Korean J Phys Anthropol.  2011 Jun;24(2):113-122.

Metric Skeletal Traits of the Excavated Bones from the Tombs of Paju Cultural Remains

• Lee YI
• Han SH
• Kim HJ

Abstract

GyeongGi Provincial Museum and Korea Army Museum performed identification of Paju cultural remains. These areas were in particular situations because many kinds of mines still remained under the ground since Korean War. The identification and metric measurements were not easy because the excavated bones were destroyed partially and totally. Nine skeletons were excavated from the lime-soiled mixture tomb; six remains among nine were buried together in same grave and three remains were buried within wood coffins. Although many human skeletons were damaged and destroyed, period of the bones could be estimated at about late Chosun Dynasty with artifacts and epitaph that were found together. All the remains had been measured their full skeletal lengths before they were collected. The shortest and longest length of them reached 140 and 162 cm each with the average 152.6 cm but we could hardly estimate real heights of all remains with only these data. Each skeletons collected were classified into axial and appendicular skeletons and we obtained all the possible metric values of skull, mandible and sacrum from axial skeletons and clavicle, humerus, radius, ulna, pelvis, femur and tibia from appendigeal skeletons. In case of missing or severely damaged bones, we couldn't get metric data or could get only individual values. Although some demographic informations are still missing, these results will be used as a set of metric database for the systematic and detailed ancient physical anthropology studies.

Keyword

Physical anthropology; Chosun Dynasty; Archaeology; Metric measurement; Axial skeletons; Appendicular skeletons

MeSH Terms

Anthropology, Physical
Archaeology
Artifacts
Clavicle
Femur
Humans
Humerus
Korea
Korean War
Mandible
Museums
Pelvis
Radius
Sacrum
Skeleton
Skull
Tibia
Ulna
Wood