International Journal of Paleopathology最新文献

Objective

This article analyses new prehistoric evidence of trepanation from a collective burial site in the south-eastern Iberian Peninsula.

Materials

The trepanned individual was documented in the Chalcolithic burial site of Camino del Molino, where 1348 individuals (30.7 % non-adults and 69.3 % adults) were deposited in two contiguous funerary phases, making it a reference site for the knowledge of Recent Prehistoric populations.

Methods

The individual has been sexed using traditional anthropological methods and ancient DNA. C14 dating has also been obtained. The lesion has been analysed macroscopically and microscopically using SEM.

Results

The skull under study belonged to an adult female deposited in the second burial phase (2566–2239 years cal BCE). It exhibits in the anterior region of the right temporal fossa two contiguous and partially overlapping holes that correspond to two trepanations performed using the scraping technique.

Conclusions

It is a double cranial trepanation with signs of bone remodelling suggesting survival from surgery. No pathological signs were identified potentially associated with the intervention.

Significance

This is the second case of surgical interventions in the geographical area of study and one of the few evidences of this practice in women during prehistoric times.

Limitations

So far only the articulated skeletons from this burial have been thoroughly analysed.

Suggestions for further research

Further intensive review of skull collection is advised to learn more about these surgical interventions in Copper Age and to go deeper into the causes that motivated their execution.

Objective

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of the ossification of the ligamenta flava (OLF) among skeletal remains from Poland.

Materials and methods

124 skeletons aged 25 years and older were analyzed. The presence and size of OLF were observed macroscopically. OLF was recorded at the cranial and caudal attachment sites of each vertebra. The following factors were analyzed: age at death, sex, and presence of other spondyloarthropathies.

Results

The crude prevalence of OLF in the analyzed series was 68.55 %. OLF was located most frequently in the lower thoracic spine. A statistically significant relationship was observed between the presence of OLF and age at death. OLF coincided with degenerative spondyloarthropathies of the thoracolumbar spine.

Conclusions

The results of this study indicate that OLF was not a rare condition in past populations of European ancestry. Analysis of OLF prevalence in skeletal materials can contribute to reconstruction of the conditions and lifestyles of past people.

Significance

This study shed new light on the prevalence of OLF and provides information on the variability of OLF in past European populations. The evaluation of the prevalence of OLF represents an important contribution to the field of paleopathology in understanding disease changes in prehistoric and historic human populations.

Limitations

The analyzed material came from unknown populations without demographic data. Sex and age at death were assessed using standard anthropological methods.

Suggestions for further research

It is important to understand the influence of sociocultural factors and physical activity patterns on the development of OLF.

Objective

To discuss a Neandertal pathological adult first pollical proximal phalanx (I2-104) from the Baume de Moula-Guercy (Ardèche, France) and evaluate the possible causes of this pathology.

Methods

Macroscopic analyses of external features, as well as CT imaging, were used in the analysis

Results

The presence of asymmetric eburnation on the distal epiphysis associated with an osteophyte on the palmar surface, as well as the absence of periosteal bone reaction visible on CT images, is consistent with osteoarthritis.

Conclusion

Osteoarthritis (OA) can have different origins and the cause is difficult to identify. The pathology of the Moula-Guercy I2-104 phalanx may be due to a genetic predisposition for OA known in Neandertals and associated with short limb bones. The OA could have been aggravated by the age of this individual and by an inflammatory reaction caused by repeated movements and intense vibrations provoked by high-frequency knapping or by other use of the hands

Significance

The I2-104 phalanx is the first Neandertal pollical phalanx known to display OA, although joints of this bone are frequently affected by this pathology in modern humans. Thus, greater insight into the presence and consequences of Neandertal behaviors is offered

Limitation

It is impossible to give a definitive conclusion on the cause(s) of the OA in this case.

Suggestions for further research

More data is needed concerning OA within Neandertals and its relationship with behavior and genetics.

Objectives

To investigate the prevalence of respiratory disease in several populations from the Netherlands across different time periods and socioeconomic conditions.

Materials

We analyzed 695 adult individuals from six different Dutch contexts of urban and rural settlements dating to different time periods (i.e., early-medieval, late-medieval, post-medieval).

Methods

For each individual, the presence/absence of chronic maxillary sinusitis, otitis media, and inflammatory periosteal reaction on ribs was recorded macroscopically according to accepted methods.

Results

Statistically significant associations were found in the presence of sinusitis diachronically (early-medieval to late-medieval period, and early-medieval to post-medieval period) both in rural and urban environments. Differences in prevalence rates of otitis media were found statistically significant when comparing rural to urban environments in the early-medieval and late-medieval periods.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that factors such as increased contact between towns and countryside, higher population densities, and intensification of agricultural production impacted the respiratory health of past populations both in rural and urban settings.

