Social "status" and biological "status": A comparison of grave goods and skeletal indicators from Pontecagnano

Comparison of funerary treatment and skeletal biology can be very informati ve about the interplay of social status and meanings and actual life condit ions in ancient communities, but such comparison is rarely done, due in par t to the disciplinary separation of bioanthropology and social archaeology in many archaeological traditions. In this paper, we analyze relations betw een skeletal pathologies and grave goods in a sample of 94 individuals from Pontecagnano (Salerno, Italy, seventh-third centuries BC). The results sho w that the relationship between health, activity, and social status as expr essed in grave goods was complex. Some biological indicators considered typ ical of "stress" or biological status (enamel hypoplasia, cribra orbitalia, adult stature) bore no relation to social status. Other indicators, partic ularly those of activity and stress in adult life (trauma, Schmorl's nodes, periostitis), covaried with grave assemblage and help to outline a possibl e division of labor. As this analysis shows, when skeletal and archaeologic al data are used in conjunction, the result is a deeper picture of the soci al and economic life of the community than can be obtained from either sour ce. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.