麻豆淫院

Almost three decades ago, the chert mining area in Krumlov Forest was discovered. Since then, much has been written about the mining activity that took place here. While chert mining occurred here from as early as the beginning of the Holocene until the Early Iron Age, it was not a particularly widespread activity.

For the most part, it has been limited to a select few archaeological cultures, including the Funnelbeaker, Michelsbergs, Globular Amphorae, and Mierzanowice Cultures.

Among the sites at which these mining activities took place, some included buried individuals, such as the Mauer burial in Vienna, Austria.

"Mining was carried out here from wide shafts up to a depth of 8 m, then horizontally into the slope with undercuts (area VI), from widely lowered pits with undercut walls on flat ground (in area I), and probably also from small tunnels into the slope 鈥�" explained Dr. Van铆膷kov谩.

Together with the Mauer burials, the burials discovered at the Krumlov Forest site are the oldest European mine graves that we know of.

To understand the complete story of these buried individuals of the Krumlov Forest site, Dr. Eva Van铆膷kov谩 and her colleagues conducted an extensive analysis, including the determination of age, sex, health, food consumption, kinship relationships, and geographical origin.

The study is in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences.

In total, three buried individuals were recovered: two adults and one newborn. The remains were designated H1/2002, H2a/2002 and H2b/2002.

The two adults were both female. Based on morphological and taphonomical analyses, they were between 30 and 35 (H1/2002) and 35 and 40 (H2a/2002) years old.

Their bones provided evidence that these two women had conducted extreme physical labor in their lifetime, including various changes in their vertebrae, including the growth of osteophytes (bone spurs), Schmorl's nodes (disk protrusions), hyperkyphosis (abnormal curvature of the spine), and erosion of the vertebrae.

The degenerative vertebral signs, together with evidence of marked muscle attachments, suggest these women likely worked in forward-bent positions, possibly as miners in the narrow underground shafts.

From their isotopic signatures, we know they were locals and received a surprisingly high proportion of animal protein in their diets compared to other Neolithic populations in the Czech Republic. It is possible these women were given greater animal protein-based diets to help them maintain better physical condition while mining for chert.

By contrast, evidence of an ulna fracture, which was never allowed to heal, indicates that the women were forced to continue to work even when injured.

It is possible these women, instead of men, were forced to work in the mines due to the rise of the social role of males in the Eneolithic. The hardest labor may no longer have been done by the strongest, but by those who could most easily be forced to do it. Perhaps these women are proof of this growing theory.

From DNA evidence, we know that the two women were related, possibly siblings. As children, they experienced a period of significant stress, reflected in Harris lines on their teeth and Linear Enamel Hypoplasia on H2a's teeth. The exact cause of their death is unknown.

Meanwhile, the newborn child is more enigmatic. The newborn died at around 38鈥�40 weeks of age, and according to DNA evidence, was not related to either female, with five of his alleles differing from those of H1 and H2a.

The reason for the newborn's interment together with the two females is unknown. However, the reason for the female's burial in the shaft may be clearer.

Dr. Van铆膷kov谩 and her colleagues explain, "The practical value of the mined chert was minimal, as it could be collected on the surface. However, it is questionable whether people associated the stone from the depths of the earth with some ancestral legacy, meaning that its value was subjective."

Chert was mined typically to create objects of prestige such as axes, long blades, and daggers. These were often later placed into ritual deposits. Thus, the mining of chert extended beyond practical needs and may have been influenced by social and cultural factors.

The mining of chert may have been viewed as a sacred work, possibly also linking the living with the underground world of the ancestors.

As the two women were directly associated with the mining work, perhaps it was seen as necessary to return the miners' work, including in some cases the miners themselves, back to the earth.

Many questions remain, including whether the women worked in the mines voluntarily or were forced to do so.

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