymmetry between the Mesolithic and Neolithic in males and only limited variation during the Holocene. In females, a major decline occurs between the Mesolithic and Neolithic, with resulting average directional asymmetry close to zero. Asymmetry among females continues to be very low in the subsequent Copper and Bronze Ages, but increases again in the Iron Age. Changes in female asymmetry result in an increase of sexual dimorphism during the early agricultural periods, followed by a decrease in the Iron Age. Sexual dimorphism again slightly declines after the Late Medieval. Our results indicate that changes in manipulative behavior were sex-specific with a probable higher impact of changes in hunting behavior on male asymmetry (e.g., shift from unimanual throwing to use of the bow-and-arrow) and food grain processing in females, specifically, use of two-handed saddle querns in the early agricultural periods and one-handed rotary querns in later agricultural periods.
AB - Analyses of upper limb bone bilateral asymmetry can shed light on manipulative behavior, sexual division of labor, and the effects of economic transitions on skeletal morphology. We compared the maximum (absolute) and directional asymmetry in humeral length, articular breadth, and cross-sectional diaphyseal geometry (CSG) in a large (n > 1200) European sample distributed among 11 archaeological periods from the Early Upper Paleolithic through the 20th century. Asymmetry in length and articular breadth is right-biased, but relatively small and fairly constant between temporal periods. Females show more asymmetry in length than males. This suggests a low impact of behavioral changes on asymmetry in length and breadth, but strong genetic control with probable sex linkage of asymmetry in length. Asymmetry in CSG properties is much more marked than in length and articular breadth, with sex-specific variation. In males, a major decline in asymmetry occurs between the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic. There is no further decline in asymmetry between the Mesolithic and Neolithic in males and only limited variation during the Holocene. In females, a major decline occurs between the Mesolithic and Neolithic, with resulting average directional asymmetry close to zero. Asymmetry among females continues to be very low in the subsequent Copper and Bronze Ages, but increases again in the Iron Age. Changes in female asymmetry result in an increase of sexual dimorphism during the early agricultural periods, followed by a decrease in the Iron Age. Sexual dimorphism again slightly declines after the Late Medieval. Our results indicate that changes in manipulative behavior were sex-specific with a probable higher impact of changes in hunting behavior on male asymmetry (e.g., shift from unimanual throwing to use of the bow-and-arrow) and food grain processing in females, specifically, use of two-handed saddle querns in the early agricultural periods and one-handed rotary querns in later agricultural periods.
KW - Agriculture
KW - Bilateral asymmetry
KW - Biomechanics
KW - Europe
KW - Humerus
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.12.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.12.001
M3 - Article
C2 - 26989015
AN - SCOPUS:84960905852
VL - 92
SP - 37
EP - 49
JO - Journal of Human Evolution
JF - Journal of Human Evolution
SN - 0047-2484
ER -