Levänluhta, an Iron Age water burial site in Finland, and its material consisting of commingled skeletal remains and artifacts, has been studied by several researchers over the past 100 years, resulting in multiple interpretations of the people and the site. Previous skeletal analyses have concluded that the majority of the individuals represented in the remains were females and children and were of relatively short stature, so possibly nutritionally deprived. This study re-analyzed the commingled adult human remains with updated methods. The methods applied in this study to estimate sex and stature were based on more representative European reference samples than the previously applied methods. The methods included morphology, osteometrics, and computed tomography (CT) scans. Our results indicated that depending on the reference data, the majority of the individual adult bones including os coxae (73%, n = 45) and long bones (humerus 83%–89%, n = 52; radius 72%–89%, n = 47; ulna 50%–65%, n = 58; femur 92%–100%, n = 25; tibia 77%–85%, n = 26) were classified as females based on their size and morphology. The cross-sectional bone properties of humerii, femora, and tibiae visualized using CT scanning also supported these findings. However, the cranial morphology did not show as clear female-biased sex ratio as other methods (42% females, 33% males, 24% undetermined, n = 33). In females, the mean stature based on the tibia (155.3 cm, n = 10) was within the range of the coeval European females and did not necessarily indicate nutritional deprivation, which is in line with previously published stable isotope findings from the site. The mean stature based on the tibia suggested that the Levänluhta males were short (164.0 cm, n = 3), but final interpretations were limited due to the small number of male individuals. The current study affirmed that the Levänluhta skeletal assemblage was female biased and gave new insights into interpretation of the stature.

中文翻译：

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重新分析 Levänluhta 骨骼材料：芬兰铁器时代水葬中个体的性别和身高估计

Levänluhta 是芬兰铁器时代的水葬遗址，其材料由混合的骨骼遗骸和人工制品组成，过去 100 年里，几位研究人员进行了研究，从而对人和遗址产生了多种解释。先前的骨骼分析得出的结论是，遗骸中的大多数个体是女性和儿童，身材相对矮小，因此可能缺乏营养。这项研究使用更新的方法重新分析了混合的成年人遗骸。本研究中用于估计性别和身高的方法基于比以前应用的方法更具代表性的欧洲参考样本。这些方法包括形态学、骨测量学和计算机断层扫描 (CT) 扫描。我们的结果表明，根据参考数据，n = 45）和长骨（肱骨 83%–89%，n = 52；桡骨 72%–89%，n = 47；尺骨 50%–65%，n = 58；股骨 92%–100%，n = 25；胫骨 77%–85%，n = 26）根据其大小和形态被归类为女性。使用 CT 扫描显示的肱骨、股骨和胫骨的横截面骨特性也支持这些发现。然而，颅骨形态没有像其他方法那样显示出明显的女性偏向性别比（42% 女性，33% 男性，24% 未确定，n = 33）。在女性中，基于胫骨的平均身高 (155.3 cm, n= 10) 在同时代的欧洲女性的范围内，并不一定表明营养匮乏，这与先前公布的该地点的稳定同位素发现一致。基于胫骨的平均身高表明 Levänluhta 雄性矮小 (164.0 cm, n = 3)，但由于雄性个体数量较少，最终解释受到限制。目前的研究证实了 Levänluhta 骨骼组合是女性偏见，并为对身材的解释提供了新的见解。