International Journal of Osteoarchaeology最新文献

This paper presents the results of the first large-scale study of children from early modern northern Estonia. A total of 191 non-adults (<17 years) from the 16th–18th century Tõnismägi cemetery in the suburbs of Tallinn were analyzed to gain a better understanding of the health and living environment of these low-status children. This was achieved through growth analysis and palaeopathological investigation of metabolic and respiratory diseases such as scurvy, vitamin D deficiency, and tuberculosis. Growth disruption was shown to be the most severe among non-adults aged between 4 and 9 years and comparable to children living in post-medieval London. It is unlikely that the children from Tallinn would have experienced the same level of industrial hazards as those in London, but poor socioeconomic status, an impoverished diet, and unsanitary living conditions in the suburbs had a detrimental effect on the growth of these non-adults. This was supported by a statistically significant correlation between growth faltering and respiratory infections and evidence for scurvy in 40% of the infants (n = 30). The most likely cause was early weaning and a diet devoid of vitamin C, induced by poverty and cultural practices. The prevalence of rickets was much lower when compared with other post-medieval populations in Europe, at just 1.2%. This suggests that children living in Tallinn were not deprived of sunlight and may have had access to more green spaces.

In the Iron Age IIA Philistine cemetery at Ashkelon (modern Israel), roughly 11% of individuals exhibit severe and highly variable dental wear, which we explore here at two timescales: wear that accumulates over days and weeks (microwear) and wear that accumulates over months and years (macrowear). Using teeth from both adult and nonadult individuals, we first established categories of dental macrowear patterns and sorted individuals within them. We then made replicas of the teeth from 27 individuals having both typical and atypical dental wear and performed metrology by noncontact profilometry on a reflected light microscope. We then calculated each tooth's surface roughness (Sa) and collected qualitative observations of teeth within each macrowear category. Our findings show no macrowear or microwear pattern exclusive to sex or age group. Likewise, there are no statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in Sa between adult males and females, and sampled nonadults fall within two standard deviations of the pooled adult means. The microscopic surfaces of all teeth show a wide variety of textures on the occlusal surfaces, including wavy striations, deep parallel striations, globular pitting, and newly described rectangular pits. These results indicate that individuals used their teeth as a third hand while manipulating objects and that children also participated in these activities. Due to the similarities in dental wear between Ashkelon and other coastal populations, we conclude that the observed wear patterns arose from the performance of specialized tasks for a marine-based economy.

Bone retouchers are a technological appliance used to perfect lithic tools efficiently. They are most frequently found in Middle Palaeolithic contexts. In this paper, we present a group of bone retouchers from the Mousterian Level XV of the Sopeña rock shelter (Asturias, Spain). The bone part preferred was the middle part of the shaft of long bones: Most of them are on metacarpals, followed by metatarsals, femurs, and tibias. The most used animal species is adult red deer. These retouchers have either one, two, or three active areas, with a central disposition. The impact marks are close together; oval pits are common, as well as straight, sinuous, and irregular grooves. The surfaces on these marks appear pitted and scaled. There are indications that the bones employed were relatively fresh. The length, width, and thickness of those bone fragments seem to be the determining factor when choosing them to be used as retouchers in the process of finishing lithic tools. The formats documented in Sopeña Level XV are similar to those found in other Mousterian sites in Iberia, although there is a certain variability regarding their width. The Neanderthals of Sopeña acquired the raw material for these retouchers from the faunal remains generated in the process of butchering and eating the animals. These retouchers were used as implements to perfect lithic tools made mainly on quartzite, and they were used repeatedly and maybe for a long time.

Sexual dimorphism patterns vary across geographic regions due to the influence of genetic characteristics and environmental factors. Therefore, sex estimation models are being developed specifically for each population or group. The applicability of morphological sex estimation methods has not been tested in Turkey. Hence, by using skulls, the present study aims to analyze the reliability of the visual morphological method and test the equations developed in different populations. The study material consists of 192 skulls (96 male, 96 female) with known sexes, excavated from Istanbul's Karacaahmet cemetery in 1925. In the present study, glabella, mastoid process, supraorbital margin, and nuchal crest traits were scored on a scale of 1 to 5 according to the instructions provided in standard protocols. Intra-observer and inter-observer agreements were analyzed by two experts having the same level of experience. When equations derived from other populations were applied to our samples, they exhibited high sex biases (up to 50%). Therefore, new equations were derived through binary logistic regression analysis. Glabella had the highest performance in terms of repeatability (0.83) and reproducibility (0.74), whereas the nuchal crest showed the lowest performance (0.60–0.52). The most significant sexual dimorphism was observed in the glabella. Based on cross-validated results using a single criterion, it accurately classified 80% of females and 84% of males. The nuchal crest was not significantly affecting the sex discriminative equations (p > 0.05). Multivariate equations achieved an accuracy of over 90% and cross-validated results ranged between 80% and 90%. The results obtained from present study support the hypothesis that sexual dimorphism patterns vary under different conditions and highlight the importance of population variation in sex estimation. The models derived from the present study were found to be suitable for sex estimation from skulls and demonstrated high performance.

