Khudaverdyan A.Y. Hobosyan S.G. Saratikyan A.A.
Anthropological materials of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age from the Bartsryal burial ground (Lori province, Armenia) in the paleoecological aspect of the study
Reporter: Khudaverdyan A.Y.
The work is devoted to the studying of the bone material received as a result of excavation of the Bardzryal burial ground of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. A series consists of 39 skeletons. The rite of public exhibiting of corpses was spread among a part of the population of the Bardzryal burial ground. The body of individuals was left on a hill for the breakdown of soft tissues and eaten by birds of prey, and only then buried in burials. The methods used of macroscopic examination and x-ray analysis. A striking feature of the studied sample is traces of trepanation on two skulls. Trepanations low-ranking burials are described. Trepanations were apparently medical rather than ritual. The probable motives behind such operations are discussed, their efficiency is assessed. As a result of the conducted work it was possible to establish the important features of life-activities of the studied samples, to define sex-age indicators and specificity of spreading of diseases. The data on sex and age structure of the population indicate, that despite a sharp gender imbalance, the group had a high standard of living. The population can be described as settled, which is confirmed by the high frequency of occurrence of inflammatory processes, signs of iron deficiency anemia. Our materials show that she, like many other agricultural communities, was not free from various types of pathologies (tooth enamel hypoplasia, etc.), but their prevalence did not seriously affect life expectancy. Study results show, that Bartsryala population of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, had in many respects similar features of biological adaptation and similar health indicators with synchronous groups from the territory of Armenia.
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