Anna J. Waterman

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Full) at Mount Mercy University

In this chapter we present the most recent study of the osteological evidence from Rego da Murta Dolmens I and II, located in Alvaiazere, Leiria, in the Central Region of Portugal. These two sites were fully excavated from 1997 to 2012. The known data were partially presented, according to the different archeological campaigns that were developed,...

This study uses stable and radiogenic isotopic data from Chalcolithic (c. 3000-1900 BC) humans and animals recovered from the Rego da Murta dolmens (Alvaiázere, Portugal) to understand dietary and mobility patterns in the populations using these monuments. The results suggest diets based primarily on C 3 plants and terrestrial animals, with some po...

In this article, we analyse faunal samples from the Late Neolithic (Layer 4) and Early Chalcolithic (Layer 3) levels of the fortified settlement of Leceia (Oeiras, Portugal) in order to understand the management of the feeding of domestic animals recovered in these excavations. Through the analyses of stable isotopes of δ13C and δ15N in bone collag...

Domestic horses and donkeys played a key role in the initial colonization of the Atlantic seaboard of the Americas, a process partially chronicled by historical records. While Spanish colonists brought horses to the Caribbean and southern latitudes earlier, the transport of domestic horses to the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia in 1606 was am...

Over the last several decades, the application of aDNA and strontium isotope analyses on archaeologically recovered human remains has provided new avenues for the investigation of mobility in past societies. Data on human mobility can be valuable in the reconstruction of prehistoric residential patterns and kinship systems, which are at the center...

This chapter focuses on using strontium isotope data from neighboring Late Prehistoric sites in Southwestern Portugal to find evidence of small-scale, short-distance migration and adjacent-site travel with the goal of understanding intraregional, cultural, and economic integration. The data suggests that human and domesticated animal travel to and...

This study provides evidence of the value of using isotopic data from faunal remains to understand human diet and mobility patterns when human remains are not available for examination. In this research, bone apatite, bone collagen, and enamel apatite from fauna recovered from recent excavations of the Dixon site (13WD8), an Oneota complex site (AD...

This study provides evidence of the value of using isotopic data from faunal remains to understand human diet and mobility patterns when human remains are not available for examination. In this research, bone apatite, bone collagen, and enamel apatite from fauna recovered from recent excavations of the Dixon site (13WD8), an Oneota complex site (AD...

We assembled genome-wide data from 271 ancient Iberians, of whom 176 are from the largely unsampled period after 2000 BCE, thereby providing a high-resolution time transect of the Iberian Peninsula.We document high genetic substructure between northwestern and southeastern hunter-gatherers before the spread of farming.We reveal sporadic contacts be...

The fortified site of Los Millares in southeastern Spain is one of the best-known Copper Age sites in southern Europe and has been studied extensively, improving our understanding of the development of political centralization and social stratification during the 3rd millennium BC in the Iberian Peninsula. One unique feature of Los Millares is its...

Agriculture frst reached the Iberian Peninsula around 5700 BCE. However, little is known about the genetic structure and changes of prehistoric populations in diferent geographic areas of Iberia. In our study, we focus on the maternal genetic makeup of the Neolithic (~ 5500–3000 BCE), Chalcolithic (~ 3000–2200 BCE) and Early Bronze Age (~ 2200–1500...

This study examines strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C) in dental enamel and bone apatite from 82 individuals interred at Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age burial sites near Madrid, Spain, to discern variations in dietary patterns and identify possible migrants. Questions about mobility patterns and subsi...

El Rebollosillo es una pequeña cueva kárstica situada en el centro de la Península Ibérica utilizada para la disposición de enterramientos secundarios en la mitad del III milenio AC. Presentamos resultados bioantropológicos, isotópicos (87Sr/86Sr, δ13C y δ18O) y 16 dataciones radiocarbónicas de los restos humanos, una descripción cuantificada de lo...

The relationship between the development of social complexity in the Iberian Peninsula during the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE (Late Neolithic and Copper Age) and population movement has been a longstanding question. Biological affinity analyses were used to explore Iberian demographic dynamics, and specifically, to discern whether there is evidence f...

To better understand the sociopolitical landscape of the Portuguese Estremadura during the Late Neolithic/Copper Age, interdisciplinary excavations were conducted at Bolores (Torres Vedras), in the Sizandro River Valley. Following a test season in 1986, a University of Iowa team conducted four campaigns between 2007 and 2012. Bolores is a rock-cut...

In the Neolithic and Copper Age collective burials of the Portuguese Estremadura, the majority of material culture and skeletal remains are highly commingled, making it difficult for archaeologists to evaluate social status by linking individuals with specific grave goods. In these circumstances, bio-anthropological data about individual life histo...

The rock-cut tomb of Bolores in the Portuguese Estremadura, dates primarily to the Late Neolithic/Copper Age (2800-2600 BC), and in a series of recent excavations has yielded thousands of fragmented, commingled human bone specimens. The primary goals of the present study were to determine the minimum number of individuals (MNI) interred in the tomb...

This paper details the results of a comparison of stable isotopic data from bone samples acquired from 31 individuals from two Late Neolithic-Copper Age (3500-2000 BC) burial sites in the Estremadura region of Portugal. The chosen sites of Feteira II and Paimogo I are geographically close and temporally overlapping but represent distinctive types o...

This paper details the results of a comparison of stable isotopic data from bone samples acquired from 31 individuals from two Late Neolithic-Copper Age (3500-2000 BC) burial sites in the Estremadura region of Portugal. The chosen sites of Feteira II and Paimogo I are geographically close and temporally overlapping but represent distinctive types o...

ln this paper, human skeletal remains from two prominent settlement sites in the Estremadura region of Portugal (Leceia and Zambujal) were examined in order to investigate how settlement burials may relate to individual identity, and/or temporal and spatial aspects of community life. Our findings have been that, at both Zambujal and Leceia, the con...

Towards the end of the fifth millennium BC, a new funerary tradition developed in Iberia and elsewhere in Atlantic Europe involving the use of megalithic tombs and natural or artificially constructed caves for the collective burial of the dead. Ancestor worship has been the most common theoretical framework used to explain this Neolithic burial tra...

The Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age mortuary rockshelter of Bolores (Torres Vedras, Lisbon) is a collective burial located in the archaeologically rich landscape of the Portuguese Estremadura. Excavations were conducted in 2007 and 2008 as part of the Sizandro-Alcabrichel Research Project (SARP), a collaboration between the German Archaeological In...