Vertebral pathologies and related activity patterns in two mediaeval populations from Spain

Journal of Archaeological Science, 2011

We present results of osteological and isotopic analyses of human remains from Cova de la Pastora (Alcoi, Alicante, Spain) and discuss the implications in light of a new sequence of radiocarbon dates indicating that the cave was used as a burial site in the Late Neolithic (ca. 3800e3000 cal BC), Chalcolithic (ca. 3000 e2500 cal BC), Bell Beaker Transition (Horizonte Campaniforme Transicional -HCT; ca. 2500e2200 cal BC) and the Bronze Age (ca. 2200e1500 cal BC). Similarities in stable isotopic values of C and N indicate little variation in subsistence between men and women, and a similar nutritional base from the Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age. This pattern of stability is augmented by evidence of trauma and disease found on numerous skulls in the collection. Since no clear associations of specific grave goods with certain individuals based on sex or age could be determined, the only suggestion of social inequality lies in the burial practice itself, where certain individuals were interred in caves while others were not.

American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2011

In order to test to what degree Schmorl's nodes (SN), osteophytosis of the vertebral bodies (VO), and osteoarthritis of the articular facets (OA) are useful indicators of activity-related stress, an analysis of their frequencies and severity of expression was conducted in two early Modern period skeletal samples from Croatia-Koprivno and Sisak. Historic and contemporary ethnographic sources suggest that living conditions were more demanding in Koprivno, and that a sexual division of labor existed in both populations. A total of 2,552 vertebral bodies (990 from Koprivno and 1,562 from Sisak) and 5,186 articular facets (2,135 from Koprivno and 3,051 from Sisak) were analyzed. Koprivno exhibits significantly higher total frequencies of SN, VO, and OA than Sisak, and the total frequencies of SN and OA in both series are significantly higher in males. When, however, the series were analyzed by age and sex categories, the same trend was noted only in SN. The frequencies and severity of VO and OA could not be interpreted in keeping with the historic and contemporary ethnographic sources and were additionally, unlike SN, found to be strongly correlated with increased age. This study, therefore, suggests that while SN are useful indicators of different lifestyles and/or different activity patterns between various archaeological populations, VO and OA are-possibly because of their more varied etiologiesless useful markers of activity-related stress. Am J Phys Anthropol 145:270-281, 2011. in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 1997

The pattern of degenerative joint disease (DJD) of the intervertebral and apophyseal joints of the vertebral column of 81 skeletons from the thirteenth to fourteenth century medieval priory cemetery of St. Andrew, Fishergate, York, was recorded in relation to their location of interment: eastern cemetery, southern cemetery, and intramurally (within the priory buildings). Archaeological context and ethnohistorical accounts support the interpretation that people of different social status were buried in these areas. Linear discriminant function analysis and paired Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests showed that the differences in vertebral column DJD pattern and severity among the three subgroups were not statistically significant. As the archaeological and historical evidence seems reliable, it is argued that the analysis of DJD of the vertebral column might not be ideal to study the effects of normal activity patterns, a conclusion which supports the results of recent bioarchaeological research. Further, high-low plots demonstrate that the differences in DJD pattern were located between intervertebral and apophyseal joints of individuals rather than between subgroups of the cemetery. It is thought that this difference was produced as a response to erect posture during bipedal locomotion, reflecting vertebral curvatures, rather than differing occupational stresses. Thus, due to biological constraints on its function, the vertebral column might not be an ideal structure to study markers of occupational stress. Am

