ABSTRACT
As described in Chapter 2.2, high-precision radiocarbon dating requires the destruction of substantial samples of human bone. Consequently, prior to destructive sampling for radiocarbon dating, the sampled skeletons were subject to osteological recording. Although many of the burials already had extant osteological reports, many of these are rather old, and the aim of the current work was to record all the skeletons to a common standard (Section 4.1). The skeletal material studied comes from 90 burials from 17 sites (Tab. 4.1). Since the current sample of burials was selected on the basis of possession of chronologically significant grave goods (most males have weapons, most females items of personal adornment), any patterning in the osteological data must be interpreted in the light of this selection process.
