Cortical Bone Ontogeny: Activity, Nutritional Stress and Archaeology

This poster introduces the idea that femoral compact bone growth and development demonstrates a very different pattern among infants and children in a contemporary sample of well-nourished active children versus archaeological samples of stressed, malnourished children

Estimating body mass in subadult human skeletons

Methods for estimating body mass from the human skeleton are often required for research in biological or forensic anthropology. There are currently only two methods for estimating body mass in subadults: the width of the distal femur metaphysis is useful for individuals 1–12 years of age and the femoral head is useful for older subadults. This article provides age-structured formulas for estimating subadult body mass using midshaft femur cross-sectional geometry (polar second moments of area). The formulas were developed using data from the Denver Growth Study and their accuracy was examined using an independent sample from Franklin County, Ohio. Body mass estimates from the midshaft were compared with estimates from the width of the distal metaphysis of the femur. Results indicate that accuracy and bias of estimates from the midshaft and the distal end of the femur are similar for this contemporary cadaver sample. While clinical research has demonstrated that body mass is one principle factor shaping cross-sectional geometry of the subadult midshaft femur, clearly other biomechanical forces, such as activity level, also play a role. Thus formulas for estimating body mass from femoral measurements should be tested on subadult populations from diverse ecological and cultural circumstances to better understand the relationship between body mass, activity, diet, and morphology during ontogeny

Infection, disease, and biosocial process at the end of the Indus civilization

In the third millennium B.C., the Indus Civilization flourished in northwest India and Pakistan. The late mature phase (2200-1900 B.C.) was characterized by long-distance exchange networks, planned urban settlements, sanitation facilities, standardized weights and measures, and a sphere of influence over 1,000,000 square kilometers of territory. Recent paleoclimate reconstructions from the Beas River Valley demonstrate hydro-climatic stress due to a weakened monsoon system may have impacted urban centers like Harappa by the end of the third millennium B.C. the impact of environmental change was compounded by concurrent disruptions to the regional interaction sphere. Climate, economic, and social changes contributed to the disintegration of this civilization after 1900 B.C. We assess evidence for paleopathology to infer the biological consequences of climate change and socio-economic disruption in the post-urban period at Harappa, one of the largest urban centers in the Indus Civilization. Bioarchaeological evidence demonstrates the prevalence of infection and infectious disease increased through time. Furthermore, the risk for infection and disease was uneven among burial communities. Corresponding mortuary differences suggest that socially and economically marginalized communities were most vulnerable in the context of climate uncertainty at Harappa. Combined with prior evidence for increasing levels of interpersonal violence, our data support a growing pathology of power at Harappa after 2000 B.C. Observations of the intersection between climate change and social processes in proto-historic cities offer valuable lessons about vulnerability, insecurity, and the long-term consequences of short-term strategies for coping with climate change

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater: estimating fertility from subadult skeletons

Recent research interest has focused on the bioarchaeology of children. Although paleodemography is essential for accurate reconstructions of lifestyle and health in past populations, currently there is no published technique for estimating fertility and life expectancy at birth for skeletal populations in which adults are under-enumerated. This paper provides a formula to predict Gross Reproductive Rate (GRR) from the proportion of young infants to subadults in a skeletal population. The formula was developed from 98 of Coale and Demeny's Female Model West Life Tables, which represented diverse fertility and mortality rates. The formula's accuracy was examined using independent samples from historical and archaeological cemeteries. Estimates of GRR from the subadult fertility formula were compared with estimates from Bocquet-Appel and Masset's juvenile:adult ratio. Results indicate that the subadult fertility formula predicts GRR with consistent accuracy (R2?=?0.98) and precision (±?1 offspring) in the model life tables, across diverse subadult age structures and demographic characteristics. The formula is useful for subadult populations with a proportion of perinates:subadults between 0.12 and 0.45. The adult component of the sample is not included in the analysis and thus the formula is similarly useful in cases where adults are under-enumerated, or not. When applied to historical and archaeological populations, estimates for GRR are similar to previous estimates from the juvenile:adult ratio. Because crude birth rate and life expectancy at birth can be calculated from GRR using established fertility centred approaches to demography, the subadult fertility formula allows skeletal populations of diverse composition to be included in demographic research, essential for understanding of how mortality and fertility are affecting the morbidity profiles of subadult samples and for comparative bioarchaeological analyses

