International Journal of Osteoarchaeology最新文献

Writing a journal article is a different skill from writing a postgraduate thesis or a technical report. Getting published is an important step in academic careers, so it is a key skill to master. It is obviously good to publish completed research to disseminate the research to wider academic and public communities. Your first publications are also often your formal introduction to the academic community and can help shape the next steps of your career. They help to establish reputation and may contribute to employment or funding application decisions (Nicholas et al. 2017; Bazeley 2003).

Academic article writing is a different style of writing for some to learn when coming out of a postgraduate degree. Remember, you can ask senior colleagues and peers to look at drafts, and you can also reach out to journal editors to check if your topic or study is within scope before submitting. Resilience and determination are important qualities to have in academic careers—as anyone who has published a lot will tell you, there are also rejections along the way. Listen to feedback; revise, and if necessary, resubmit elsewhere. Good luck with your writing and submissions!

There are no conflicts of interest.

This study evaluated correlations between poor dental health and craniomandibular morphology for the Radcliffe Infirmary population buried between 1770 and 1855. The Radcliffe Infirmary is situated in Oxford, 90 km northwest of London, in what used to be a rural area. The original report for this population observed high prevalence rates of dental caries, antemortem tooth loss (AMTL), and periodontal disease. Industrial societies are acknowledged to have highly processed foods that not only are detrimental to dental health but also require less mastication. This softening of diet is suggested to be the leading influence on the modern morphology of the skull. By using two-dimensional geometric morphometrics (GM) and linear measurements of the skull, the Radcliffe population was evaluated for the effects of poor dental health and decreased wear on the masticatory structures. High frequencies of AMTL, periodontal disease, and caries and low amounts of dental wear were observed in this sample population. Caries and AMTL showed weak correlations with skull shape and craniomandibular dimensions according to the results of the morphometric analysis and Kendall's tau. Dental wear correlated with a wide bizygomatic breadth and a long narrow skull shape for the males only. Periodontal disease was the only dental health variable not correlated with shape or size. This study confirmed that the Radcliffe population ate a cariogenic diet and suggests that dental wear and pathology weakly correlates with craniomandibular shape and size. This unpredicted finding may be due to the limitations of two-dimensional shape analysis, a small sample size, and the sampling strategy. Future research is highly encouraged to better understand the consequences of poor dental health for skull morphology.

Biological sex estimation is an integral part of reconstructing the biological profile of an individual in forensic anthropological and bioarchaeological contexts. Formulating population specific discriminant function equations for metric variables is vital for reconstructing biological sex of fragmentary skeletal remains. This study aimed to develop multivariable and univariable sectioning point sex estimation equations from long bones of prehistoric Thailand and Cambodia people dated from 4700 to 1450 BP. A total of 481 individuals (236 females and 245 males) with 997 long bone measurements were analyzed. Discriminant function analysis was used to analyze sexually dimorphic measurements from long bones of humeri (177 females and 183 males), femora (169 females and 178 males), and tibiae (139 females and 151 males). Stepwise and direct multivariable functions offered the highest accuracies of 97.3% for humeri, 97% for femora, and 96.7% for tibiae. Univariable functions indicated that the recommended measurements for use in sex estimations with high cross-validation accuracies are the humeral epicondylar breadth (89.1%), femoral maximum head diameter (87.1%), and tibial midshaft circumference (88.3%). These equations are applicable for use in sex estimation for the specific prehistoric Southeast Asian populations to improve our understanding of the prehistoric demography. Further evaluation and validation of the equations are required to test whether these equations can also be applied to estimate biological sex of contemporary Southeast Asian populations.

Arthropathies are common in past populations and can be categorized into two groups: those with predominant bone production (e.g., osteoarthritis) and those with significant bone loss (e.g., erosive arthropathies). The former is frequent in the archaeological record, whereas the latter are uncommon. We present a Post-Medieval male individual, recovered in the Convent of the Holy Spirit (Loures, Portugal), with multiple articular and entheseal bone changes, particularly extensive periarticular, marginal, and subchondral erosive processes, often exposing trabecular bone. Proliferative lesions and extensive ankylosis are also observed in the synovial joints. These pathological changes affect both the axial and peripheral skeleton in a polyarticular, bilateral, and asymmetric pattern. Given that the appendicular skeleton, particularly the hands and feet, are the most affected areas, the most probable diagnosis is a peripheral spondyloarthropathy such as psoriatic arthritis or reactive arthritis. This case study is the first archaeological instance of psoriatic arthritis or reactive arthritis described in Portugal, highlighting the importance of a differential diagnosis and the need for reflection when pathological changes characteristics overlap, advocating for a broader diagnostic approach.

The Xiaheqiadong site located in Zhangqiu district, Jinan city, Shandong province, China, was excavated in 2016 by the Jinan Institute of Archaeology, which revealed six single burials dating to the Beixin culture period (ca. 5,300–4,500 BC to ca. 4,100–3,600 BC). This paper used bioarchaeological methods to study the human skeletal remains to reconstruct the life course of the residents of the Beixin culture at the Xiaheqiadong site, focusing on stable isotope analysis, evaluation of stress, tooth ablation, and intentional skull modification. Based on stable isotope analysis of carbon, it is evident that the dietary structure of the ancient residents of Xiaheqiadong was mainly dependent on C₄ plants or animals that ate mainly C₄ plants. The stable isotope analysis of nitrogen indicated that the ancient residents of the Xiaheqiadong site exhibited a relatively sufficient consumption of animal protein. Furthermore, this result also reveals that a subsistence economic model was established consisting of farming, gathering, and hunting. Observations of the stress indicators (including cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, and linear enamel hypoplasia) revealed that they experienced poor health conditions and were under high levels of stress during infancy and early childhood. However, this situation improved with increasing age, suggesting that residents from the Xiaheqiadong site had the capacity to withstand severe living conditions and adapt after experiencing stress events. The tooth ablation and occipital modification cases from the Xiaheqiadong site are the earliest cases among the individuals with accurate dating results found in China.