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of political and economic change on the health of people living in predominantly rural communities of Medieval Asturias, Spain from ~900-1800 AD. This project examines the remains of ~325 individuals recovered from 12 Medieval Christian church cemeteries located within the historically and politically defined boundaries of Asturias, Spain. Iberia has a rich written history beginning with the first Romans to enter the peninsula and describe the peoples they encountered (Collins 2000). This history became more detailed as time progressed with multiple histories of events being recorded in the Medieval Period by different parties (Linehan 1993). Unfortunately, as is common in Medieval histories, these documents concern only the key individuals involved in large political events. The average individual has no written history, nor is there an anecdotal summary of what peasant life was like in Medieval Asturias. Due to this dearth of information, this dissertation takes a historical bioarchaeology approach using what information is available from the historical narrative relating to Medieval Asturias, in order to approach issues of the economy, inferred gender, and familial status roles and their relationship to pathological markers found in the human skeletal remains of this population. Due to the often rushed nature of salvage archaeological methods, much contextual evidence was lost during excavation of many of these sites. Further the acidic mountainous soils of Asturias often result in poorly preserved skeletal material. Here these pitfalls will be addressed using two unique approaches: (1) this project will examine life histories of the general rural population of Medieval Asturias at the regional level. This will be achieved by aggregating all individuals from the available archaeological sites, and directing hypotheses at regularities at the regional scale. (2) In order to tackle the issue of poor or differential preservation of human remains, this project will employ new maximum likelihood statistical procedures specifically designed to handle missing data and generate probability statements. It should be noted that while the robust statistical approaches taken here will focus on region-level analyses, they could also be applied to large well documented sites in future investigations. Results demonstrate that while historians (e.g. Kamen 1991; Lynch 1992; Ortiz 1971; Ruiz 2007) suggest rampant collapse and crisis throughout much of the later Medieval and Spanish Empire periods, the biology of the individuals from the same time shows no record of significant increases in stress or disease. Many other scholars (e.g. Bennett 2005; Miller 2003; Lopez et al. 2012) suggest the patriarchal nature of Medieval and Imperial Spain resulted in negative health outcomes for females in comparison to their male counterparts, but this is again not detected in the present examination of the skeletal biology. Finally, historians (e.g. Bango Toviso 1992) and mortuary anthropologists (e.g. Naji 2005; Ivison 1993; Effros 1997) alike argue that the practice of ad sanctos burial favored those high status individuals who were most regarded in the community, for prestigious burial locations within churches, but these results found no significant differences in terms of mortality (risk of dying at younger ages) or the development of physiological stress markers.

Osteological reference collections play a key role in bioanthropological research; they allow the development and testing of methods for sexing and aging individuals using different bone and dental attributes. This paper presents the first stage results of the ongoing Chacarita Research Project, which aims to generate and study a reference collection of adult skeletons representative of the contemporary population of Buenos Aires city. The Chacarita Collection is being conformed of unclaimed human remains of individuals of known nationality, sex, age, cause and date of death from the Chacarita Public Cemetery. Unlike other similar endeavors, this sample has been completely exhumed using archaeological techniques. So far, a total of 146 adult skeletons have been recovered (60 females - 41.1% - and 86 males - 58.90% -), the majority of which have ages-at-death in the range of 71-90 years. They were born primarily in Argentina (n = 133; 91.1%), although other nationalities are also represented. Dates of death go between 1987 and 2000. In the short term, the osteological study of this collection will allow assessment of the performance of classical methods of sex determination and age-at-death estimation in a local setting. A special priority will be given to the study of osteological changes in individuals over 50 years. As the sample is being retrieved by exhumation, the impact of taphonomic agents on the most diagnostic bones structures is also being assessed. In the long term, this osteological collection will be available to generate new population-specific techniques, and to develop comparative biological studies.

Anthropological investigations of the Middle Ages necropolis of Anchialos from 11-12 c. AD register development of degenerative joint disease. In spite of the small sample size, which doesn't allow statistical analysis, obtained results enrich the knowledge about the health status and life quality in the ancient population. Most individuals over 30-40 years of age developed the studied changes, but, except in three cases, where joint changes can be interpreted as secondary developed process to other condition, degenerative joint disease in population didn't lead to heavy disability.

2009

Poster HYOID BONE TRAUMA FROM BRONZE AGE Al Oumaoui I, Jiménez-Brobeil SA, Roca Rodríguez MG, Fernández de la Gala J. Universidad de Granada, Spain We present a mature-age male from the Bronze Age discovered at the site of Motilla del Azuer (Daimiel, Ciudad Real) in the Spanish region of La Mancha. Hyoid bone from this individual exhibits changes thought to be due to a healed fracture, an exceptional finding in an archaeological population. This injury is very rare, and it is even more uncommon for individuals to survive this lesion. It was probably produced by a direct impact to the neck, either accidental, e.g., by fall, or resulting from intentional aggression. We discuss the latter possibility in the context of trauma patterns found at this and other sites from the Bronze Age. Poster NEW PALAEOPATHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF PRE-COLOMBIAN TREPONEMATOSES FROM NORTHERN FRANCE Armelle Alduc-Le Bagousse, Joël Blondiaux, Thomas Colart, Pierre-Marie Danzé, Anne-Sophie Drucbert, Xavier Demond...