Significance

Our study provides new insights into the impact of environmental changes and urbanization on respiratory disease prevalence, shedding light on the relationship between health and changing social and environmental contexts.

Limitations

Research limitations included the complex etiology of respiratory diseases, and the impact of uncontrollable factors such as hidden heterogeneity, selective mortality, and rural-to-urban migration.

Future research

Further research in different contexts is advised in order to continue exploring urbanization and its impact on human health across both time and space.

Objective

Molar incisor hypomineralisation (MIH) is a developmental defect of enamel affecting the first permanent molars and often the incisors and affecting approximately 13% of the current population worldwide. Here, we aim to highlight potential differential diagnoses of MIH in archaeological collections (taphonomic discoloration, amelogenesis imperfecta, fluorosis, rachitic teeth, etc.).

Methods

Causative factors of dental discolourations are identified through a literature review.

Results

In an archaeological context, the sediments contained in the burial soil can lead to tooth discoloration. Taphonomic staining of the dentition may have a similar appearance to enamel hypomineralisation, and thus is a confounding factor that has the potential to cause miscalculation of the true prevalence of MIH within archaeological collections. Some rare medieval cases are reported in the modern literature but without microanalysis, misdiagnosis is possible. The aetiological factors of MIH are unknown but probably follow the multifactorial model involving systemic medical and genetic factors.

Conclusions

Systematic detection and diagnosis of MIH during anthropological studies is therefore of great interest.

Significance

The hypotheses that only contemporary agents are causative factors of MIH could be refuted by the discovery of individuals living before medication or pollutants. The identification of MIH in a group of individuals also provides information regarding the health status of a population and reflects stress occurring during the period of mineralisation of the first permanent molars after secretion of the enamel matrix.

Limitations

Taphonomic alterations of archaeological remains prevent MIH diagnosis.

Suggestions for future research

MIH diagnosis can be difficult in archaeological series and further non-destructive methods (microtomography, elemental analyses, etc.) are required.

Objective

To identify and interpret computed tomography (CT) findings of postmortem changes in ancient Egyptian child mummies.

Materials

Whole-body CT examinations of 21 ancient Egyptian child mummies from German (n = 18), Italian (n = 1), and Swiss museums (n = 2).

Methods

Conspicuous CT findings from prior evaluations with various research questions that were assessed as postmortem changes were classified, and special cases were illustrated and discussed.

Results

Postmortem changes were classified into several categories. From these, individuals with evidence of invasion of resin/oil/tar into bone, dried fluid-levels within bone most likely due to natron, probable interaction of natron with soft tissues and bone, as well as insect infestation were demonstrated.

Conclusions

One challenge of paleoradiology is to differentiate between intravital and postmortem changes, which can be multifarious. These changes can be obvious, but also subtle, and can mimic diseases.

Significance

The provided classification of postmortem changes, as well as the demonstrated cases, may serve as models for further paleoradiological investigations. The dried intraosseous fluid levels in two mummies, most likely due to natron, suggests that these children were immersed in a liquid natron bath, in contrast to the current scientific view that natron for mummification was routinely applied in the solid form.

Limitations

CT was used as the only examination method, as sampling of the mummies was not possible.

Suggestions for further research

The awareness that postmortem changes on CT images of ancient Egyptian mummies might mimic pathology should be raised to reduce or avoid incorrect interpretation.

Objective

To identify, critically analyse and describe severe bilateral skeletal pathology involving the ossa coxae of an individual from historic era Cape Town.

Materials

A single individual from the University of Cape Town’s Human Skeletal Repository was analysed under research approval (HREC# 035/2021).

Methods

An osteobiography was constructed, radiocarbon dating and isotopic analyses were conducted. Pathological description and contextualised disability analyses followed, along with differential diagnosis. The pelvis and femora were visualised macroscopically and radiographically.

Results

This individual was a non-European middle-aged adult male who lived in the 17–18th centuries CE. Morphological changes showed hypoplastic hips with collapsed femoral heads and neoacetabulae. A diagnosis of developmental dysplasia of the hips (DDH) was made. Then a contextualised disability analysis including consideration of the clinical and functional impacts of the condition were applied. No signs of maltreatment, physiological stress or persistent infections were present. His bones were well developed, illustrating mobility and use.

Conclusions

He developed DDH early in life and lived through adulthood, and his strong, healthy bones suggest resilience, some mobility and contribution to society through less physically demanding tasks.

