Abstrakt
The approximately 2000 individuals included in this project represent the largest study carried out to date of variation in skeletal structure among modern humans within a defined geo-graphic region. As such, it allows analysis of both broader temporal trends and geographic vari-ability within this region, as well as more specific localized trends.
The time span of the sample encompasses early hunter-gatherers, transitional Mesolithic and sedentary 'Neolithic foragers,' early agriculturalists, later more intensive agriculturalists, and Medieval and more recent pop-ulations. A variety of terrains, from flat to mountainous, as well as both rural and urban settle-ments, are represented in the sample.
Thus, it was possible to examine the potential impact of a number of environmental factors on modern human skeletal form.