Delayed physical development in a first generation enslaved African woman from Pietermaai, Curacao

There is still much to be learned about enslavement in Curacao, where little archaeological investigation into the historical era has been carried out. This article contributes to our knowledge on this subject through the analysis of a female individual buried in Pietermaai, an 18th century suburb of Willemstad. Excavated in the 1980s by the Archaeological-Anthropological Institute of the Netherlands Antilles, the remains are only now attracting osteological attention. Isotopic analysis has shown that this individual spent her childhood in West Africa, supporting morphological and metric analyses identifying her African ancestry. At the time of death, she had an adult chronological age (over 18 years), but her physical development indicated a non-adult biological age (possibly between 12 and 15 years). Such delayed development can occur due to many factors, including hard labour and disease. In the case of this individual, evidence such as enamel hypoplasia, osteochondritis dissecans, and periostitis may indicate stressful episodes throughout the life course. Clearly defined entheses and entheseal changes at muscle attachment sites on the arms and legs may indicate a physically demanding occupation. A variety of factors could therefore have contributed to her developmental delay. In the future, further analysis of buried populations in Curacao will help to increase our understanding of the lifeways of enslaved people here. Meanwhile, the analysis of this isolated individual is important because it situates enslavement in a real body and indicates the value of reanalysis of human remains from existing archaeological collections in the Caribbean.Bioarchaeolog

Multiproxy paleodietary reconstruction using stable isotopes and starch analysis: the case of the archaeological site of Playa del Mango, Granma, Cuba

Paleoethnobotanical and stable isotope studies have demonstrated that the indigenous groups that populated the Antilles, traditionally understood as dependent exclusively on wild resources, cultivated and consumed both C3 and C4 plants even before the arrival of the ceramic-bearing Arawak groups. However, the relative importance of cultigens and the differential use of plants, especially maize, between populations and individuals remains un-known. In this paper we combined the analysis of stable isotopes (delta 15N, delta 13Cco, delta 13Cen, delta 13Cap, delta 34S) of 27 in-dividuals from the archaeological site of Playa del Mango, Cuba with the identification of starch grains in dental calculus. The stable isotope results indicate that the sampled population had a 70:30 C3/C4 diet, where at least 65 % was based on C3 protein. Starches from C3 (e.g., Marantaceae, Ipomoea batatas) and C4 plants (Zea mays) were found in similar proportions (50:50). These results support that the lack or abundance of starch grains cannot be used to infer directly the frequency at which C3 and C4 plants were consumed within a small popu-lation. Statistically significant differences between females and males in the carbon isotope composition of diet, and its energy portion, suggests a differential consumption of plants by sex. Playa del Mango individual diets were statistically different from those of coeval sites, supporting our previous findings that groups with different dietary traditions concurrently inhabited Cuba in precolonial times. The study demonstrates the power of combined use of stable isotope models, and starch analysis, to provide a more nuanced reconstruction of dietary practices in past human populations.Archaeological science

The population genomic legacy of the second plague pandemic

SummaryHuman populations have been shaped by catastrophes that may have left long-lasting signatures in their genomes. One notable example is the second plague pandemic that entered Europe in ca. 1,347 CE and repeatedly returned for over 300 years, with typical village and town mortality estimated at 10%–40%.1 It is assumed that this high mortality affected the gene pools of these populations. First, local population crashes reduced genetic diversity. Second, a change in frequency is expected for sequence variants that may have affected survival or susceptibility to the etiologic agent (Yersinia pestis).2 Third, mass mortality might alter the local gene pools through its impact on subsequent migration patterns. We explored these factors using the Norwegian city of Trondheim as a model, by sequencing 54 genomes spanning three time periods: (1) prior to the plague striking Trondheim in 1,349 CE, (2) the 17th–19th century, and (3) the present. We find that the pandemic period shaped the gene pool by reducing long distance immigration, in particular from the British Isles, and inducing a bottleneck that reduced genetic diversity. Although we also observe an excess of large FST values at multiple loci in the genome, these are shaped by reference biases introduced by mapping our relatively low genome coverage degraded DNA to the reference genome. This implies that attempts to detect selection using ancient DNA (aDNA) datasets that vary by read length and depth of sequencing coverage may be particularly challenging until methods have been developed to account for the impact of differential reference bias on test statistics.Results and discussion STAR★Method

The population genomic legacy of the second plague pandemic

Human populations have been shaped by catastrophes that may have left long-lasting signatures in their genomes. One notable example is the second plague pandemic that entered Europe in ca. 1,347 CE and repeatedly returned for over 300 years, with typical village and town mortality estimated at 10%–40%.1 It is assumed that this high mortality affected the gene pools of these populations. First, local population crashes reduced genetic diversity. Second, a change in frequency is expected for sequence variants that may have affected survival or susceptibility to the etiologic agent (Yersinia pestis).2 Third, mass mortality might alter the local gene pools through its impact on subsequent migration patterns. We explored these factors using the Norwegian city of Trondheim as a model, by sequencing 54 genomes spanning three time periods: (1) prior to the plague striking Trondheim in 1,349 CE, (2) the 17th–19th century, and (3) the present. We find that the pandemic period shaped the gene pool by reducing long distance immigration, in particular from the British Isles, and inducing a bottleneck that reduced genetic diversity. Although we also observe an excess of large FST values at multiple loci in the genome, these are shaped by reference biases introduced by mapping our relatively low genome coverage degraded DNA to the reference genome. This implies that attempts to detect selection using ancient DNA (aDNA) datasets that vary by read length and depth of sequencing coverage may be particularly challenging until methods have been developed to account for the impact of differential reference bias on test statistics.publishedVersio

