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Bioarchaeology of Frontiers and Borderlands

Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local,

Regional, and Global Perspectives
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
BIOA RCH A E OLO GY OF

Frontiers and Borderlands

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Edited by Cristina I. Tica and Debra L. Martin

Foreword by Clark Spencer Larsen

University of Florida Press

Gainesville
Copyright 2019 by Cristina I. Tica and Debra L. Martin
All rights reserved
Published in the United States of America

This book may be available in an electronic edition.

24 23 22 21 20 19 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Tica, Cristina I., editor. | Martin, Debra L. (Professor of Biological
Anthropology), editor. | Larsen, Clark Spencer, author of foreword.
Title: Bioarchaeology of frontiers and borderlands / edited by Cristina I.
Tica and Debra L. Martin ; foreword by Clark Spencer Larsen.
Other titles: Bioarchaeological interpretations of the human past.
Description: Gainesville : University of Florida Press, 2019. | Series:
Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and
Global Perspectives | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018055525 | ISBN 9781683400844 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Human remains (Archaeology) | Excavations (Archaeology) |
Borderlands—History.
Classification: LCC CC79.5.H85 B544 2019 | DDC 930.1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018055525

University of Florida Press

2046 NE Waldo Road
Suite 2100
Gainesville, FL 32609
http://upress.ufl.edu
 Contents

List of Figures vii

List of Tables xi
Foreword xiii

Introduction: Bioarchaeology and the Study of Frontiers 1

Cristina I. Tica and Debra L. Martin

Part I. The Complexity and Liminality of the Frontier

1. Across the River: Romanized “Barbarians” and Barbarized “Romans”
on the Edge of the Empire (Third–Sixth Centuries CE) 13
Cristina I. Tica
2. Funerary Practice and Local Interaction on the Imperial Frontier, First
Century CE: A Case Study in the Şərur Valley, Azerbaijan 41
Selin E. Nugent
3. Queering Prehistory on the Frontier: A Bioarchaeological Investigation
of Gender in Mierzanowice Culture Communities of the Early Bronze
Age 55
Mark P. Toussaint

Part II. Movement across Borders

4. Isotopes, Migration, and Sex: Investigating the Mobility of the Frontier
Inhabitants of Roman Egypt 83
Amanda T. Groff and Tosha L. Dupras
5. Temporal and Spatial Biological Kinship Variation at Campovalano
and Alfedena in Iron Age Central Italy 107
Evan Muzzall and Alfredo Coppa
Part III. Adaptability and Resilience on the Frontier
6. Living on the Border: Health and Identity during Egypt’s Colonization
of Nubia in the New Kingdom Period 135
Katie Marie Whitmore, Michele R. Buzon, and Stuart Tyson Smith
7. Life on the Northern Frontier: Bioarchaeological Reconstructions of
Eleventh-Century Households in North Iceland 160
Guðný Zoëga and Kimmarie Murphy

Part IV. Violence on the Frontier

8. A Mass Grave outside the Walls: The Commingled Assemblage from
Ibida 187
Andrei Soficaru, Claudia Radu, and Cristina I. Tica
9. A Line in the Sand: Bioarchaeological Interpretations of Life along the
Borders of the Great Basin and the American Southwest 212
Aaron R. Woods and Ryan P. Harrod

Part V. Challenges and Limitations of Bioarchaeological

Methods and Theory
10. Mortuary Practices in the First Iron Age Romanian Frontier: The
Commingled Assemblages of the Măgura Uroiului 233
Anna J. Osterholtz, Virginia Lucas, Claira Ralston, Andre Gonciar, and
Angelica Bălos
11. Marginalized Motherhood: Infant Burial in Seventeenth-Century
Transylvania 252
Jonathan D. Bethard, Anna J. Osterholtz, Zsolt Nyárádi, and Andre
Gonciar
Conclusion: The Future of Bioarchaeology and Studies at the Edges 273
Cristina I. Tica

