Sex differences in mechanical stress and associated labor in Hellenistic–early Roman Menainon, Sicily

摘要: This paper explores mechanical stress in the Hellenistic/early Roman community of Menainon (Sicily) to test the existence of sex‐based division of labor. For this purpose, human skeletal remains from 79 males and 65 females, dating to the 4th–1st ca. BCE, were examined for degenerative joint disease, intervertebral disc disease, cross‐sectional geometric properties, and entheseal changes. Our findings support an equal share of workload between males and females, who appeared to have experienced similar mechanical stress levels. In contrast, they do not support a systematically greater mechanical load among males, as would have been expected if females had been restricted indoors taking care of domestic tasks only, while men had dealt with most physically demanding outdoor activities. The patterns identified in the current study agree with a scenario where agriculture was a prominent subsistence …