Helen Kocur
9,000-Year-Old Decapitation Discovered in Brazil
This article is about a 9,000 year old decapitation that was discovered in southeastern Brazil in an area known as Lapa do Santo. This discovery found the oldest decapitation in the New World and researchers used forensic anthropology, which assists in the study of locating human skeletal remains, to find exactly how the remains were interred with such sophistication. These remains were found in a rock shelter. The bones date back to 9,000 years and were dated using accelerated mass spectronomy on a sample of the sphenoid bone, an area near the forehead that forms the eye socket. Accelerated mass spectronomy is a technique for measuring long-lived radionuclides that occur naturally in our environment, and from this information it is possible to date back bones. The area in which these bones were founded contains evidence of human habitation as far back as 12,000 years ago, about the time when experts say the land bridge between Asia and North America were closed off by rising sea levels. Strontium analysis was used to compare the isotopic signature of the remains to other specimen found at Lapa do Santo. Similarities were found, which suggests that the remains were from a local group and part of a burial ritual and not an event that might take place after a war with outsiders.
This discovery is very significant. Because of this discovery of a decapitation, a whole new discovery was made about this specific ancient civilization. The analysis of these decapitations caused some experts to reevaluate what is commonly accepted and thought about prehistoric burial rituals. Researchers found amputated hands arranged over the face in a very particular way. This suggested that the group practised a defined burial ritual. If this is true, this might be some of the earliest evidence for advanced mortuary techniques in the new world.
This article was very interesting to read. It was very helpful that they put diagrams and pictures of what the decapitations and bones looked like. One weakness of this article is that the author did not do a very good job with defining the scientific terminology, which I had to look up myself to write this review. This article could be improved if it further described why the civilization would bury there decapitations in a certain way. This would have made the article a lot more interesting to read. Overall, I enjoyed reading this article as it enhanced my understanding of how forensic anthropology works.
"9,000-Year-Old Decapitation Discovered in Brazil." Forensic Magazine. Ed. Sean Allocca. N.p., 24 Sept. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.
4 comments:
I found this article to be very intriguing. I liked how you found an article that talked about an incident that happened outside the U.S. I liked also how you told us about why this person was decapticated and how we know this.Overall i couldnt find really any flaws. like you said the article could habve been improved if it further described why the civilization would bury there decapitations in a certain way. But you told us backround knowlegde, explained Accelerated mass spectronomy, and said why this discovery was important.I think it is very intresting that you are talking about a topic that is so old yet is still being researched thoroughly today.
I chose the article, ‘9000 year old decapitation found in Brazil’ because I am fascinated with history and I would love to one day go to Brazil, especially Rio to visit Sugarloaf and Christ the Redeemer.
I liked the way she presented how the bones were scientifically analyzed. Sometimes that can be hard to describe without using so many technical words, however it was summed up nicely and was easy to understand. Another thing I enjoyed was that rather than just saying that decapitations from that time period are now commonplace thanks to advances in forensic technology, she described the discovery of the decapitation and how it was significant. I also liked the overall presentation of the article because for some reason, I felt transported to 10000BC or so. It made me realize if I lived back then, marauders could literally have walked from anywhere in the world and decapitated me.
This is also a reason I feel the summary could have been made better. I wish there was more research done and presented on this time period because now my interest is piqued. I am sure that this was not the first decapitation but it is apparently the first one discovered. This got me to wondering how it happened. I do not believe that swords existed in the Neolithic era. Did this fellow’s head come off with a stone implement? Or maybe a weapon made of bone? Or was it rent from his body with someone’s bare hands? I also wish she followed up on this article by reading other articles on this subject, if only to offer little tidbits of additional information. I would like to know more about ancient beheadings. The type of ritual decapitation referenced in this article occurred often in Southern and Central America. Ancient peoples decapitated enemies during sacrifices and employed the remnants of decapitation as drinking vessels, musical instruments and war trophies. But was this an enemy or was this how they buried everyone 9000 years ago? Perhaps this was someone revered and this was a special burial.
I was impressed when she stated that forensic anthropologists could tell that this case was a decapitation. The source material is so old I did not think that there would be enough evidence to make that assertion. I suppose if this head was found 100 years ago, we could not deduce that it was torn from his or her spine but with today’s technology, anything is possible. I learned a lot from this article but now I must do more research so I can satisfy my curiosity about ancient civilizations.
"9,000-Year-Old Decapitation Discovered in Brazil." Forensic Magazine. Ed. Sean Allocca. N.p., 24 Sept. 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.
Sean Ryan
Overall I thought you did a really good job giving us an understanding of the article. I liked how your article was about a topic not in our country and also over thousands of years old. To be honest you explained it very well and i could not find any flaws which your research and explaining of the topic. You told us the definition of words we may not know and also decribed why this topic may be important and alos said what this article lacked. Overall you did a great job explaining this.
I found Helen Kocur’s article to be specifically interesting, this is due to my desire for anthropology from the start it has alway caught my attention. First off Helen did an excellent job with the choice of article, I thought she took the time to find a good article to summarize as well as put her thoughts into. Another thing I thing Helen did exceptionally well is her inside view on the article, she did a great job of explaining why this should be important to us. One thing that I found pretty cool was when Helen said, “the analysis of these decapitations caused some experts to reevaluate what is commonly accepted and thought about prehistoric burial rituals” This makes the reader think about all the different possibilities out there that the past holds. Another thing that Helen did very well was the summarization, she allowed the reader to obtain a lot of information while not overloading the reader with the information that didn't need to be stated. It truly made her review enjoyable to read.
A few things I thought Helen could have improved upon are saying how anthropology played a big role in this article, and maybe give examples to the viewer on other ways that anthropology can have an affect in a different situation. Another thing that Helen could’ve also done is tell the reader what the diagrams and pictures were saying. During in the article all Helen said was “It was very helpful that they put diagrams and pictures of what the decapitations and bones looked like” It would've been even more helpful if she told us what those diagrams contained in the review. But overall it was an excellent review.
Things that I learned from this article were very interesting to me most of it being a completely new topic for me, things like Accelerated mass spectronomy, which is a technique for measuring long-lived radionuclides that occur naturally in our environment. I hope to learn more about this in the future. This article was super interesting!
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