A medieval burial from the site of Supska: an anthropological and contextual analysis of the skeletal remains from grave 1

Abstract

In 1956, the Institute of Archaeology and the National Museum in Belgrade carried out excavations at the site of Supska, near Ćuprija, in Central Serbia. Based on the material culture findings, the site is mostly known as a Late Neolithic one; however, archaeological findings from other periods were discovered too. In the 1956 excavations, the cultural layers, and archaeological features with the Vinča culture archaeological materials were examined, as well as one grave, marked as Grave 1. The results of this excavation have been previously published in one monograph; however, an anthropological analysis of the individual found in Grave 1 has not been conducted before. In this paper, we present the results of contextual, bioanthropological, stable isotopes and C14 analyses of human skeletal remains found in Grave 1. The results showed that a young adult, who had experienced nonspecific metabolic stress during childhood, as evidenced by traces of linear enamel hypoplasia and porotic hyperostosis, was buried in this grave. AMS date revealed that this individual lived between 1280–1390 cal.AD, while the results of the stable isotope analyses suggested that it had mixed diet based on C4 plants (such as millet) and/or C3 plants, with larger amounts of animal protein, possible deriving from freshwater fish.