The preburning condition of Chalcolithic cremated human remains from the Perdigoes enclosures (Portugal)

The Iberian Chalcolithic displayed a remarkable variety of funerary practices, which has been related to interpopulation differences, intrapopulation social-cultural differences, and complex multistage funerary rituals. Perdigoes, a Chalcolithic set of ditched enclosures, reflects such diversity including a wide array of funerary practices. Among those practices is cremation, which, despite relatively rare, is represented in different structures in Perdigoes. One of these structures (Pit 40) presents an unparalleled high minimum number of individuals (n = 240), contrasting with nearby and coeval structures. In this study, we analyse heat-induced bone changes and other archaeothanatological variables to tentatively assess the preburning condition of the human remains. The results of Pit 40 are also compared with other comparable contexts to assess if this unique context presents further funerary differences relative to those other contexts in, for example, body processing. Our results suggest preferential cremation of fleshed human remains, but burning of at least a minority of skeletonised remains and deposition of possibly unburned remains also likely occurred. Body processing appears to be comparable with that of the cremation contexts of Perdigoes but contrasts with that of another nearby context (Dolmen of Olival da Pega 2b) in which burned bones were also found.Portuguese Foundation for Science and TechnologyPortuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [PEst-OE/SADG/UI0283/2013, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016766, PTDC/EPH-ARQ/0798/2014, PTDC/IVC-ANT/1201/2014, SFRH/BPD/84268/2012]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Feline low-grade alimentary lymphoma: an emerging entity and a potential animal model for human disease

Background: Low-grade alimentary lymphoma (LGAL) is characterised by the infiltration of neoplastic T-lymphocytes, typically in the small intestine. The incidence of LGAL has increased over the last ten years and it is now the most frequent digestive neoplasia in cats and comprises 60 to 75% of gastrointestinal lymphoma cases. Given that LGAL shares common clinical, paraclinical and ultrasonographic features with inflammatory bowel diseases, establishing a diagnosis is challenging. A review was designed to summarise current knowledge of the pathogenesis, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of feline LGAL. Electronic searches of PubMed and Science Direct were carried out without date or language restrictions. Results: A total of 176 peer-reviewed documents were identified and most of which were published in the last twenty years. 130 studies were found from the veterinary literature and 46 from the human medicine literature. Heterogeneity of study designs and outcome measures made meta-analysis inappropriate. The pathophysiology of feline LGAL still needs to be elucidated, not least the putative roles of infectious agents, environmental factors as well as genetic events. The most common therapeutic strategy is combination treatment with prednisolone and chlorambucil, and prolonged remission can often be achieved. Developments in immunohistochemical analysis and clonality testing have improved the confidence of clinicians in obtaining a correct diagnosis between LGAL and IBD. The condition shares similarities with some diseases in humans, especially human indolent T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. Conclusions: The pathophysiology of feline LGAL still needs to be elucidated and prospective studies as well as standardisation of therapeutic strategies are needed. A combination of conventional histopathology and immunohistochemistry remains the current gold-standard test, but clinicians should be cautious about reclassifying cats previously diagnosed with IBD to lymphoma on the basis of clonality testing. Importantly, feline LGAL could be considered to be a potential animal model for indolent digestive T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder, a rare condition in human medicine

Sedimenting Social Identity: The Practice of Pre-Columbian Maya Body Partibility

While researchers of the pre-Columbian Maya have recognized that considerable variability characterizes treatment of dead bodies, few have scrutinized the practice of body partibility. The materiality of this practice indicates the ways in which social identities become transposed and then sedimented over generations. As one particularly cogent example, I examine a royal tomb from Dos Hombres, a ceremonial center located in northwestern Belize. The burial is also compared to other royal tombs in the region. While cultural continuities are identifiable, the Dos Hombres tomb is unique given its combination of attributes, namely the residential context into which it was entombed, its associated architecture, the approximately 20,000 obsidian flakes placed atop it, and the two decedents contained within—one of whom exhibited intentional body partibility. To make sense of this complicated burial, I take my cue from scholars who attend to mortuary processes that are materially subtle and often extended. Doing so facilitates distinction between myriad meanings encoded in corporeal manipulations

Violence in European medieval monasteries: Skeletal trauma in Teplá monastery (Czech Republic)

Medieval monasteries often went beyond their religious mission and developed into economic, social, and educational centres. These were not spared from violent attack on the part of the gentry. The defence of such monasteries is, however, a poorly investigated area in bioarchaeological studies. A recently excavated skeletal sample found in front of the western gate of the Abbey Church at the Teplá monastery (Czech Republic) dated between the 13th and 15th century AD provides us a unique opportunity to fill this gap. The analysis of skeletal trauma reveals that 13 out of 30 individuals exhibited trauma, of which 69% were confidently related to violence. All individuals with injuries were males, and half of them were younger than 30 years of age. The presence of ante‐mortem injuries indicates that males likely had previous combat experience, were successfully treated, and their bodies were buried with respect and care. The most probable explanation of our findings is that the individuals were a group of clients who were tasked with the defence of the Teplá monastery. Other, less likely explanations assume that individuals were laity, monastery benefactors, and/or canons killed during several different violent attacks directed at the monastery

Mortuary Sealing Among the Maya

In the Maya region, covering architecture and human remains in white marl has traditionally been interpreted as an act of defacement that accompanied some termination rituals. Recently, researchers have shown that such covering was a form of ritualized wrapping or sealing and could occur in the absence of other signs of desecration, as a part reverential termination. Here, I build on this work to argue that such sealing is not necessarily part of termination rites at all and could occur independently in mortuary contexts. I also suggest that such sealing is a distinct subset of other types of mortuary wrapping. Decoupling sealing from termination and exploring its relationship to other forms of wrapping helps refine our understanding of mortuary and ritual categories in the Maya area