List of Contributors 279

Index 285
 Figures

1.1. Map of Romania showing Târgşor and Ibida (Slava Rusă) 14

1.2. Demographics of the Ibida sample 23
1.3. Demographics of the Târgşor sample 23
1.4. Periosteal reaction on the right tibia in a mature adult female from
Ibida 27
1.5. Right parietal cranial depression fracture in an old adult male from
Ibida 31
1.6. Right femur fracture in a young female from Târgşor 32
2.1. Map of the South Caucasus and Oğlanqala 42
2.2. Burial WWE.B1 43
2.3. Silver denarii accompanying WWE.B1 44
2.4. Bronze and glass-paste Isis and Serapis signet ring 47
2.5. Strontium and oxygen isotope values for WWE.B1 in relation to Şərur
Valley bioavailability 50
3.1. Burial orientations by estimated sex 66
3.2. Hierarchical clustering based on entheseal scores 69
3.3. Burial 6 from Żerniki Górne showing a probable female with a variation
of a Le Fort type I fracture 71
3.4. Burial 6 from Żerniki Górne showing a probable female with
symphyseal fracture of the mandible 72
3.5. Burial 6 from Żerniki Górne showing a probable female with possible
decapitation or artificial widening of the foramen magnum 72
4.1. Map showing the location of the Dakhleh Oasis and Kellis in Egypt 86
4.2. Comparison of oxygen isotope ranges from Nile Valley sites and the
Kellis 2 cemetery, Dakhleh Oasis 96
4.3. Bone apatite δ18O values from eight females identified as possible
foreigners plotted against the remaining Dakhleh Oasis adult females
and Tombos (Sudan) δ18O values 99
 4.4. Bone apatite δ18O values from eighteen males identified as possible
foreigners plotted against the remaining Dakhleh Oasis adult males and
Tombos (Sudan) δ18O values 101
5.1. Locations of Campovalano and Alfedena in Central Italy 111
5.2. Multidimensional scaling scatterplot of geometric mean–scaled dental
data showing the six metric samples from Campovalano and Alfedena
118
5.3. Neighbor-joining clustering of the five ASUDAS samples from
Campovalano and Alfedena 120
5.4. ANCOVA scatterplot of distal premolar and second molar data for
females and males 121
6.1. Map illustrating the changes in the border between Egypt and Nubia
during the Middle and New Kingdom periods 136
6.2. Map of location and excavations at Tombos cemetery 140
6.3. Scatter chart of 87Sr/86Sr values in the Nile Valley 141
6.4. Examples of Egyptian-style burials and grave goods 142
6.5. Examples of Kerma-style burials 143
7.1. A map showing cemeteries excavated in the Skagafjörður area with
Keldudalur and Seyla underlined 161
7.2. Distribution of age in the Keldudalur and Seyla cemeteries 170
7.3. Overviews of Keldudalur and Seyla cemeteries showing sex distribution
170
7.4. Defects of dental enamel at Keldudalur and Seyla 173
7.5. Location of coffin graves in the Keldudalur and Seyla cemeteries 175
8.1. Map of the Roman province of Scythia Minor showing the site of Ibida
189
8.2. Map of funeral discoveries from Ibida 193
8.3. Diagram of multistage process that led to formation of M141 deposit
199
8.4. Cranial fragment with perimortem bone modification from the M141
deposit 200
8.5. Femur fragment with postmortem bone modification from the M141
deposit 201
8.6. Femur fragment with postmortem bone modification from the M141
deposit 201
8.7. Newborn frontal fragment with left orbit from the M141 deposit 202

viii Figures
 9.1. Map showing the location of the Fremont and Ancestral Puebloan
border areas in southern Utah and southern Nevada 213
9.2. Histogram showing sex ratios of Fremont, Kayenta Branch, and Virgin
Branch samples 220
9.3. Histogram showing distribution of Fremont, Kayenta Branch, and
Virgin Branch samples by age groups 220
10.1. Map of Romania showing location of the Măgura Uroiului monument
235
10.2. Distribution of cranial trauma and an example of a large healed cranial
depression fracture on an adult female at the Măgura Uroiului 238
10.3. Porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia from a juvenile and an adult
female at the Măgura Uroiului 241
10.4. Gray wolf skull in situ at the Măgura Uroiului 245
10.5. Gray wolf metacarpal close to human remains at the Măgura Uroiului
245
10.6. Carving of a Dacian dragon at the base of the Măgura Uroiului site 246
11.1. Google Earth map of Eastern Europe depicting how the Carpathian
Arch formed the eastern borderland of the Principality of Transylvania
257
11.2. Photograph of Burial 54 at the Telekfalva Reformed Church excavation
258
11.3. Original plan view of the Telekfalva Reformed Church excavation 259
11.4. Age distribution of all individuals recovered from the Telekfalva
Reformed Church 260

