A comprehensive bioarchaeological study of the female grave in a white-stone vault of the Novospassky monastery

In December 2014 the expedition of the Institute of Archaeology, RAS, led by L. A. Belyaev that worked in the New Monastery of the Savior in Moscow opened a white-stone vault covered by a limestone tombstone bearing an epitaph on Princess Marpha Nikitichna Cherkasskaya nee Romanova (+ 1611). The sarcophagus contained remains of at least five individuals, with only one female skeleton identified. This publication reviews the first results of the comprehensive bioarchaeological study of this female grave. Traditional methods of artifact analysis and anthropological identification were complemented by application of modern analytical techniques (microtomogrpahy and X-ray microscopy, micro focus X-ray investigation, fluorescence microscopy, X-ray fluorescence analysis, stable isotope analysis of the diet, etc.). It was established that the technique of cloth weaving and openwork interlace of the headdress worn by married women (known as volosnik) attributed the grave to the 16th -17th centuries. The examination of the skeleton demonstrated that the woman was 40-50 years with a very short body (around 146 cm). X-ray analyses identified a great number of the so called Harris lines, also known as lines of growth arrest that develop in childhood and adolescence. However, the data of stable isotope analysis demonstrate that the woman had a good meat and milk diet, her teeth were in good conditions and she had no serious pathologies, which confirms a high social status of the diseased.