Individualisierung menschlicher Überreste in zwei historischen Schädelsammlungen der Universität Göttingen und ihr Beitrag zur bioanthropologischen Provenienzforschung
Individualization of human remains in two historical skull collections at the University of Göttingen and its contribution to bioanthropological provenance research
von Katharina Stötzel
Datum der mündl. Prüfung:2024-02-20
Erschienen:2024-03-14
Betreuer:Prof. Dr. Christoph Viebahn
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Christoph Viebahn
Gutachter:Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesemann
Dateien
Name:StötzelK_Individualisierung menschlicher Übe...pdf
Size:6.42Mb
Format:PDF
Zusammenfassung
Englisch
The University of Göttingen is in possession of two large collections of human remains: The Blumenbach Skull Collection and the Anthropological Collection. Human remains from Hawaii and Tanzania with a colonial context have now been examined anthropologically for the first time with regard to their provenance. The aim was to identify ways of individualizing human remains and to compare the results of anthropological provenance research with the recorded acquisition context of the remains. At the same time, initial results were to be communicated with representatives of the respective societies of origin in order to address the different approaches and prepare for a possible repatriation of the human remains. In the course of the anthropological research of the human remains from Hawaii in the Blumenbach skull collection, it turned out that there were not three, but five individuals, as two lower jaws belong to separate individuals. Due to the wishes of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the individuals were not subjected to further paleopathological examination. In February 2022, the remains of 13 individuals and a cast were repatriated in an official ceremony instead of the eight individuals initially thought to be present. According to historical provenance research there are five Masai skulls from Tanzania in Blumenbach's skull collection which were brought to Germany in 1911 by Dr. Schrecker, a military doctor in Arusha. The anthropological and paleopathological examination was able to supplement this information: The skulls are from graves, with one individual very probably suffering from scurvy at the time of death and another from tuberculosis. The intravital removal of the lower central incisors, as was carried out on these individuals, is a common practice among the Masai. In the Anthropological Collection, 37 skulls and individual lower jaws from Tanzania were examined: a skull of a Masai collected by G. A. Fischer in 1884 and several skulls of the Sandawe, Turu, Burungi, Isanzu and Hadza/Kindiga, which were taken from burial sites by E. Obst during his research trip in 1912. The paleopathological examinations revealed a high disease burden in the individuals with several cases of scurvy, tuberculosis and one case of a treponematosis. Many traces of healed trauma were also found and two individuals were found to have died from sharp or semi-sharp violence. The sexing of the skulls from Tanzania was based on the determination of sexual dimorphism, which turned out to be very low; the metric methods used did not provide clear results. The biological determination of ancestry based on skull morphology made it possible to identify two individuals who very probably had ancestors from outside of sub-Saharan Africa. However, the skulls do not differ from the other remains in terms of their state of preservation and other taphonomic traces. It would be advisable to further investigate the ancestry of these individuals with the help of DNA analyses or the determination of stable isotopes. This work shows how important it is to check the plausibility of the historically recorded acquisition contexts, especially with regard to the number of human remains inventoried. Thus, the re-individualization of the human remains is also a first step towards the re-humanization of the individuals. Furthermore, the results of the palaeopathological investigations also provide important information on the life histories of the individuals. The communication with the communities of origin, which began very early on in the project, was an important aspect of the provenance research and was rated positively throughout. In addition to specific questions about individual cases, a general understanding of provenance research on the one hand and the cultural contexts on the other was achieved.
Keywords: Blumenbach Skull Collection; Göttingen Anthropological Collection; Tanzania; Hawaii; human remains; colonial context; bioanthropological provenance research; paleopathology; tooth modification; scurvy; tuberculous meningitis; treponematosis; re-individualization; repatriation