Figures ix
 Tables

1.1. Frequency and percent of physiological stress conditions mentioned in

text in the Ibida sample by sex and age at death 25
1.2. Frequency and percent of physiological stress conditions mentioned in
text in the Târgşor sample by sex and age at death 26
1.3. Frequency and percent of antemortem trauma in the two samples by
sex 29
2.1. Strontium and oxygen values for the WWE.B1 young adult male 50
3.1. Frequency of osteoarthritis of the major joint systems by sex and burial
orientation 67
3.2. Frequency of dental pathologies by sex and burial orientation 68
3.3. Frequency of antemortem and perimortem trauma by sex and burial
orientation 68
4.1. Oxygen isotope data for adult females 92
4.2. Oxygen isotope data for adult males 94
4.3. Comparison of δ18O values for Nile Valley sites and Kellis 2 cemetery,
Dakhleh Oasis 97
5.1. Samples used in this study 114
5.2. Cranial landmarks used in this study 115
5.3. ANOVAs and Tukey HSDs for Iron Age Campovalano, Medieval
Campovalano, and Alfedena 119
6.1. Chronologies of Ancient Egypt and Nubia 137
6.2. Number of individuals exhibiting linear enamel hypoplasia, cribra
orbitalia, and osteoperiostitis by sex and age category 146
6.3. Number of individuals exhibiting abscesses, antemortem tooth loss, and
carious lesion by tooth (total number of individual teeth observed) and
by individual (with at least one tooth observable) 148
7.1. Comparison of the stature of human remains in medieval cemeteries in
the North Atlantic 172
 7.2. Summary of pathologies at Keldudalur and Seyla by frequency and
percent 173
8.1. Distribution of identified cranial fragments from feature M141 by age
category and sex 195
8.2. Sagittal and transverse diameter (in millimeters) of femoral shaft and
head for the five groups included in this study 196
8.3. Distribution of modifications to bone surface 197
9.1. Indications of nutritional stress among the Fremont, Kayenta Branch,
and Virgin Branch groups 221
9.2. Nonlethal trauma among the Fremont, Kayenta Branch, and Virgin
Branch groups 222
10.1. Demography of the human Măgura Uroiului assemblages 237
10.2. Cranial depression fractures by demography, size, location, and depth
239
10.3. Nonhuman species represented at the Măgura Uroiului 243

