A Medieval/Early Modern Alpine Population from Zweisimmen, Switzerland: A Comparative Study of Anthropology and Palaeopathology

Abstract

To date, anthropological comparative studies from Switzerland are rare. Therefore, this research aims to make a comparison between the alpine individuals from , and 17 other rural and urban populations from Switzerland all dating to the medieval and early modern period. An osteoarchaeological analysis was carried out on the rural population of Zweisimmen, consisting of 134 skeletons. For each individual, the arm position and orientation were observed in the field, while preservation, representation, sex, age, stature, trauma and pathologies were recorded in the laboratory. These results were compared with data from published and grey literature in order to gain a better understanding of chronological and regional patterns in Switzerland. A chronological development was observed in the orientation, arm position and use of a coffin, which suggests a change in burial practices and beliefs throughout time. The demographic profile represents a natural mortality; however, children and especially neonates are underrepresented in this sample. Some individuals were buried in groups, suggesting simultaneous burial during a period of increased mortality. The palaeopathological findings suggest that the living conditions in rural alpine Zweisimmen were similar to those of other contemporaneous populations, as well as those living in an urban setting.

Evidence of infectious disease, trauma, disability and deficiency in skeletons from the 19th/20th century correctional facility and asylum «Realta» in Cazis, Switzerland

“…While the unbalanced sex ratio did not correspond to findings in regular cemetery samples with approximately equal proportions of males and females [58,59], it was consistent with historic data. Between 1855 and 1918, a total of 1414 admissions to the institution were recorded, roughly 75% of which were males and 25% females [4].…”

Cases of serpens endocrania symmetrica in young individuals from Neolithic Western Switzerland: Description and interpretation

“…These cases of SES in young individuals' skeletal remains are, to the authors' knowledge, the oldest described for skeletal corpuses of Switzerland. Previous studies have mentioned their presence in medieval and early modern corpuses (Cooper et al, ; Somers, Cooper, & AlteraugeA, ), but they had so far gone unnoticed in the prehistoric paleopathological record of the country. Numerous reports involving Neolithic corpuses have however described them from the southern Levant coast (Hershkovitz et al, ), to Hungary (Masson et al, ), and as far as China (Sun et al, ), as well as in more recent archaeological samples (Köhler et al, ; Lovász et al, ; Minozzi, Catalano, Caldarini, & Fornaciari, ; Pósa et al, ).…”