Cyrille LE FORESTIER, Clémence MOPIN, Agathe HUREL MEROVINGIAN-PERIOD CRANIAL MORPHOLOGY IN THE ILE-DE-FRANCE

Abstract

The recently excavated cemeteries at Bondy and Noisy-le-Grand have furnished a significant osteoarchaeological corpus from 1500 burials covering the late Roman to early medieval periods. The present survey examines more than 419 skulls and combines archaeology, anthropometry and molecular biology to explain morphological change from a dolichocranial to a brachycranial skull-profile. Results show a significant difference between Roman-period, Merovingian and Carolingian cranial morphologies and tend to confirm the hypothesis of a natural progression of the brachycranial characteristic. This study is part of the collective research programme concerning the archaeology of Merovingian cemeteries in the Ile-de-France.

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