The Winthir-Collection: An anthropological and historical pilot study

人类骨骼参考收藏绝对是至关重要的发展和完善人类学方法用于检查骨骼遗骸起源于考古背景。这些藏品包括骨架，其中与每个人有关的各种生物数据，如死亡年龄、身材、性别、健康状况和死亡原因，已经通过书面记录得到了了解。尽管近年来生物分子研究取得了巨大进展，但通过标准的骨检查收集个人的基本生物学数据仍然是不可替代的，也是其他研究所依赖的必要前提。在骨架集合有资格作为参考材料之前，必须满足许多先决条件。目前，中欧没有骨骼参考收藏，在德国没有合适的系列存在，直到现在。中欧缺乏参考资料的问题现在可以通过对德国Neuhausen（今天的慕尼黑地区）的Winthir墓地的骨骼遗骸进行研究来缓解。该藏品包括230具保存完好的人类骨骼，这些骨骼来自公元1900年左右埋葬的人。档案记录包含与每个人有关的大量信息：死亡年龄、性别、职业、死亡原因、子女人数、家庭状况等。第一次，这种数据组合提供了一个独特的，到目前为止没有记录的信息库。这个项目的一个决定性目标是建立Winthir- Collection作为人类学参考系列。此外，我们希望举例说明该系列在人类学研究以及历史来源方面的适用性和潜力。为此目的，计划进行研究，以确定亚成年个体的性别，并验证与骨骼活动相关的变化（骨骺变化）。进一步的研究考虑了骨骼遗骸的社会经济地位和相关生活条件的可探测性问题，以及与个人层面上的历史来源的联系。因此，我们的目标是与历史科学密切合作，以期全面整合winthirt收集的人类学和历史数据。

Human skeletal reference collections are absolutely vital to the development and refinement of anthropological methods used in the examination of skeletal remains originating from archaeological contexts. Such collections consist of skeletons for which various biological data pertaining to each individual, such as age-at-death, stature, sex, health status, and cause of death are already known through written records. Although great advancements in biomolecular research have been made in recent years, gathering fundamental biological data to an individual through standard osteological examination remains irreplaceable and is an essential prerequisite upon which other studies rely. Numerous prerequisites must be fulfilled before a skeletal collection qualifies as reference material. Presently, Central Europe does not have a skeletal reference collection and in Germany no suitable series exists, until now. The problematic lack of a reference collection for Central Europe can now be alleviated with a study of the skeletal remains from Winthir Cemetery in Neuhausen, Germany (today a district of Munich). The collection is comprised of 230 excellently preserved human skeletons from persons buried around 1900 AD. Archival records contain a wealth of information pertaining to each person: age-at-death, sex, profession, cause of death, number of children, family status etc. For the first time, this combination of data offers a unique and up to now undocumented reservoir of information. One decisive aim of this project is the establishment of the Winthir- Collection as an anthropological reference series. Furthermore, we want to exemplify the suitability and potential of the series for anthropological research as well as a historical source. For this purpose, studies are planned dealing with methods for the sexual determination of subadult individuals and the verification of activity related changes on bones (entheseal changes). Further examinations consider the question of detectability of socioeconomic status and related living conditions on skeletal remains and the linkage to historical sources on an individual level. On that account, we aim a close collaboration with historical sciences to aspire a holistic integration of anthropologic and historic data for the Winthir-collection.