| Abstract: |
This research focuses on a Late and Final Neolithic Age (5,0003,200 BC) site from southern Greece, Alepotrypa Cave, and investigates the impact of Neolithic transformations, namely the adoption of domesticated species and sedentism in a region outside the core area of domestication by examining mortuary behavior, demography, morphology, pathology, and diet. The Alepotrypa population consists of a minimum number of 161 individuals of equal proportions of males, females, adults, and subadults, and falls within the range of other eastern Mediterranean Neolithic sites in terms of age profiles, mortality, and stature with a mean adult age of 28.8 years, life expectancy at birth of 17.87, and high incidence of child mortality between birth and 10 years. The major health problem was high incidence of anemic conditions, most probably of nutritional origin with the synergy of chronic pathogen loads. In fact an iron-poor diet focused on terrestrial resources, mainly C<sub> 3</sub> domesticated cereals with little incorporation of marine resources, despite proximity of the site to the sea, has been documented by the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of human bone collagen and carbonate apatite. The population presents a relatively low frequency of enamel defects, caries, and skeletal infection, contrary to other prehistoric agriculturalist populations, which suggests that the population was healthy in some respects. The series also exhibits relatively high incidence of cranial possibly related with interpersonal violence and competition for resources, a number of arthritic conditions and musculoskeletal stress markers indicative of elevated levels of mobility and habitual activity, and high frequency of calculus and antemortem tooth loss and severe cupped tooth wear, characteristic of an agricultural diet and food preparation techniques. The mortuary diversity of the Alepotrypa Cave, namely the existence of secondary burials in addition to single or multiple primary burials were tentatively interpreted within a context of a land-based agricultural economy with limited resources, increasing population, and increased sedentism. In this context, secondary burials, with genetic and familial relationships as evidenced by the high incidence of metopism, are considered as an attempt to create ancestral authority and inheritance, and establish control of critical resources.
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