xii Tables
 Foreword

Beginning with founding of the discipline of anthropology in the late nine-

teenth century, the topic of frontiers and borderlands has been a lead topic of
study and discussion, in large part because anthropology encompasses all peo-
ples in all places at all times. The history of our science reveals that humans are
extraordinarily adaptable, are fluid in their living circumstances, and continu-
ously adjust to challenges. Indeed, the adaptive success of modern humans and
their ancestors is reflected in their remarkable ability to adjust and to respond
to challenges via the biocultural processes that are uniquely human.
My own experience with the bioarchaeology of frontiers focuses on the
Spanish borderlands of eastern North America. The Spanish borderlands, called
La Florida as they pertain to the American Southeast, have an extraordinary
record of native adaptation and native responses to new and novel challenges
arising from the arrival of new cultures, new economic systems, and new peo-
ple. The arrival of explorers and the establishment of the mission system in the
sixteenth century set into motion a series of changes to the landscape and for
the people that had far-reaching consequences.
Given my interests in borderlands biocultural adaptation, I was excited to
read Tica and Martin’s book and to see the expansion of interest in and scholar-
ship on frontiers and borderlands. The foregoing chapters underscore the vital
importance of interpreting a large, complex record via the integration of data
sets and methods that historians, archaeologists, and bioarchaeologists have
developed. This robust and integrative approach provides a unique perspective
that is not possible from discipline-specific investigation. Today, few of us could
image developing a research program without integrating knowledge that was
once discipline-specific. The findings presented in this volume document and
interpret the record of dominance and outcomes for exploited peoples. More
important, these findings underscore the remarkably dynamic nature of human
interactions in frontiers and borderlands.
 The developing record clearly shows that there are negative outcomes for
frontier groups living in the shadow of a dominant society (e.g., the limes of
the Roman empire Cristina Tica discusses), including conflict and violence,
exposure to new pathogens, social inequality, and the associated processes of
emerging living conditions. In bioarchaeological research on the Spanish bor-
derlands, various authorities have documented similar outcomes with regard
to oral health, iron deficiency anemia, trauma, and alterations in well-being in
general (e.g., see Larsen 2001; Murphy and Klaus 2017).
The various settings discussed in this book present a record of economic,
social, and cultural change that ranges from changes in diet to remarkably rapid
alterations in mortuary programs. The chapters reveal the fundamental impor-
tance of integrating historical, archaeological, and bioarchaeological data sets in
order to characterize and interpret life and living circumstances. The contribu-
tors to the book provide case and regional studies that underscore the central
role of human remains for addressing these issues.
I am especially excited to see that the bioarchaeological research presented
in this volume challenges long-held notions of what it means to be a dominant
power. Although a long historical record contains innumerable accounts of vio-
lence and outcomes of warfare for their victims, that record is only a part of the
larger picture of expansionism and exploitation. There is no question about it:
our science is showing the vital importance of combining methods and data
in interdisciplinary research agendas. It is clear that integrating method and
theory and developing new tools, new approaches to the study of behavioral
dynamics, and new ways of thinking about the past are changing how we study
earlier humans. The integrative approaches many of the chapters in this book
present provide a more informed understanding of societies that were expand-
ing from core to peripheral landscapes (e.g., Roman colonization) or those be-
ing encountered by newly arriving dominant societies (e.g., Nubia). Violence
and exploitation were and continue to be a part of the record of domination of
one society or state over another. Equally important, however, are records of
adjustment and adaptation. It is that record that makes the focus on frontiers
and borderlands such an interesting and compelling discussion about human
adaptation and behavior.

Clark Spencer Larsen

Series Editor

xiv Foreword
References Cited
Larsen, C. S., ed. 2001. Bioarchaeology of Spanish Florida: The Impact of Colonialism.
Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Murphy, M. S., and H. D. Klaus, eds. 2017. Colonized Bodies, Worlds Transformed: To-
ward a Global Bioarchaeology of Contact and Colonialism. Gainesville: University
Press of Florida.
Stojanowski, C. M. 2013. Mission Cemeteries, Mission Peoples: Historical and Evolution-
ary Dimensions of Intracemetery Bioarchaeology in Spanish Florida. Gainesville: Uni-
versity Press of Florida.

Foreword xv
 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Introduction

Bioarchaeology and the Study of Frontiers

Cr ist i na I. T ic a a n d De br a L . M a rt i n

Frontiers, territorial borders, and the process of boundary making are impor-
tant aspects of the natural history of the human species, since human con-
sciousness and social organization are deeply influenced by territoriality (An-
derson 1996, 189). Borders and frontiers are means through which humans
assign meaning to their existence, as these delimitations connect and relate
people to one another as being part of something special because it is sepa-
rate (Williams 2006, 119). Territorial borders are an integral part of the way
human societies work. They are fundamental contributors to our sense of
belonging and our sense of place in the world; they allow us to relate to one
another based on trust, commonality, and security (Williams 2006, 119). Thus,
frontiers are intrinsically linked to the entities they encompass (Anderson
1996, 10).

Why We Should Care

Every culture defines and is affected by territorial borders. Defining, defending,

