Honors Theses

Date of Award

Spring 5-7-2026

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Chemistry and Biochemistry

First Advisor

Carolyn Freiwald

Second Advisor

Abby Boyd

Third Advisor

John P. Samonds

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Bioarchaeological research often uses skeletal remains to reconstruct patterns of activity and labor in past populations. This study examines potential sex-based differences in long bone morphology among individuals from the Classic Maya sites of Chac Balam and San Juan on Ambergris Caye, Belize. These coastal communities participated in maritime trade networks, and daily activities such as cargo transport, canoe travel, and fishing may have placed distinctive mechanical stresses on the skeleton. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether measurable differences in bone structure between males and females reflect differences in habitual activity patterns.

Two complementary methods were used to analyze long bones from six adult individuals (n = 19 bones). Manual measurements were collected to calculate midshaft shape indices for the humerus, radius, femur, and tibia. In addition, computed tomography (CT) scans were used to examine internal cross-sectional geometric properties, including the polar moment of inertia (J) and the ratio of maximum to minimum bending rigidity (Imax/Imin), which reflect bone strength and resistance to mechanical loading. Descriptive statistics, percent differences, Student’s t-tests, and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to evaluate differences between male and female samples.

Manual measurements did not show statistically significant differences between sexes, although males displayed slightly greater average indices in several elements. CT-derived measurements revealed larger differences in structural strength, with male humeri and radii displaying higher average J values than females. However, conflicting results between the two statistical tests as well as the small sample size limit the strength of these conclusions.

Overall, the findings suggest possible sex-based differences in upper-limb loading consistent with maritime labor activities, while also demonstrating the value of combining traditional osteometric methods with CT-derived calculations to investigate activity patterns in past populations.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.