Sex-based differences in Bronze Age childcare

Early Bronze Age communities in Central Europe buried male and female bodies differently. Bodies are placed either on the left or right body side in the grave, with the head towards the north or south, and gender- typical grave good may accompany the dead. Archaeologists compare the gendered treatment of the dead to the sex of the buried person, to make inferences about how gender was constructed in the past. Whereas the skeletal morphology of adult men and women differs sufficiently for an osteological sex estimation, this is not the case for children before puberty. Boys and girls cannot be reliably differentiated based on skeletal features, and genetic sex determination is limited by preservation. The recent discovery that amelogenin protein fragments in human dental enamel are sex-specific and can be analyzed almost non- destructively using nanoflow liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (nanoLC-MS/MS) has the potential to transform the (bio-)archaeology of gender and childhood. This project will establish the identification of sex-specific peptides in human enamel as a standard analytical procedure and utilize data on the sex of buried children to answer a number of urgent questions on sex- specific mortality, morbidity and burial treatment in children. We will establish sex-specific growth curves and thereby improve osteological age at death assessment for the populations of the Bronze Age. We will be able to know if girls and boys were treated equally as babies and during childhood, or if infanticide, malnourishment, trauma and disease disproportionally affected either sex. We will understand from which age societies responded to the sex of babies and small children through cultural practices, e.g. by dressing them differently or burying them according to male or female custom. We can learn about value systems linked to gender, their development during childhood and adolescence and about power relationships between the sexes. Furthermore, the project will pave the way to developing new applications of analyzing the human proteome to study the history of disease and life-style adaptations in the past. 1

Early Bronze Age communities in Central Europe buried male and female bodies differently. Bodies are placed either on the left or right body side in the grave, with the head towards the north or south, and gender-typical grave good may accompany the dead. This shows a binary understanding of gender with a strict distinction between men and women. While the skeletal morphology of adult males and females differs sufficiently for osteological sex estimation, this is not the case for children before puberty. Boys and girls cannot be reliably distinguished on the basis of skeletal features, and genetic sex determination is limited by preservation. In this project, we used a new and revolutionary method of sex identification: the analysis of amelogenin protein fragments in human dental enamel by nanoflow liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (nanoLC-MS/MS). We identified the sex of buried children and compared it with gender-related aspects of burial treatment. We also used this method to examine burials where the sex of buried adults did not match gendered aspects of funerary treatment as expected, in order to make inferences about how gender was constructed in the past. We identified the sex of 315 children from Franzhausen II, our primary Early Bronze Age case study, and made significant progress in the osteological assessment of human remains and the digitisation of contextual documentation. We also collaborated with Central European research partners to identify the sex of individuals buried in well-known cemeteries such as Hoštice (56), Branč (21), Nagycenk-Lapos-rét (6), Nagycenk-Farkasverem (16), Mokrin (73), and Ostojićevo (91). We have been able to demonstrate that children were included in the binary gender system based on biological sex from birth, and that there is no gender selection for burial in Early Bronze Age communities. Further contextualisation with archaeological and osteological data is underway to clarify whether infanticide, malnutrition, trauma and disease disproportionately affected either sex. We have also found that adult individuals previously thought not to conform to the dominant gender pattern largely represent osteological sex estimation errors. As the identification of sex by amelogenin protein fragments is particularly valuable for the evaluation of fragmented and commingled human remains from hot and dry areas, we developed a second research focus in collaboration with Spanish universities, with samples from Humanejos (37), Montellirio (29), Panora (7) and La Molina (8). We were able to correct gender misconceptions in Iberian prehistory and demonstrate female leadership in Copper Age societies. FWF funding has enabled us to establish the new method of sexing as a routine bioarchaeological procedure, to apply it to meaningful case studies in European prehistory, and to establish a network of archaeologists with a keen interest of improving the scientific foundation of gender archaeology.