and protecting the borders of a homeland are a fundamentally important social
practice, since they divide political communities, political authority, and politi-
cal rights and obligations. Accordingly, borders and frontiers lay the basis for
collective identity formation. They require complex social processes that serve
to protect people—or to put them at risk (Williams 2006, 124,133). The frontier
includes and excludes while encompassing both the inside and the outside, the
identity and the difference (Vaughan-Williams 2009, 1). Borders and frontiers
 are protecting and imprisoning, at once gateways and barriers, zones of contact
and conflict, cooperation and competition, opportunity and insecurity, ambiva-
lent identities and aggressive assertion of difference, and dichotomies that can
coexist simultaneously in the same people (Anderson and O’Dowd 1999, 595).
The daily news is a constant reminder of why a scholarship of borders and
frontiers is not only still relevant but crucially needed. The portrayal of fron-
tiers and borderlands as either a menacing threat or an optimistic prospect for
sociocultural interactions is based on a weak (and frequently wrong) grasp of
the past and therefore of the complexity of these phenomena. Their contradic-
tory, problematic, and multifaceted nature makes borders and frontiers hard
to conceptualize and define. Frontier is more of a set of processes rather than a
“thing”; it is “a busy field of intersecting forces,” and defining it narrowly “will
not tame these forces or unite them in a single pattern” (Rodseth and Parker
2005, 16). And as Rodseth and Parker (2005, 16) argue, all aspects of the frontier
should be investigated, from all different points of view, in all its specific times
and places; thus, the frontier should be investigated “in the wild,” so to speak.
As Thomas Nail (2016, 7) asserts, borders are dynamic and fluid. They never
finish “including” people or things because they are never stable or immutable;
they are easily changed in response to shifting politics or cultural changes. Bor-
ders and frontiers are also never successful in keeping everyone in or out (8),
and as Nail emphasizes, they all “leak precisely because all borders are consti-
tuted by and through a process of leakage, which is only temporarily stabilized
into border regimes” (13).
One of the definitions of frontier is a zone that separates civilization from the
wilderness (Donnan and Haller 2000, 11), a territorial expansion into formerly
“empty” areas (Baud and Van Schendel 1997, 213). However, during colonization,
one group’s homeland becomes another’s frontier (Lightfoot and Martinez 1995,
473). The frontier is a place in and of itself but it is also a link in a larger network
(Wendl and Rösler 1999, 10). Therefore, a change in one group’s frontier requires
the other group to also make accommodations and changes. And exchanges be-
tween two groups often underscore their interdependence (Green and Perlman
1985, 4). An example is the agricultural/hunter-gatherer frontier in temperate
prehistoric Europe: as Dennell (1985) posits, the spread of agriculture was prob-
ably generated by the actual interaction between foragers and farmers, by a close
dialogue between those on either side of the Mesolithic-Neolithic frontier.
To a certain extent, the notion of “frontier” is used interchangeably with
“border” (Wendl and Rösler 1999, 3). Borders are spaces of “meaning-making”

2 Cristina I. Tica and Debra L. Martin

and “meaning-breaking.” They are liminal zones that put in sharp relief the
full range of “multivocal and multilocal” identities. Donnan and Wilson (1999,
64) maintain that this can be especially seen in the case of ethnic and national
identities expressed at peripheries and borders in ways that often differ from
how the same identities are configured in core areas of the state.
For the people who live on the frontier or in frontier regions, the meaning
of what a frontier is is deeply influenced by the rules and regulations that fron-
tier imposes on their lives (Anderson 1996, 2–3), rules and regulations created
and enforced by those with more power who often live at the center. Borders
and frontiers are rarely natural; they are almost always socially and politically
constructed. They are subjective, negotiated, and contested; they derive mean-
ing and function from the people they divide (Diener and Hagen 2010a, 3–4).
Furthermore, borders and frontiers are lived; they are “historically contingent,
politically charged, dynamic phenomena that first and foremost involve people
and their everyday lives” (Vaughan-Williams 2009, 1).

A Bioarchaeology of Frontiers and Borderlands

This volume of case studies illustrates the ways that borders and frontiers have
both material and symbolic uses (Anderson and O’Dowd 1999, 595). Each chap-
ter demonstrates in different ways the complexity and the versatility of the bor-
der. What makes border theory so difficult to grasp is that there are many types
of borders and frontiers: regional and geographical, political, religious, cultural,
generational, ethnic, racial, based on class and socioeconomic stratification,
and so forth (Vaughan-Williams 2009, 1). At the same time, borders are “equally
aterritorial, apolitical, nonlegal, and noneconomic [phenomena]” (Nail 2016,
2–3) (for example, see chapter 3, this volume).
The study of borders and frontiers should not be exclusively undertaken based
on any single type of division or social force because what is common to all these
types of borders is the status of the “between” (Nail 2016, 2). Borders and frontiers
can exist at different levels and scales: between individual and society, among
individuals, among communities or groups, and among societies. Borders are
places of (ethnic) conflict and accommodation because of their geographical
location and their role as areas of immigration (Donnan and Wilson, 1999, 5).
People at the borders adapt to the social, economic, cultural, and political neces-
sities of living with, or in spite of, their cross-border neighbors, whom they might
consider as friends, enemies, or neutral parties (Donnan and Wilson, 1994, 3).

