Investigació de el argar mitjançant l'aproximació facial forense
- Autores: Joana Catarina Araújo Bruno
- Directores de la Tesis: Vicenç Lull Santiago (dir. tes.), Cristina Rihuete Herrada (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ( España ) en 2021
- Idioma: catalán
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Robert Risch (presid.), Caroline Wilkinson (secret.), Susan Hayes (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Arqueología Prehistórica por la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona y la Universidad de Cantabria
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
The research in this dissertation is a multidisciplinary approach to the study of El Argar, a Bronze Age society established in southeastern Iberia (ca. 2200-1550 cal BCE). This dissertation gathers 40 faces represented from the skulls of individuals buried at the Argaric sites of La Bastida (Totana, Murcia) and La Almoloya (Pliego/Mula, Murcia), using the same methods employed by forensic practitioners. It is the most extensive corpus of facial representations from a single prehistoric settlement published to date. This effort aims to evaluate the potential of facial representation as an independent method to assess genetic information and formalize hypotheses in the archaeology of kinship. Our research question is founded on two premises: (1) that it is possible to depict facial morphology using cranial shape as a reference and achieve a significant level of accuracy by selecting validated guidelines; and (2) that our faces carry a percentage of our genetic imprint, as demonstrated by observable physiological similarities between close relatives and, most importantly, numerous studies on genome association (GWAS) and heritability patterns.
To address this question, a blind study was performed on the hypothetical manifestation of genetic relatedness in the variation of facial shapes in an Argaric sample. The statistical analyses of facial shape were processed with the three-dimensional geometric morphometrics (3DGM) toolset, using a sparse landmark configuration that overlaps areas under strong genetic control. The results led us to formulate hypotheses for two possible close genetic relationships between individuals from La Almoloya. The first hypothesis proposes a kinship relation between the men from tombs AY42 and AY80; the second links the man from tomb AY38 to the eldest child from AY30. The aDNA results are to be published soon and will disclose whether they shared a connection and, if it exists, to what level. Should these relationships be externally validated, then this research will help cement facial approximation as a valuable method to formulate hypotheses of relatedness, especially in those cases where it is not possible to retrieve genetic information from skeletal remains.
