The Bioarchaeology of Individuals

13. Written in Stone, Written in Bone: The Osteobiography of a Bronze Age Craftsman from Alalakh

13  d  Written in Stone, Written in Bone The Osteobiography of a Bronze Age Craftsman from Alalakh Alexis T. Boutin Individual Profile Site: Tell Atchana (ancient Alalakh) Location: Hatay Province, southern Turkey Cultural Affiliation: Ancient Syria, Late Bronze Age Date: Ca. mid-15th to late 14th centuries B.C.E. Feature: Square 45-72, Locus 03-3009, Pail 41, Skeleton S04-4 Location of Grave: The highest layer of burials in a crowded pit-grave cemetery on the mound’s eastern slope (Area 3) Burial and Grave Type: A single primary inhumation in a pit with an uneven floor and sloping sides; deposited on his back, with legs flexed, arms folded over chest, and head resting on the left side Associated Materials: None Preservation and Completeness: Fully articulated, fairly complete skull, axial elements highly fragmentary, bones of arms and upper legs fairly complete; body entered baulk at knees, so lower legs not excavated Age at Death and Basis of Estimate: 35–50 years, based on cranial suture closure (Meindl and Lovejoy 1985) and progression of osteoarthritis (Ubelaker 1999:84–87) Sex and Basis of Determination: Male, based on pelvic and cranial morphology (Buikstra and Ubelaker 1994) and metrics of femur (midshaft circumference) (Bass 1995) and humerus (biepicondylar width) (France 1998) Conditions Observed: Comparatively high frequencies of dental caries and antemortem tooth loss, heavy attrition, hypercementosis, grooves on occlusal surfaces of two anterior mandibular teeth; healed fracture of left ulna; osteoarthritis and enthesopathies in upper and lower body Specialized Analysis: None Excavated: 2003, Expedition to Alalakh (Tell Atchana), directed by K. Aslıhan Yener, University of Chicago; since 2006 this expedition has been sponsored by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture. Archaeological Report: Yener 2010 Current Disposition: Curated in expedition depot, Tayfur Sökmen, Hatay, Turkey 193 194 · Alexis T. Boutin Tell Atchana was first recorded as site number 136 by the Braidwoods’ archaeological survey of the fertile Amuq plain, once within the cultural sphere of ancient Syria, now in the modern nation of Turkey (Braidwood and Braidwood 1960). Shortly thereafter, Sir Leonard Woolley recognized that this mound on the Orontes River was strategically located at the crossroads of major trade routes (between Anatolia and the southern Levant, and between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates River valley), making it an ideal site to investigate cultural connections between Mesopotamia, the Minoans, and the Hittites (Woolley 1937). Eight excavation seasons between 1936 and 1949 (Woolley 1953, 1955) identified Tell Atchana as Alalakh, the capital of the city-state of Mukiš during the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) and Late Bronze Age (LBA) (Mellink 1957; Klengel 1995). Archives of cuneiform tablets deriving mostly from Level VII (MBA) and Level IV (LBA) document various aspects of Alalakh’s social life and highlight its connections to regional centers such as Mari and Babylon, as well as its shifting affiliation with the empires of Yamhad, Mittani, and the Hittites (Wiseman 1953). Woolley’s expedition also excavated numerous burials from the MBA and LBA, although he published “only a selection of the graves” (Woolley 1955: 201), specifically the 122 burials that best aided his interpretation of the site’s function and chronology (table 13.1). Building upon seven seasons of research by the Amuq Valley Regional Project (Yener 2005, 2010), renewed excavations at Alalakh are revisiting and clarifying Woolley’s stratigraphy and pottery typologies, as well as exploring new parts of the site. As the expedition’s mortuary specialist and osteologist, I analyzed the burials of at least 58 people excavated in 2003 and 2004 (Boutin 2008, 2010). These recently excavated burials greatly expand the corpus of mortuary remains from Alalakh and illustrate how archaeological, osteological, Table 13.1. Chronological framework for Middle–Late Bronze Age Alalakh Woolley’s Level Period Absolute dates B.C.E. XVII–VIII Middle Bronze IIA–IIB Late 19th to mid-17th century VII MB IIB Mid-17th to mid-16th century VI MB IIC Second half of 16th century V Late Bronze IA First half of 15th century IV LB IB–IIA Mid-15th to late 14th century Note: The calendar years reflect the“low”chronology demonstrated as most suitable to Alalakh’s stratigraphy and ceramic typologies (Gates 1981, 1987; Heinz 1992) and followed by many scholars (e.g., Stein 1997; Bergoffen 2005). and documentary evidence, when interpreted in a complementary and contextual fashion, can shed light on the social production of embodied personhood through mortuary practices in the ancient...