Introduction: Bioarchaeology and the Study of Frontiers 3

 Frontiers, borders, and borderlands are complex composites. Each border is
actually made up of multiple borders that are never given or static but are mobile
and reproduced (Nail 2016, 1–2, 7). Borders and frontiers are “the mobile cut-
ting blades of society” (Nail 2016, 7). As Nail (2016) notes, and as the chapters in
this volume suggest, frontiers and borders have always been complex, multiple,
mobile, and embodied, emerging in the landscape from the identities individuals
and groups carry in themselves (Diener and Hagen 2010b, 193). The case studies
in this volume, which are largely based on analysis of human skeletal remains,
can add to this dimensionality of borders and frontiers by providing a look at
what the lived experience was for people in a variety of border contexts.
The aim of this edited volume is to present a series of cases that address how
living on or interacting with the frontier can affect health and socioeconomic
status. The goal is to explore how people in the past might have maintained, cre-
ated, or manipulated their identity while living in a place of liminality. The zone
of “in-betweenness,” of demarcation between two or more spheres of influence,
is a very dynamic and potentially violent place. Because borders and frontiers
are often places where those with more power can exert more influence and
coercion, violence is often at the core of border and frontier studies. This book
aims to explore how different groups living in these zones were affected and
how they lived their lives “on the edge.”
Bioarchaeology is a powerful tool that brings invaluable empirical data on
health and trauma. Since the topics of frontiers, borders, emigration, immigra-
tion, refugees and the building of walls occupy a central place in today’s global
political milieu, the aim of this book is to draw attention to the relevance of
these kinds of studies and what can be learned from the past. A bioarchaeo-
logical approach to frontiers and borderlands can offer a new outlook, and,
sadly, today more than ever, we need new perspectives on this topic. The more
understanding we have on how frontier zones and migration processes affected
health and social (in)stability in the past, the better chances we have to make
sense of it all in the present.
The case studies presented address questions of how living on the frontier or
near borders might have affected the health and disease of these groups, how
conflict and violence might have been expressed, and how social inequalities
might have been manifested. How did these groups maintain their identity?
What overall effect did the “frontier” have on the existence of those who called
it home? Some chapters address situations where the people involved might not
have lived permanently in the borderland zone but had extensively interacted

4 Cristina I. Tica and Debra L. Martin

with it or were deeply marked by it. A frontier delineates, at least mentally, an
end for one group, for one zone and the beginning for another.

The Structure of the Book

The chapters in this volume discuss one or more aspects of frontiers and bor-
ders, each presenting archaeological case studies that integrate the evidence
from human remains with the historical and cultural context. The chapters are
divided into five thematic sections: The Complexity and Liminality of the Fron-
tier, Movement across Borders, Adaptability and Resilience on the Frontier,
Violence on the Frontier, and Challenges and Limitations of Bioarchaeological
Methods and Theory. The theme of complexity, in one form or another, perme-
ates all the chapters in this volume.
In chapter 1, Cristina I. Tica integrates insights gleaned from bioarchaeology
with what we know from archaeology and the historical sources in the case of
the lower Danube frontier in the Late Roman Empire. She looks at how the daily
life of people under Roman control compared to that of their neighbors to the
north, the “barbarians,” and she shows that there are health, demographic and
mortality differences.
In chapter 2, Selin E. Nugent takes a different approach to the notion that
powerful empires (here, Rome and Parthia) seek the expansive use of violence
and militarism to define all relationships with frontier populations. As it turns
out, this may not be the case. Nugent’s nuanced look demonstrates that the re-
lationships between Rome and Parthia blurred the boundaries between empire
and frontier and were mutual and beneficial.
This volume also aims to emphasize the ways that frontiers and borderlands
are liminal zones that demand a reconceptualization of many of our most deeply
held assumptions about the relationships between people-place-identity and
culture. The most personal of spaces to inscribe borders on is the body. Today,
in an age of international travel, through risk-based border securitization and
biometric bordering practices, the individual has become a walking, talking bor-
der (Popescu 2015, 103–104). The body is thus an ideal border to interrogate. As
Popescu (2015, 103) notes, the body has long been a canvas for bordering prac-
tices, and Mark P. Toussaint shows us that in chapter 3. His chapter explores the
geographically and culturally liminal spaces in Central Europe. He sees the whole
of the Bronze Age as a sociocultural frontier for which gendered roles and identi-
ties were contested and formulated, resulting in surprising configurations.

