Burial contexts and skeletal bioanthropology of Bronze Age populations from Naḥal Refaʾim in Jerusalem

Salvage excavations carried out at the site of Naḥal Refaʾim on the outskirts of Jerusalem uncovered ruins of a settlement and tombs dating to the Intermediate Bronze Age and Middle Bronze Age I–II (~2500–1750 BCE). The tombs contained the skeletal remains of a minimum number of 188 individuals associated with funerary assemblages that varied in quality and quantity. Here, we describe the human skeletal remains (paleodemography, morphometry, and paleopathology) in relation to their burial type in order to assess the extent to which tomb type or chronology was associated with differences in life history.