The population genomic legacy of the second plague pandemic

Human populations have been shaped by catastrophes that may have left long-lasting signatures in their genomes. One notable example is the second plague pandemic that entered Europe in ca. 1,347 CE and repeatedly returned for over 300 years, with typical village and town mortality estimated at 10%-40%.1 It is assumed that this high mortality affected the gene pools of these populations. First, local population crashes reduced genetic diversity. Second, a change in frequency is expected for sequence variants that may have affected survival or susceptibility to the etiologic agent (Yersinia pestis).2 Third, mass mortality might alter the local gene pools through its impact on subsequent migration patterns. We explored these factors using the Norwegian city of Trondheim as a model, by sequencing 54 genomes spanning three time periods: (1) prior to the plague striking Trondheim in 1,349 CE, (2) the 17th-19th century, and (3) the present. We find that the pandemic period shaped the gene pool by reducing long distance immigration, in particular from the British Isles, and inducing a bottleneck that reduced genetic diversity. Although we also observe an excess of large FST values at multiple loci in the genome, these are shaped by reference biases introduced by mapping our relatively low genome coverage degraded DNA to the reference genome. This implies that attempts to detect selection using ancient DNA (aDNA) datasets that vary by read length and depth of sequencing coverage may be particularly challenging until methods have been developed to account for the impact of differential reference bias on test statistics

Assessing human diet and movement in the Tongan maritime chiefdom using isotopic analyses.

The rise of stratified societies fundamentally influences the interactions between status, movement, and food. Using isotopic analyses, we assess differences in diet and mobility of individuals excavated from two burial mounds located at the `Atele burial site on Tongatapu, the main island of the Kingdom of Tonga (c. 500 - 150 BP). The first burial mound (To-At-1) was classified by some archaeologists as a commoner's mound while the second burial mound (To-At-2) was possibly used for interment of the chiefly class. In this study, stable isotope analyses of diet (δ13C, δ15N, and δ34S; n = 41) are used to asses paleodiet and 87Sr/86Sr ratios (n = 30) are analyzed to investigate individual mobility to test whether sex and social status affected these aspects of life. Our results show significant differences in diet between burial mounds and sexes. Those interred in To-At-2 displayed lower δ13C values, indicating they ate relatively more terrestrial plants (likely starchy vegetable staples) compared with To-At-1 individuals. Females displayed significantly lower δ15N values compared with males within the entire assemblage. No differences in δ34S values were observed between sexes or burial mound but it is possible that sea spray or volcanism may have affected these values. One individual displayed the strontium isotopic composition representative of a nonlocal immigrant (outside 2SD of the mean). This suggests the hegemonic control over interisland travel, may have prevented long-term access to the island by non-Tongans exemplifying the political and spiritual importance of the island of Tongatapu in the maritime chiefdom

The EAS Library Through the Ages

Poster presented at the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Department, Purdue University. A history of the EAS Library is presented through annotated pictures, maps, and aerial photos of campus

Childhood mobility revealed by strontium isotope analysis: a review of the multiple tooth sampling approach

Strontium isotope analysis of archeological skeletal materials is a highly effective and commonly employed analytical tool to investigate past human mobility and migration. Most such studies to date have focused on the analysis of a single tooth sample per individual to identify migration. Increasingly, however, studies have analyzed multiple teeth from the same individual permitting the detection of migrations occurring during childhood, more fine-grained temporal resolution of the age at which migration(s) occurred, and even the identification of multiple migration episodes. In this study, we review the application of such approaches to a wide range of archeological contexts worldwide. We compiled and analyzed published 87Sr/86Sr data for 1043 individuals from 122 sites to explore the potential variability of childhood mobility patterns cross-culturally. The results demonstrate a high degree of variability in childhood mobility that differs significantly between different regions and time periods. Potential interpretations involved in multiple tooth 87Sr/86Sr analysis are reviewed, including heterogeneity in variance of regional 87Sr/86Sr, as well as variability in human mobility patterns such as residential change of whole family, fosterage, herding activities, post-marital residence rules, or forced migrations. Various limitations and caveats concerning the multiple teeth sampling approach are also critically discussed

Quantitative paleodietary reconstruction with complex foodwebs:An isotopic case study from the Caribbean

Stable isotope analysis has a long history in Caribbean archaeology. The Caribbean region, however, possesses a highly complex isotopic ecology, including both a large number of isotopically variable food sources, and a high degree of isotopic overlap between different food groups. As such, to date, most regional paleodietary studies have been limited to descriptive and qualitative conclusions concerning the relative contributions of different food sources. In this study we apply an iterative Bayesian multi-source mixing model (FRUITS) to skeletal stable isotope data from the prehistoric population of Tutu, St. Thomas, USVI, to test the feasibility of such models to generate quantitative and probabilistic individual paleodietary reconstructions. The isotope data set includes both bone collagen (δ13Cco and δ15Nco) and apatite (δ13Cap) data. The results of two different dietary models using four and five distinct food groupings, respectively, are compared and assessed relative to other relevant archaeological evidence pertaining to past diet at the site. We highlight the potentials and limitations of multi-source mixing models for regional paleodietary studies, and their relevance to ongoing debates within Caribbean archaeology concerning the relative importance of different food sources such as manioc, maize, and seafood