Introduction: Bioarchaeology and the Study of Frontiers 5

 Part 2, which includes two studies, deals with movements across borders. In
chapter 4, Amanda T. Groff and Tosha L. Dupras use stable oxygen isotope anal-
ysis in conjunction with textual evidence to discuss the mobility of individuals
buried in the Kellis 2 cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. Their data comple-
ment the limited textual evidence, allowing for a more detailed reconstruction
of economics, kinship, and residence patterns during the Romano-Christian
era and lead to a definition of Egyptian frontier identity. They considered ar-
chaeological, historical, and ethnographic records to help provide a more de-
tailed view of the socioeconomic context, labor, kinship patterns, and mobility
of individuals in this remote location.
In chapter 5, Evan Muzzall and Alfredo Coppa examine temporal and spa-
tial boundaries with a series of burials from Campovalano and Alfedena in
Central Italy to see if marriage and residence rules were negotiated within the
cultural and ideological borders that separated wealthy coastal groups from the
less economically important interior groups. They use a biodistance approach
to investigate social borders of the past in time and space.
Part 3 examines the human costs and benefits of adaptability and resilience
on the frontier. Scholars have recognized that borders and borderlands are areas
of transition and sites of cultural interaction, exchange, and hybridity. While all
too often border regions are zones of military conflict and cultural animosity,
they can also constitute sites of opportunities and cultural exchange (Diener
and Hagen 2010a, 10). The two chapters in this part show how people negotiate
and adapt to the frontier situations.
In chapter 6, Katie Marie Whitmore, Michele R. Buzon, and Stuart Tyson
Smith discuss the boundary between Egypt and Nubia and the site of Tom-
bos during the New Kingdom. Traditionally, it was thought that during the
Egyptian Colonial New Kingdom period, Egyptians subjected native Nubians
to harsh labor and impoverishment. However, Whitmore and colleagues show
that at the frontier community of Tombos, biological and/or ethnic identity
was more integrated and fluid. By using archaeological and bioarchaeological
evidence, the authors suggest that the individuals living at Tombos incorpo-
rated both Egyptian and Nubian practices in their social spheres, resulting in a
biologically and culturally entangled community.
An integral aspect of frontiers and borders relates to the fact that they are
often both gateways to and (natural or artificial) exclusions from resources, wa-
ter, food, hunting grounds, and so forth. Chapter 7 addresses frontiers as natu-
ral limits to the habitable environment. Guðný Zoëga and Kimmarie Murphy

