Cranial variation in samples from Roman Imperial cemeteries

[Angela]

See:
[h=1]Cranial Variation and Biodistance in Three Imperial Roman Cemeteries[/h]
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oa.2602/full

I don't give much credence at all to this kind of discussion when the people involved are your average anthrofora members, but this is a forensic anthropologist.

I'm not surprised at their conclusions. I've always thought that the population stratification in Italy between north and south, with the demarcation somewhere just south of Rome, was ancient. To know whether the difference in the south is "Greek" ancestry, however, they should have had Greek skulls from the same era, I would think.

"[FONT=&quot]Ancient Roman populations are expected to exhibit considerable biological variation because of extensive trade networks and migration patterns throughout Europe and the circum-Mediterranean. The purpose of this research is to examine regional biological variation in Italy during imperial Roman times (1st to 3rd centuries [/FONT][FONT=&quot]ad[/FONT][FONT=&quot]) using three samples exhibiting distinctive class and economic systems. The individuals buried at Isola Sacra and Velia represent middle-class tradesmen and merchants from coastal port populations from Central and Southern Italy, respectively, while the individuals from Castel Malnome represent an inland population near Rome of freed slaves and other lower-class individuals involved in heavy labour associated with salt production. Data were recorded from 25 three-dimensional cranial coordinate landmarks and analysed using Procrustes superimposition and associated multivariate statistics in MorphoJ.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Procrustes analysis of variance statistics were unable to detect any significant group differences for centroid size (p = 0.595), but did detect differences in shape (p = 0.0154), suggesting some variation between the three samples. Canonical variates analyses based on Procrustes distance values suitable for small sample sizes indicated that while Castel Malnome was not significantly different from either of the coastal sites (Isola Sacra, p = 0.2071 and Velia, p = 0.8015), Isola Sacra and Velia were significantly different (p = 0.0119). The similarity of Castel Malnome to the other sites may reflect inherent heterogeneity in the sample, as it represents a group of freed slaves likely originating from various geographic locations. The separation of the two coastal sites is not unexpected, as Velia's location was influenced by an influx of Greek populations in the southern Italian Peninsula. This work supports previous studies using traditional craniometrics and dental metrics showing group similarity across the Italian Peninsula and a separation between more northern and southern groups. "

Unfortunately, the whole paper is behind a pay wall.[/FONT]

 

[Pax Augusta]

Unfortunately, the whole paper is behind a pay wall.

Is the paper still unavailable?

 

[Angela]

Is the paper still unavailable?

I haven't checked SciHub, but this link still says it's behind a paywall.

 

[Jovialis]

Too bad it's still behind a paywall.

But I think it makes sense given the ancient colonization of the region, dating all the way back to Magna Graecia or earlier. It would have been helpful as you said, if they compared it to Greek skulls from that same era.

I wonder if the southern Italian skulls would have been somewhat intermediary between Northern Italy and Ancient Greece; Greek skulls, mixed with Italic skulls (Oscans) who inhabited the region as well. Or if they were still more Greek-like at that time.

Would the Oscans have had similar skulls to the northern Italic tribes?

I'm tempted to rent the paper to read it further.

 

[MOESAN]

Old anthropo signaled already differences in the Italian peninsula at the Eneolithic/Chalco -
ones could be the result of old moves of pops and of some internal drifts in local reduced pops too, but at Chalco it appears a pop evocating the Central Balkans (something where phenotypes like 'dinaric' and 'mediter' were at play) intruded in Italy through North-East (land, not sea), and remained stronger element in Northern Italy; we can suppose they remained denser in North-East and also East Italy, until where, towards South, I don't know). Helas the old study (1957) where I red this did not precise what very Chalco culture was in cause, because it focalized on evolution of pops on a large scale, physically speaking, and did not pay too much attention to details of archeology.