Lo siento, pero no tengo información de ese periodo y población. Yo me dedico exclusivamente al paleolítico. Un saludo

Ángel Rivera

Dear Dr. Diéguez Ramírez,

I am not certain how you are defining Sephardic here, but the following book may be of interest: The Jewish Burial Ground at Jewbury. (The Archaeology of York 12/3.) By J. M. Lilley, G. Stroud, D. R. Brothwell and M. H. Williamson. '9 x 25 em. 283 pp., 105 figs. and pis.,

44 tables. York: Council for British Archaeology, 1994. ISBN 1-872414-50-8. See also a review if wrote of this book a few years ago, below, for Medieval Archaeology XXXIX: 361-362. (ISSN: 0076-6097)(1995).

Best regards,

Christopher Knüsel

The Jewish Burial Ground at Jewbury. (The Archaeology of York 12/3.) By J. M. Lilley, G.

Stroud, D. R. Brothwell and M. H. Williamson. '9 x 25 em. 283 pp., 105 figs. and pis.,

44 tables. York: Council for British Archaeology, 1994. ISBN 1-872414-50-8. Price: £25.00 pb.

In the popular late medieval parietal pageant Der Totentanz, Death taunts, 'Miserable

Jew, hasten to follow me, You've waited long enough for your Messiah: Christ, whom your

people murdered, Was the One, Long have you erred' (C. F. Beck (ed.), 1852 The Dance cif

Death al Bask, (Basel, 1852); my translation). These words characterize the antipathy

experienced by Jewish communities in medieval Europe. Violence motivated by bigotry

may have contributed to the fivc sword injuries suffered by the young woman in grave 2590 at theJewbury cemetery reported in this volume. The number, location, and severity

of her fatal injuries match those ofa male group at the contemporary Fishergate site, likely

casualties ofarmed aggression.

This book presents a fine example of how a combined archaeological and biological

anthropological enquiry can provide perspectives complementary to historical and social

anthropological studies on the development of human societies and cultures and the effect

of these processes on health. Analysis oftheJewburysite provides otherwise undocumented

evidence for changes within a culturally distinctive medieval community and its ritual

practices. Although there are no apparent male or female distinctions in burial position,

orientation, or alignment, other facets of burial indicate that medieval practice differed

somewhat from its modern counterpart. The presence of burial furniture, nails and

distinctive coffin fittings, as well as the use of oak coffins, suggests social differentiation,

perhaps the result of Christian syncretism. Other departures from modern practice may

derive from local topographic constraints, for example the apparent lack of the prescribed

six hand lengths between burials, their N.-S. orientation, and the presence of multiple and

closely spaced superimposed burials.

Having noted these differences between prescription and practice, the burials at

Jewbury are much less varied than their Christian counterparts with their more overt

display of social distinction. The maintenance of ordered, non-intersecting burials differs

from the crowded conditions of contemporary Christian cemeteries. One wonders if the

departure from this ordered pattern in the later, more crowded northern part of the

cemetery with its greater frequency of multiple interments relates to the social stress of the

expulsion period, as has been argued in the context of the social upheaval and consequent

breakdown in funerary practices during the Contact period in North America (J. O'Shea,

'Social configuration and the archaeological study of mortuary practices: a case study', in

R. Chapman, I. Kinnes and K. Randsborg (eds.) The ArchfUology rif Death (Cambridge,

1981 )). That Peter Addyman can write of norms for medieval populations in his summary

of the volume attests to the quality and number of recent reports on medieval burials in

York and elsewhere. This volume is an important addition to that tradition ofscholarship.

CHRISTOPHER J. KNUSEL

Dear Juan Pablo,

Thanks for your message and very interesting article. Concerning your question: I'm sorry, in southwestern Germany, the Region where I'm working for more than 30 years now, I never came in touch with a skeletal series from a Jewish Population.

All the best, Joachim

Try looking at Melvin Konner's book: Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews.  Its bibliography should be useful.  There is a new book that I haven't yet seen, but which might be useful:  Elliot Dorff, ed., Jews and Genes.

Thank you very much to both Joachim and Riva.

Gracias Angel. Si tuvieras alguna informacion te agradeceria que me la pudieras enviar por aqui. Un fuerte abrazo desde granada.

Christopher: Thanks for your information.

I know the book, since I have used in my thesis to compare with the medieval Sephardic population of my city, Lucena (Córdoba, Spain), along with other populations of the Iberian Peninsula.

The information it contains is very interesting, but I need information about human skeletal remains, on physical anthropology, not funerary archaeology , and therefore I have only used the data for my studies on paleodemography, in physical anthropology studies that developed in my thesis.