6 Cristina I. Tica and Debra L. Martin

explore how the advent of a new religious reality appears in the archaeological
record in the Skagafjörður region of North Iceland and discuss the impacts of
frontiers and borderland spaces on the settlers’ biology and culture during the
eleventh century. Icelandic settlers operated in numerous frontiers and border-
lands. Zoëga and Murphy note that unlike many frontier lands that are eventu-
ally transformed into stable, permanent settlements, northern Icelanders oc-
cupied a liminal space on the landscape, continually forced to adjust and adapt
to environmental instability.
Part 4 addresses violence on the frontier. There is a deep connection be-
tween violence and borders that is historical, structural and colonial (Vaughan-
Williams 2009, 67). Frontiers are often used as instruments of oppression and
restrict the movements of people. Frontiers and borders are the primary mecha-
nisms through which “outsiders” are denied asylum, travel, settlement, work,
or citizenship (Anderson 1996, 150). Anderson and O’Dowd (1999, 597) note
that territorial borders and frontiers “are generally imposed through force and
intimidation in the course of wars, conquests and state formation” and their
political economy reveals unequal and asymmetrical relationships. The process
of bordering is often inherently violent.
Returning to the lower Danube frontier during the Late Roman Empire, An-
drei Soficaru, Claudia Radu and Cristina I. Tica (chapter 8) present the case of
feature M141, a mass grave discovered outside the walls of the Roman city of
Ibida in the province of Scythia Minor. Based on their findings, the authors con-
clude that this is a case of political violence against a particular group of people
that sought to completely eradicate their presence from collective memory.
In chapter 9, Aaron R. Woods and Ryan P. Harrod explore the boundaries
archaeologists have drawn between the Fremont and Ancestral Pueblo groups
in the ancient Southwest. They show the challenges of defining the frontier as
people living in and near it would have done, and they question the practice
of defining borders using only pottery and architecture to delineate presumed
“lines in the sand” where one ethnic/political group ends and another may be-
gin. The authors aim to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of borders
that are often defined solely by the material culture.
Finally, part 5 addresses the challenges and limitations of bioarchaeological
methods and bioarchaeological theory. Two chapters examine cultural repre-
sentations of borders and the role these play in the construction and contesta-
tion of identities and their social formations and the potential challenges re-
searchers face when making forays into new areas of scholarship.

Introduction: Bioarchaeology and the Study of Frontiers 7

 In chapter 10, Anna J. Osterholtz and colleagues present a complex mortu-
ary program on an Iron Age Romanian frontier in the form of unusual feasting
and sacrifice associated with the primary burials of women and children. Even
though the assemblage they examine is small, it gives a glimpse into one of the
processes operating at the Romanian frontier.
Jonathan D. Bethard and his team argue for a consideration of boundaries
that goes beyond geography; in chapter 11, they aim to engage in “boundary-
bending bioarchaeological scholarship.” They apply this concept to an examina-
tion of infant burials in Székely communities on the frontier of Transylvania by
exploring a range of borders (church/state, mothers/infants, Roman Catholic/
Hungarian Reformed Church, locals/nonlocals). Their goal is to illuminate a
complex and nuanced set of accommodations that occurred around infant buri-
als during the seventeenth century CE. The authors argue that their approach
to the understanding of frontier has enriched their interpretations of the bioar-
chaeology of Transylvanian Székely communities.

Conclusions

Each of these studies offers a view of border and frontier existence from the
ground up—how ordinary people ascribe, deny, or assume cultural differences
and how they actively enact and modify their notions of belonging and iden-
tity in specific temporal-spatial contexts. The type of frontier varies based on
what each author is exploring and on the specific aspect the researchers chose
to investigate in each chapter. Thus, the aim of this volume is to examine the
multitude of meanings and definitions borders and frontiers can have. No ex-
haustive, all-encompassing, and overarching definition is provided at the be-
ginning of the volume. We believe that such an attempt would be reductionist
and would detract from our intended objective. Instead, we ask the reader to go
with what each author defines and be open to exploring the individual aspects
of frontiers and boundaries each chapter examines. The chapters are intended
to start the conversation about a crucial contemporary issue. We hope that these
case studies will nudge the reader to delve deeper into frontiers and borderlands
scholarship.
Many of these chapters get at the biocultural dimensions of borders and
frontiers. This is the unique perspective that bioarcheology can offer. In some
way, each chapter gets at the cultural dimensions of borders and the physical
and metaphorical borderlands that radiate outward from the centers of these

8 Cristina I. Tica and Debra L. Martin

less stable and more contested spaces. Finally, these chapters argue for the re-
conceptualization of borders and frontiers as socially charged places where
innovative cultural constructs are created and transformed. They all advocate
for a broadening of the conceptual framework of borders so that they are con-
sidered as zones of cultural interfaces in which cross-cutting and overlapping
social units can be defined and recombined at different spatial and temporal
scales.

References
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bridge, UK: Polity Press.
Anderson, J. and L. O’Dowd. 1999. “Borders, Border Regions and Territoriality: Contra-
dictory Meanings, Changing Significance.” Regional Studies 33(7): 593–604.
Baud, M., and W. Van Schendel. 1997. “Toward a Comparative History of Borderlands.”
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Introduction: Bioarchaeology and the Study of Frontiers 9

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