Ritual, urbanism, and the everyday: Mortuary behavior in the Indus civilization

Human skeletal material from archaeological sites is the most important source of evidence about embodied experience, habitual behaviors, and aspects of health in past people. Within bioarchaeology’s broad area of inquiry, analysis of mortuary behavior (particularly when combined with paleopathology) is potentially the most critical tool for archaeologists to reconstruct ritual and meaning in the past. This work typically combines embodiment and practice theory to examine the importance of ritual, its contours, and its social function. This chapter asks what we mean by “ritual” and how “ritual” emerges from mortuary artifacts and features. This chapter seeks to move away from mortuary ritual as a distinct category of behavior in the Indus context, separate from a secular life in the urban environment. I argue that mortuary behavior for individuals in the Indus civilization varies because of the nature of the heterogeneous populations that occupied these urban settlements but perhaps also that mortuary and other ritual behaviors in the Indus civilization were entangled, enmeshed, and interacted with the everyday heterogeneity of people’s life in the urban environment. While there is no common tradition apparent within or among all Indus cities, what is clear is that the urban lifestyle and environment participated in creating diverse rituals performed in a funerary context and that participation would contribute to memories of the cities long after their decline. Evidence is drawn from mortuary archaeology and objects, bodies and emergent behaviors, pathophysiology and health. These ritual and everyday dimensions of life in South Asia’s first urban period speak to the deepest anthropological questions we can ask about meaning in the past and how it was lived in the urban context

Age-at-death-estimation in pathological individuals. A complementary approach using teeth cementum annulations

Bioarchaeologists rely on accurate estimations of age-at-death. Clearly, some pathological conditions are associated with gross morphological changes in the skeleton that could impact the effectiveness of age-at-death estimation (i.e. methods based on the pelvis, fourth rib, dental attrition, and cranial stenosis). The magnitude of this problem has not been widely studied due to a paucity of pathological skeletons of known age. We assessed age-at death for three individuals affected by bone dysplasias (achondroplasia, residual rickets, osteogenesis imperfecta) using cementum annulations and several osseous age indicators. We predicted osseous indicators that are based on gross morphological changes would yield age estimates discrepant from the cementochronology. Results demonstrated considerable differences in age estimates between morphological and histological techniques suggesting a need for additional research on the effects of pathology on the accuracy of morphological methods. Conversely, we addressed the proposition that cementum annulations will be inappropriate for age estimation in cases of chronic and severe rhino-maxillary infection and periodontitis. We assessed age-at-death for one individual with leprosy and found no indication the disease process affected cementum formation or preservation. The results of this research indicate the potential value of cementochronology in cases where skeletal pathological conditions constrain the usefulness of traditional age estimation approaches

Changing the climate: Bioarchaeology responds to deterministic thinking about human–environmental interactions in the past

As members of the global public become increasingly concerned about climate change, popular presses promote “scientific” narratives about the success or failure of past societies (e.g., Diamond, Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. New York: Viking, 2005), human security literature perpetuates a narrative that violence is a “natural” outcome of increased competition in such circumstances (e.g., Barnett and Adger, Political Geography 26(6):639–655, 2007), and generally, neither the public nor policy-makers are exposed to information about the topic of human-environmental interactions from those who know it best, anthropologists. This chapter explores the development of the human security field and the development of pseudo-evolutionary, ahistorical, adaptationist narratives about human behavior in the face of changing climates. The chapter also demonstrates implications of these narratives as they have been adopted by policy-makers at the EPA and DoD. Finally, the chapter provides an example of a bioarchaeological approach to research on human-environmental relations in the past and the complex dynamics that shaped the human experience of climate, social, and economic changes in the first and second millennium BCE in South Asia. Human security literature is the basis for planning for a warmer world. Anthropological perspectives are the necessary antidote to narratives of competition and violence that promote a governmental agenda to prevail at all costs

On engagement with Anthropology: A critical evaluation of skeletal and developmental abnormalities in the Atacama preterm baby and issues of forensic and bioarchaeological research ethics. Response to Bhattacharya et al. “Whole-genome sequencing of Atacama skeleton shows novel mutations linked with dysplasia” in Genome Research

Here we evaluate Bhattacharya et al.’s (2018) recent paper “Whole-genome sequencing of Atacama skeleton shows novel mutations linked with dysplasia” published in Genome Research. In this short report, we examine the hypothesis that the so-called “Atacama skeleton” has skeletal abnormalities indicative of dysplasia, critique the validity of the interpretations of disease based on genomic analyses, and comment on the ethics of research on this partially mummified human foetus. The current paper acts as a case study of the importance of using an anthropological approach for aDNA research on human remains. A critical evaluation of the ethically controversial paper by Bhattacharya et al. highlights how an understanding of skeletal biological processes, including normal and abnormal growth and development, taphonomic processes, environmental context, and close attention to ethical issues of dealing with human remains, is vital to scientific interpretations. To this end, close collaboration with palaeopathologists and local archaeologists through appropriate peer-reviewed journals will add to the rigour of scientific interpretation and circumvent misinterpretation