Forgive my bad English. I owe you a beer with "tapas" in Granada, the Alhambra City.

I search this article abstract

J Hist Biol

Published January 1, 2008.

Volume 41, Issue 1; Pages 1-35

Braund J1, Sutton DG.

  Author information

Department of German and Slavonic Studies, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. [email protected]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine

 Open reading mode

MEDLINE®

The case of Heinrich Wilhelm Poll (1877-1939): a German-Jewish geneticist, eugenicist, twin researcher, and victim of the Nazis.

Abstract

This paper uses a reconstruction of the life and career of Heinrich Poll as a window into developments and professional relationships in the biological sciences in Germany in the period from the beginning of the twentieth century to the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. Poll's intellectual work involved an early transition from morphometric physical anthropology to comparative evolutionary studies, and also found expression in twin research--a field in which he was an acknowledged early pioneer. His advocacy of eugenics led to participation in state-sponsored committees convened to advise on social policy, one of which debated sterilisation and made recommendations that led eventually to the establishment of the notorious Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics. However, his status as a prominent geneticist and, in particular, as a eugenicist had an ironic and ultimately tragic dimension. Heinrich Poll was of Jewish birth, and this resulted in his career being destroyed by an application of the population policies he had helped put in place.

Citation

The case of Heinrich Wilhelm Poll (1877-1939): a German-Jewish geneticist, eugenicist, twin researcher, and victim of the Nazis.Braund J, Sutton DG - J Hist Biol - January 1, 2008; 41 (1); 1-35

Thanks Helena.

It is a very interesting article, but I can not use it for my research because it is trying to analyze the paleodemography of medieval Sephardic cemeteries. But I consider myself lucky because you have helped me, or at least you tried, that's what counts.

A big hug, with affection, from Granada.

DNA study shows 20 percent of Iberian population has Jewish ancestry

By NICHOLAS WADEDEC. 4, 2008

Continue reading the main storyShare This PageShare

Tweet

Email

More

Save

Spain and Portugal have a history of fervent Catholicism, but almost a third of the population now turns out to have a non-Christian genetic heritage. About 20 percent of the current population of the Iberian Peninsula has Sephardic Jewish ancestry, and 11 percent bear Moorish DNA signatures, a team of geneticists reports.

The genetic signatures reflect the forced conversions to Christianity in the 14th and 15th centuries after Christian armies wrested Spain back from Muslim control.

The new finding bears on two very different views of Spanish history: One holds that Spanish civilization is Catholic and all other influences are foreign, the other that Spain has been enriched by drawing from all three of its historical cultures - Catholic, Jewish and Muslim.

The genetic study, based on an analysis of Y chromosomes, was conducted by a team of biologists led by Mark Jobling of the University of Leicester in England and Francesc Calafell of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.

The biologists developed a Y chromosome signature for Sephardic men by studying Sephardic Jewish communities in places where Jews migrated after being expelled from Spain in the years from 1492 to 1496.

Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

They also characterized the Y chromosomes of the Arab and Berber army that invaded Spain in 711 A.D. from data on people now living in Morocco and Western Sahara.

After a period of forbearance under the Arab Umayyad dynasty, Spain entered a long period of religious intolerance, with its Muslim Berber dynasties forcing both Christians and Jews to convert to Islam, and the victorious Christians then expelling Jews and Muslims or forcing both to convert.

The genetic study, reported online Thursday in the American Journal of Human Genetics, indicates there was a high level of conversion among Jews.

Jonathan Ray, a professor of Jewish studies at Georgetown University, said that a high proportion of people with Sephardic ancestry was to be expected.

"Jews formed a very large part of the urban population up until the great conversions," he said.

The genetic analysis is "very compelling," said Jane Gerber, an expert on Sephardic history at the City University of New York, and weighs against scholars who have argued that there were very few Jewish conversions to Christianity.

Ray raised the question of what the DNA evidence might mean on a personal level. "If four generations on I have no knowledge of my genetic past," Ray said, "how does that affect my understanding of my own religious association?"

The issue is one that has confronted Calafell, an author of the study. His own Y chromosome is probably of Sephardic ancestry - the test is not definitive for individuals - and his surname is from a town in Catalonia; Jews undergoing conversion often took surnames from place names.

Jews first settled in Spain during the early years of the Roman empire. Sephardic Jews bear that name because the Hebrew word for Spain is Sepharad.

Thanks Helena. It is a very interesting topic of research and on which I have little material. After this I have no one to buy you a beer with "tapas" in my city, Granada. Greetings.