Significance

Value for palaepathological analyses to inform and understand disability and culturally significant health mediation to offer a more objective interpretation and improve understanding of past people. It expands our understanding of the presence of DDH globally and in Africa and provides insight into disease impact for individuals with bilateral expression.

Suggestions for future research

Further contextual research is required.

Limitations

Poor scene recovery hindered in-depth care analysis and interpretation of the condition.

Objectives

Distal fractures of the humerus and their complications have rarely been described or analysed in the palaeopathological literature. The objective of this study was to evaluate two cases of distal humeral fracture with associated cubitus valgus observed in two individuals from the context of the Later Stone Age (LSA) in southern Africa.

Materials

Skeletal remains of two individuals. A middle-aged female radiocarbon dated to c.160 BP and a middle-aged male radiocarbon dated to c.2 300 BP.

Methods

Remains were macroscopically and radiographically assessed for injury.

Results

Both cases presented with healed antemortem injury to the right elbow attributed to possible falls. Distal humeral fracture resulted in non-union of the lateral epicondyle with extensive morphological changes to the elbow joint including an increased carrying angle. Morphological and osteoarthritic changes suggest a survival period of several years post-injury.

Significance

Cubitus valgus following traumatic injury has rarely been reported amongst historic or prehistoric populations. The described injuries would have had physical and functional consequences, raising questions relating to probable care received during the healing process. The elbow injuries would have resulted in restricted motion and instability of the elbow joint, with a high likelihood of ulnar neuropathy.

Limitations

The contextual information for these individuals is limited and do not permit broader population level study.

Suggestions for further research

Formal biomechanical analysis including cross-sectional geometry analysis will provide further information regarding complications and strengthen the diagnosis of ulnar neuropathy. Further research is necessary on the prevalence and complications of humeral fracture.

Objective

Cortisol is a glucocorticoid hormone produced by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis that is regularly assessed in modern human and non-human populations in saliva, blood, and hair as a measure of stress exposure and stress reactivity. While recent research has detected cortisol concentrations in modern and archaeological permanent dental tissues, the present study assessed human primary (deciduous) teeth for cortisol concentrations.

Materials and Methods

Fifty-one dentine and enamel samples from nine modern and 10 archaeological deciduous teeth were analyzed for cortisol concentrations via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Results

Detectable concentrations of cortisol were identified in 15 (of 32) dentine and 8 (of 19) enamel samples coming from modern and archaeological deciduous teeth.

Conclusions

This study is the first known analysis of cortisol from deciduous dental tissues, demonstrating the potential to identify measurable concentrations.

Significance

The ability to analyze deciduous teeth is integral to developing dental cortisol methods with multiple potential future applications, including research on the biological embedding of stress in the skeleton. This study marks a key step in a larger research program to study stress in primary dentition from living and archaeological populations.

Limitations

Multiple samples generated cortisol values that were not detectable with ELISA. Minimum quantities of tissue may be required to generate detectable levels of cortisol.

Suggestions for Further Research

Future research should include larger sample sizes and consideration of intrinsic biological and extrinsic preservation factors on dental cortisol. Further method validation and alternative methods for assessing dental cortisol are needed.

Objective

Overall, paleopathology trails behind related fields in exploring sex, gender, and sexuality in past societies. Here, we interrogatively synthesize scholarship on topics not included in similar reviews, focusing on sex estimation methods, and considering the social determinants of health; trauma; reproduction and family; and childhood – to highlight novel, social epidemiology- and social theory-informed frameworks and interpretive devices.

Conclusions

Many paleopathological interpretations focus on sex-gender differences relative to health, with increasing use of intersectionality. Others consistently project present-day ideologies about sex, gender, and sexuality (e.g., binary sex-gender systems) into paleopathological interpretations (i.e., presentism).

Significance

Paleopathologists have an ethical imperative to generate scholarship that contributes to social justice initiatives focused on dismantling structural inequalities, especially relative to sex, gender, and sexuality (e.g., homophobia), such as through denaturalizing presentist binary systems. They also have a responsibility towards greater inclusivity relative to researcher identity and diversification of method and theory.

Limitations

In addition to material limitations complicating reconstructions of sex, gender, and sexuality relative to health and disease in the past, this review wasn’t comprehensive. The review was also limited by the relative paucity of paleopathological work on these topics.

Suggestions for Future Research: The outlook for paleopathological research on sex, gender, and sexuality is, however, positive; paleopathology is well situated to tackle these aspects of social identity. Future work should consider critical, self-reflective movement away from presentism; more robust contextualization; and further engagement with social theory and social epidemiology theory and approaches, including the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD), social determinants of health, and intersectionality.