The bony labyrinth is often studied in paleoanthropology for the taxonomic identification of hominins with a special focus on the differentiation between Neanderthals and modern humans. Although the variability of Pleistocene populations is now well studied, the variability of Early and Middle Holocene modern human hunter-gatherers is still poorly known. Thus, this study focuses on the analysis of the bony labyrinth morphology of nine Late Mesolithic individuals from Moita do Sebastião in the Tagus Valley (Portugal). The results show a significant intra-site variability in the Middle Holocene sample, confirming previous studies on the variability of early modern humans. The analysis also revealed morphological differences in the inner ear structures between European individuals associated with an Upper Paleolithic context (Gravettian) from the Vézère Valley and the Mesolithic individuals from Moita do Sebastião. Interestingly, the only Late Pleistocene individual from Portugal shows some similarities with the Middle Holocene ones, posing the possibility of an eventual local biological continuity.

The construction of a complete biological profile for unknown individuals from skeletal remains plays a key role in the holistic study of archaeological sites. However, the presence of commingled elements, as in the case of mass graves, hinders this process. This work aims to evaluate the diaphyseal cross-sectional geometric properties of the long bones for pair-matching and for sex estimation based on the femur, tibia, and humerus bones on archaeological and historical samples. The sample consisted of 3D virtual bone models of 95 individuals (46 males, 39 females, 10 of unknown sex) from both Greek and English assemblages, utilizing the dedicated “csg-toolkit” GNU Octave package for variable extraction. The pair-matching sorting algorithm performed adequately in all three assemblages, excluding over 97% of the true mismatched pairs. The accuracy rate for certain pair detection was close to 50% for the lower limbs, and 41% for the humerus, with the algorithm deeming a significant amount of the missed pairs as plausible, resulting in 70% to 80% of total pairs to be detected in some capacity for all bone assemblages. The sex estimation classifiers performed sufficiently in all cases, yielding moderately high accuracy rates in the majority of examined samples, with values consistently higher than 70%. However, the application of contemporary methods on archaeological or historical material needs to be performed with caution, as secular changes and population-specific trends can affect the applicability of the methods. As such, the utilization of different techniques before reaching a conclusion is vital and should be encouraged.

Sheep and their wool were paramount to Viking Age economies. The importance of wool cannot be underestimated, especially as the woollen sail was implemented on ships in general during this period. This paper investigates sheep management and landscape use in Viking Age Löddeköpinge in Scania, southern Sweden, through a multiproxy approach, integrating multi-isotope methods with zooarchaeological analysis. Using the marketplace at Löddeköpinge as a case study, 18 sheep mandibles were analyzed through zooarchaeological methods and isotope analyses of δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ³⁴S, and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr. The results show that the sheep represent a composite deadflock, meaning they probably derive from different liveflocks. The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values demonstrate likely origins north and east of Löddeköpinge. The δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values indicate a terrestrial diet with variation in δ¹⁵N, meaning that some may have grazed on manured fields. The δ¹⁵N, in conjunction with δ³⁴S, values show a possible limnic influence, implying grazing on pastures close to freshwater systems; however, this requires further investigation. The results illuminate the marketplace function of Löddeköpinge, as sheep bred north and east of the site were transported and exchanged there. This shows the degree and extent of control of the re-distributional system held by the local elite. This control may be instigated by the increased textile production, especially concerning sailcloth, at the site. If so, sheep management may have been specialized towards the production of optimal wool for sailcloth, besides other essential cloth.

The history of domestic ducks (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) and domestic greylag geese (Anser anser domesticus) remains poorly understood. This is mainly caused by the difficulty of identifying archaeological bones as domestic due to the existing overlap in sizes. A recently published osteometrical methodology is applied that successfully allows to identify domestic forms and distinguish between anatid species with more confidence. Four archaeological assemblages from the Zuid Holland province in the Netherlands are reanalyzed, ranging from the Roman period to the 17th century AD.

It is determined that domestic geese were present in the Netherlands since at least 160–230 AD and domestic ducks since at least 585–725 AD. The latter might also be present in the Roman assemblage, but the evidence is inconclusive. Domestic species constitute only a small percentage of the total consumed anatids and do not surpass 15%–20% in any case, which is mainly caused by the weight of wildfowling in the Netherlands. Chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) were therefore much more prevalent than domestic anatids in all assemblages. Taphonomical analysis did not show substantial differences between wild and domestic anatids. The sample size considered in this project is likely too small and biased to accurately detect any kind of evolution through time.

The skeletal material from Sarmatian cemeteries in the Pannonian Plain (Hungary, Romania, Serbia), dating from the first to the fifth century ce, has exhibited poor preservation. This has been attributed to historical grave robbery, although no analysis of the skeletal remains or taphonomic processes has been conducted. A recent study focused on statistically assessing skeletal preservation and taphonomic examinations of skeletal remains from 152 graves in the Vojvodina territory (Serbia), utilizing interdisciplinary methodologies. The study found that grave reopening in the past contributed to bone fragmentation in two ways: first, by directly damaging and scattering the bones and, second, by leaving the skeletal material exposed to surface and weathering conditions for an extended period. Additionally, the Sarmatian burial practice of placing the dead in solid tree trunk coffins has also resulted in poor skeletal preservation, as indicated by coffin wear modifications on the bones. This research has provided new insights into the various anthropogenic and natural processes that affect skeletal remains from reopened graves, thereby supporting the reconstruction of Sarmatian funerary archeology.