And the winners are...
A re-evaluation of the human and animal bones recovered from the main Iron Age hillfort site at Bredon Hill in south Worcestershire, and specifically of the human bone from the so-called ‘massacre layer’ from the gateway.
Evidence using modern osteological analytical techniques will be used to either support or refute the previous interpretation that the remains represent a massacre, marking the end of the hillfort with its fall during the Roman invasion.
The objective of this study is to define an osteological description of conflict-zone health through palaeopathological analysis of Medieval (ca.900-1600 AD) skeletons from English and Scottish border populations. Recent anthropological studies suggest psychological stress caused by living in a war-torn region is associated with nutritional deficiencies and decreases in the overall health of residents.
The hypothesis to be tested is that similar trends of malnutrition and poor health are demonstrable in populations from this region of historically known political instability. Data collected will include estimated age at death, sex, height, dental, metabolic, infectious and joint disease.
The length of the 2nd to 4th digit ratio (2D:4D) is a recognised bio-marker for prenatal testosterone (PT) and correlates with sex-linked traits in a number of vertebrate taxa. In humans variations in mean 2D:4D have been shown to correspond to differences in fertility, sexual selection and social bonding within and between populations.
This study uses 2D:4D to see how variations in PT early in development can affect the expression of social behaviour within and between non-human anthropoid species. This work has implications for understanding temporal and spatial changes in human and pre-human social systems.