Emphasising the community: demographic composition of an exceptional tomb—the Chalcolithic burial site of Camino del Molino, Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (2023) 15:140 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01844-y RESEARCH Emphasising the community: demographic composition of an exceptional tomb—the Chalcolithic burial site of Camino del Molino, Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia Sonia Díaz‑Navarro1 · María Haber Uriarte2 · Cristina Tejedor‑Rodríguez1 · Joaquín Lomba Maurandi2 Received: 30 January 2023 / Accepted: 15 August 2023 / Published online: 29 August 2023 © The Author(s) 2023 Abstract Reconstructing the biological profile of a skeletal sample is essential for defining a particular demographic group or classifying isolated remains. These results allow us to complete the population pyramid of a settlement, analyse mortality trends and relate individuals of a particular sex or age-at-death category to possible funerary rituals, lifestyles and/or states of health and disease. In this work, we carry out a paleodemographic analysis of a singular tomb: the chalcolithic burial site of Camino del Molino, Murcia, SE Spain. The tomb hosted 1348 individuals (30.7% non-adults and 69.3% adults) over two contiguous funerary phases, spanning a large part of the third millennium BC, which makes it a reference site for knowledge of the Recent Prehistoric populations. For this purpose, we estimated different paleodemographic parameters (life tables, mortality rates and sex ratios) and compared them to model life tables of preindustrial populations and data from other contemporary peninsular series to evaluate possible demographic anomalies. The results suggest that Camino del Molino was home to individuals of all ages and sex. However, there is a clear under-representation of newborns and nursing/ breastfeeding infants and an over-representation of 5–15-year-old individuals. These findings could indicate potential issues related to diet/weaning, disease and early inclusion in the economic activities of the group. Keywords Bioarchaeology · Paleodemography · Copper age · Iberian Peninsula · Collective burial Introduction Paleodemography is a subdiscipline that attempts to identify the demographic parameters of populations that precede archaeological contexts from a data set of skeletal remains and historical documentary sources (Hoppa 2002: 9). The first studies on archaeological collections were developed in the late 1940s, although they were at their peak during the 1970s and 1980s (e.g., Angel 1947, 1969; Acsádi and Nemeskéri 1970; Masset 1973; Armelagos and Medina 1977; Bocquet-Appel 1977, 1986; Bocquet-Appel and Masset 1977; Gage 1985). At the same time, a profound * Sonia Díaz‑Navarro 1 Departamento de Prehistoria, Arqueología, Antropología Social y CC. y TT. Historiográficas, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain 2 Departamento de Prehistoria, Arqueología, Historia Antigua, Historia Medieval y CC. y TT. Historiográficas, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain scientific debate emerged about the validity of these analyses in archaeological populations due to possible biases related to the nature of the reference samples used in the model life tables and age-at-death estimation methods (Bocquet-Appel and Masset 1982, 1985, 1996; Van Gerven and Armelagos 1983; Buikstra and Konigsberg 1985). This discussion led to a methodological review of the discipline, with skeletal collections of which sex and age at death were already known, testing their validity on a larger number of archaeological samples. Subsequently, life tables were improved through the development of mathematical adjustments that offset the known biases (e.g., Gage 1988; 1990; Konigsberg and Frankenberg 2002; Paine and Boldsen 2002; Séguy and Buchet 2013). Studies that attempt to reconstruct the population composition of prehistoric burials are becoming increasingly common. The Neolithic demographic transition has been one of the main topics in Recent Prehistoric population research (e.g., Piontek et al. 1996; Meiklejohn et al. 1997; BocquetAppel 2002, 2008, 2009, 2011; Bocquet-Appel and Dubouloz 2003; Séguy and Buchet 2013; Dubouloz et al. 2017; 13 Vol.:(0123456789) 140 Page 2 of 16 Eshed and Gopher 2018). In contrast, recent studies from the Iberian Peninsula have mainly focused on skeletal collections from megalithic ossuaries (e.g., Silva 2003, 2012; Costa Caramé et al. 2010; Rivera 2011; Tomé and Silva 2013; Boaventura et al. 2014; Cunha et al. 2015; Silva and Ferreira 2007; Fernández-Crespo and de la Rúa 2015, 2016; Díaz-Navarro 2021), enriching the debate on selection trends by documenting the demographic anomalies of the individuals deposited there, with particular focus on age and sex. It is important to take into account the limitations of the peninsular osteoarchaeological record of Recent Prehistory. Firstly, the fact that the skeletal remains are generally found in collective burials with disjointed remains hinders an accurate record and recovery. Furthermore, the poor bone preservation typical in this type of context and high fragmentation render it impossible to produce accurate estimates of sex and age. On the other hand, anthropologists often analyse past excavated collections, with little documentation and which are often poorly preserved as a result of old and obsolete storage protocols. Furthermore, until recently, human bones were rarely directly radiocarbon dated. The small size of prehistoric skeletal assemblages, coupled with their limited representation of the population as a whole, poses another challenge that further restricts our understanding of the communities that inhabited a specific time and place. This is directly linked to possible selection biases arising from mortuary practices. Finally, the temporal average of the skeletal groups that the prehistoric cemeteries comprise is another limitation. On this basis, this research aims to contribute to the knowledge of the populations of the third millennium BC through the paleodemographic and chronometric analysis of a skeletal sample that is unique due to its volume, varied population composition, the excellent preservation of the skeletal remains and its recent excavation, with exhaustive documentation and recording methods. This is the collective burial of Camino del Molino (CMOL), Murcia, Fig. 1  a Map showing the location of the burial site of Camino del Molino, Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia (QGIS, 3.16 Hannover). b Aerial photograph after surface cleaning prior to archaeological excavation 13 Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (2023) 15:140 SE Spain, which contains the largest prehistoric funerary record known to date (Fig. 1a). Material and methods Material This study analyses the full skull collection from the CMOL site, which was discovered by chance in December 2007 and excavated during 2008 (Lomba et al. 2009a, 2009b). The burial site was defined by a circular structure excavated from travertine with a diameter of c.6–7 m. The lower 2 m of this structure, where the archaeological deposit was located, was pre (...truncated)