The human burials from Şinduxa (Iraqi Kurdistan). A bioarchaeological andarchaeothanatological approach

In oriental archaeology the study of human skeletal remains sadly still today receives poor attention causing depletion to the archaeological and historical interpretations. Here we present the results of a study based on an integrated approach between archaeothanatology (among the topics taphonomy of human bone remains, spatial relationships between other elements of the tomb as the architectural structure or grave goods) and bioarchaeology (sex, age at death, ancestry, stature, palaeopathology) of the human bone remains coming from the excavations of Şinduxa necropolis nowadays embedded in the city center of Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan. Briefly, four tombs were explored: one, placed in plain earth covered with stone slabs belonging to an adult woman and the other three consisted in stone funerary chambers above the ground were bone remains of 9 adult subjects of both sexes were lying. Interestingly in each of these structures a well preserved simple oval clay sarcophagus containing one or two skeletons was present. Regarding the tomb’s chronology C14 calibrated dating indicates a time frame from Neo-Assyrian to the Parthian epoch.