Skeletal fluorosis is a systemic chronic disease caused by long-term intake of excessive fluoride, which accumulates in bone tissue and causes changes to the bone and periosteal tissue. Skeletal fluorosis is rarely considered in paleopathological analyses, but in areas with relatively high fluoride in the environment, it may be an important cause of bone hyperplasia. In this study, we observed pathological lesions consistent with fluorosis on two human skeletons from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 CE) excavated from a cemetery in western Henan Province. By using an electron microprobe to measure the fluoride content in the teeth, and by considering the living conditions in the area during the Ming Dynasty, we conclude that the remains show evidence of skeletal fluorosis. We also consider the content of fluoride in the local groundwater, the local way of life, and other factors, to identify potential causes of skeletal fluorosis in this population and demonstrate that environmental factors were the main cause. This offers insight into the relationship between humans and their environments in China, especially western Henan Province, in the historical past. It also demonstrates the unique contributions bioarchaeology can make to environmental health studies and studies of the history of health.

An unusual concentration of tens of thousands small fish remains discovered during rescue excavations in the town of Antwerp, Belgium, is described. The material was found in a small depression with no associated archeological material but could be dated to the first half of the 16th century based on its stratigraphic position. About 3500 freshwater fish were found in articulating position and it is shown that they died naturally during a single depositional event after an exceptional flood. The species spectrum and the reconstructed fish lengths make it possible to document the season when the catastrophic mortality occurred. This assemblage differs from the few assemblages of natural mortality reported in the literature, which are all of the attritional type.

Prior studies have indicated that entheseal changes throughout the skeleton are largely reflective of age and body mass with mixed results concerning activity patterns. To add to this debate, this study tests the effectiveness of employing the New Coimbra method to record entheseal changes of the calcaneus (Calcaneal tendon enthesis), hallucal metatarsal (Peroneus longus m. tendon, and Tibialis anterior m. tendon entheses), and fifth metatarsal (Peroneus brevis m. tendon enthesis) to understand past activity patterns. Presence and severity of entheseal changes were scored for 71 white adults from the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection, and these scores were contrasted according to age, sex, stature, body mass (BMI), and occupation. Spearman's rank correlations show that age has the greatest impact on changes for the Calcaneal tendon enthesis, the Peroneus brevis m. tendon enthesis, and the Tibialis anterior m. tendon enthesis. For all of these entheses, entheseal scores increase as age increases. Stature is the largest contributing factor to changes in the Peroneus longus m. tendon enthesis, and this relationship is negative: entheseal scores decrease as stature increases. BMI has a limited effect on entheseal changes in the foot skeleton, and this relationship may instead be mediated by gait differences related to stature. No statistically significant relationships between entheseal changes and occupational standing ranks were found, although this may be related to the ways in which occupations were recorded and ranked. It is possible that statistically significant effects of physical activity patterns on the expression of entheseal changes could be documented using other measurements of activity patterns beyond occupational standing. These findings support prior studies that established age as a major contributor to entheseal changes but show that stature also contributes to enthesis formation in the foot.

Hyperostosis frontalis interna (HFI) is an osseous overgrowth characterized by symmetrical, irregular bone apposition on the internal table of the frontal bone, which preferentially occurs in females. In 1719, Morgagni described the condition as one sign of a triad comprising HFI, hirsutism, and obesity (Morgagni's syndrome). The etiopathogenesis of HFI is largely unresolved, but the condition is frequently associated with metabolic, endocrine, and neuropsychiatric disorders. In archaeological cases, which rely solely on dry bone diagnosis, the cause of HFI generally remains unknown, as is also the case regarding accompanying signs and symptoms. Here, we report a case of pronounced HFI in the skeleton of an old-adult woman from medieval Hildesheim dating to the 8th to 11th century CE. In addition to HFI, the cranium exhibits resorptive lesions of the sella turcica with dehiscence of the roof of the sphenoid sinus. The co-occurrence of these lesions suggests an underlying common cause for them. On the basis of differential diagnosis, we consider a functioning pituitary neuroendocrine tumor (PitNET) as the most likely common cause for the two conditions.

The study of nonmetric traits is useful for establishing biological differences or affinities between populations. This study considered 12 nonmetric cranial characters. The objective is to compare five series of two different cultural horizons: three populations of the Teotihuacán Classic period and two of the Mexica Postclassic period. For the selection of nonmetric traits, those not altered by intentional cephalic modification were considered. From the sample of materials, it was assessed whether the populations of the Classic period could have biological and cultural affinity between them, making a migratory interpretation which indicates differences in nonmetric characters between them. The mean measure of divergence (MMD) was considered as bio-distance. The distance matrix was analyzed using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean and nonmetric multidimensional scaling. Frequencies were studied using the principal component analysis. Mantel test and partial Mantel test were used to compare the distance matrix obtained with the MMD with sites geographical distance matrix, type of settlements matrix, and period of the site's matrix. In none of those cases were found a correlation at the $�\alpha �=�0.05$ level. Making more plausible that the results of the nonmetric traits MMD matrix agree with a migration process. All methods agree on separating Classical populations into one group and Postclassic populations into another. The archeological contexts, and the study of the material culture found, agree with the analysis of nonmetric characters.

Metastatic bone disease significantly impacts cancer-related morbidity and mortality nowadays. Herein, we present an adult individual, probably a female, with multiple osteolytic lesions, of variable sizes, distributed predominantly in the axial skeleton but also affecting elements of the appendicular region. This individual also exhibits atypical manifestations of metastatic bone disease, in the form of acrometastases—metastases in the extremities, which are uncommon events in current clinical settings. The individual's skeletonized remains were exhumed from a crypt in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit (Espírito Santo), Loures, Portugal, and have been dated from the 16th to 19th centuries. The multiple osteolytic lesions, noted both by direct and radiological observations, are discussed to expand the knowledge regarding disease manifestations in the past but also to reflect on disability and suffering in past individuals affected by oncologic ailments.