Abstract

The Early Bronze Age in Western Anatolia is known to have been a period of emerging social differentiation and socioeconomic changes. Despite the extensive research addressing the communities and experiences of individuals in Early Bronze Age Anatolia and the recent increase in childhood bioarchaeological research, limited research investigating the lived experiences of the juveniles of this region. This thesis aims to address two main objectives: firstly, to investigate how the lived experiences of juveniles were affected by increasing and changing social differentiation, and secondly, to interpret the lived kinship structure of juveniles at Early Bronze Age Karataş-Semayük. Emerging social differentiation in Early Bronze Age Anatolia may have led to increased stress in the communities that occupied this space and time. Stress is embodied in skeletal remains and in the archaeological record and can be interpreted in studies of kinship and lived experience. Previous research from Karataş-Semayük has suggested a social kinship in mortuary practice, but no research had previously been conducted on the lived kinship structure. Dental stress indicators, namely dental fluctuating asymmetry and linear enamel hypoplasia, were utilized to interpret the lived experiences of juveniles at the site. This data was synthesized with previous biodistance data, including dental metric and morphological data, to assess biological similarity in shared lived experiences. Results suggest that stress did not increase temporally at Karataş-Semayük despite changing and emerging social differentiation. Linear enamel hypoplasia and dental fluctuating asymmetry did not significant increase in frequency or severity between the periods of occupation at the site. Biodistance analysis and stress indicator analysis found no clustering of stress indicators according to either biological similarity or burial location, supporting the idea that Karataş-Semayük followed a social kinship in life as well as in death. The results from this research contribute to the existing body of knowledge about the lived experiences of juveniles in the archaeological record. The inhabitants of Karataş appeared to have experienced similar lived experiences according to embodiments of stress and so it is possible that the effects of social differentiation at the site were dampened by assimilation and affiliation practices used by the members of the community. Despite increasing social differentiation and the assumed associated stresses, the inhabitants of Karataş seemed to have had measures in place to buffer outside stressors.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2023

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Adams, Donovan

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Anthropology

Degree Program

Anthropology

Identifier

CFE0009621; DP0027650

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0027650

Language

English

Release Date

May 2026

Length of Campus-only Access

3 years

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Campus-only Access)

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