Bone, 2001

An archaeological investigation of a medieval cemetery gave us the opportunity to investigate 49 Danish skeletons dating from 1000 to 1250 A.D. and to compare them with 298 contemporary Danes (aged 19 -79 years) and assess the millennial trend in bone mineral density (BMD) in populations considered genetically closely related. BMD and bone mineral apparent density (BMAD) of the femoral neck were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and transformed into z scores. BMD zscore was significantly lower in medieval women (؊0.54 ؎ 0.25, p ‫؍‬ 0.04), whereas BMD zscore in medieval men was significantly higher (0.55 ؎ 0.22, p ‫؍‬ 0.02). In medieval women, BMD zscore tended to increase with age (r ‫؍‬ 0.42, p ‫؍‬ 0.07), whereas no change was seen in men (r ‫؍‬ 0.19, not significant [n.s.]). Also, BMAD zscore was significantly elevated in medieval men (1.00 ؎ 0.28, p < 0.01), but in medieval women no difference was found (؊0.28 ؎ 0.21, n.s.). However, the correlation between BMAD zscore and age was significant in the medieval women where it increased with advancing age (r ‫؍‬ 0.49, p ‫؍‬ 0.03). In conclusion, medieval women had lower BMD when compared with contemporary women, but this relationship was reversed in women who survived to older ages. In contrast, medieval men had significantly higher BMD as compared with contemporary men at all ages. The observed lower BMD in medieval women can be explained by the well-known selective mortality among the younger women. A high birth rate and prolonged periods of lactation are the main reasons for the observed increased mortality, and therefore can also very likely explain the associated low BMD. The increase in the incidence of osteoporosis in modern elderly women could possibly, or partially, be explained by the survival of women who would have died prematurely had they lived in earlier centuries.

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2019

This paper presents the first bioarchaeological study of Islamic diet and lifeways in medieval Portugal. Stable isotopes of δ 13 C and δ 15 N and osteological and paleopathological analyses are combined to explore the diet and health status of 27 humans buried within São Jorge Castle, Lisbon (eleventh to twelfth century), interpreted as a high status population. Human isotopic data are considered alongside an animal baseline comprised of 30 specimens sampled from nearby Praça da Figueira, including the main domesticates and fish. Isotopic data indicate an age-and sex-related difference in diet among the population, suggesting a difference in food access between females and children compared to males. Palaeopathological analysis indicates a low prevalence of non-specific stress indicators such as Harris lines (HL), linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) and cribra orbitalia (CO) in this population in comparison to other medieval populations. LEH is only present in adults. These results suggest the presence of socio-cultural patterning relating to the organisation of the Islamic family, where women and men occupied different places in the household and society. This paper demonstrates the utility of a combined osteological and isotopic approach to understand the lifeways of Islamic populations in Medieval Iberia, as well as illuminates the lifeways of understudied segments of the population.

PLOS One, 2009

Human lumbar vertebrae support the weight of the upper body. Loads lifted and carried by the upper extremities cause significant loading stress to the vertebral bodies. It is well established that trauma-induced vertebral fractures are common especially among elderly people. The aim of this study was to investigate the morphological factors that could have affected the prevalence of trauma-related vertebral fractures from medieval times to the present day. To determine if morphological differences existed in the size and shape of the vertebral body between medieval times and the present day, the vertebral body size and shape was measured from the 4th lumbar vertebra using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and standard osteometric calipers. The modern samples consisted of modern Finns and the medieval samples were from archaeological collections in Sweden and Britain. The results show that the shape and size of the 4th lumbar vertebra has changed significantly from medieval times in a way that markedly affects the biomechanical characteristics of the lumbar vertebral column. These changes may have influenced the incidence of trauma-induced spinal fractures in modern populations. Citation: Junno J-A, Niskanen M, Nieminen MT, Maijanen H, Niinimäki J, et al. (2009) Temporal Trends in Vertebral Size and Shape from Medieval to Modern-Day. PLoS ONE 4(3): e4836.