Biomechanical evidence for occupational specialization in Mesolithic-Neolithic hunter-gatherers from Zvejnieki, Latvia
Mesolithic cemeteries have greater dimensionality and scale that reflect emerging social complexity following the Upper Paleolithic. The Zvejnieki cemetery dates between the Middle Mesolithic and Late Neolithic, is associated with a persistent hunter-fisher-gatherer economy, and includes burials with pendants fashioned from mammal teeth. Stable isotopic analyses indicate dietary differences between individuals with pendants and without pendants beginning early in life. This context provides an opportunity to explore questions relating to occupational specialization using long bone cross-sectional geometry. Femoral [...]
