Estimation of age at death based on the analysis of third molar mineralization in individuals from Brazilian archaeological populations

Estimating the age at death of archaeological individuals is critical for the reconstruction of the demographic profile of past populations. Teeth are very resistant to mechanical, chemical and physical damage. Thus, dental age estimation methods have been proven remarkably useful, especially when the other available bone remains are poorly preserved. In this study, we estimated the age of subadult individuals from pre-colonial archaeological sites in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, which are under the curation of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at the University of São Paulo (MAE-USP). Age estimation was based on the analysis of dental mineralization stages originally proposed by Demirjian et al. (7) and applied to third molars by Soares et al. (11). Teeth (n = 18) were radiographed on a portable X-ray device and the images were analyzed in DICOM extension. The intraexaminer reliability test showed excellent agreement regarding the classification of mineralization stages (Kappa value = 0.94). This age estimation method showed good agreement with the previously cataloged age estimates, which were used for comparison. Of the 18 teeth examined, 15 had their age correctly estimated within the comparative range and only three did not match, of which two were very close to the cataloged estimates and one was underestimated by several years. Collectively, our findings suggest this method can be accurately applied to archaeological individuals

Long-term resilience of late holocene coastal subsistence system in Southeastern South america.

Isotopic and molecular analysis on human, fauna and pottery remains can provide valuable new insights into the diets and subsistence practices of prehistoric populations. These are crucial to elucidate the resilience of social-ecological systems to cultural and environmental change. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of 82 human individuals from mid to late Holocene Brazilian archaeological sites (∼6,700 to ∼1,000 cal BP) reveal an adequate protein incorporation and, on the coast, the continuation in subsistence strategies based on the exploitation of aquatic resources despite the introduction of pottery and domesticated plant foods. These results are supported by carbon isotope analysis of single amino acid extracted from bone collagen. Chemical and isotopic analysis also shows that pottery technology was used to process marine foods and therefore assimilated into the existing subsistence strategy. Our multidisciplinary results demonstrate the resilient character of the coastal economy to cultural change during the late Holocene in southern Brazil

The renal lineage factor PAX8 controls oncogenic signalling in kidney cancer

Large-scale human genetic data(1-3) have shown that cancer mutations display strong tissue-selectivity, but how this selectivity arises remains unclear. Here, using experimental models, functional genomics and analyses of patient samples, we demonstrate that the lineage transcription factor paired box 8 (PAX8) is required for oncogenic signalling by two common genetic alterations that cause clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) in humans: the germline variant rs7948643 at 11q13.3 and somatic inactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau tumour suppressor (VHL)(4-6). VHL loss, which is observed in about 90% of ccRCCs, can lead to hypoxia-inducible factor 2 alpha (HIF2A) stabilization(6,7). We show that HIF2A is preferentially recruited to PAX8-bound transcriptional enhancers, including a pro-tumorigenic cyclin D1 (CCND1) enhancer that is controlled by PAX8 and HIF2A. The ccRCC-protective allele Cat rs7948643 inhibits PAX8 binding at this enhancer and downstream activation of CCND1 expression. Co-option of a PAX8-dependent physiological programme that supports the proliferation of normal renal epithelial cells is also required for MYC expression from the ccRCC metastasis-associated amplicons at 8q21.3-q24.3 (ref. (8)). These results demonstrate that transcriptional lineage factors are essential for oncogenic signalling and that they mediate tissue-specific cancer risk associated with somatic and inherited genetic variants.Peer reviewe

Reconstructing the Deep Population History of Central and South America

We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 49 individuals forming four parallel time transects in Belize, Brazil, the Central Andes, and the Southern Cone, each dating to at least 9,000 years ago. The common ancestral population radiated rapidly from just one of the two early branches that contributed to Native Americans today. We document two previously unappreciated streams of gene flow between North and South America. One affected the Central Andes by 4,200 years ago, while the other explains an affinity between the oldest North American genome associated with the Clovis culture and the oldest Central and South Americans from Chile, Brazil, and Belize. However, this was not the primary source for later South Americans, as the other ancient individuals derive from lineages without specific affinity to the Clovis-associated genome, suggesting a population replacement that began at least 9,000 years ago and was followed by substantial population continuity in multiple regions

Caries prevalence in skeletal series - Is it possible to compare?

Because of the relationship with subsistence, dental caries is a central issue in paleopathological research. Usually, comparisons between caries prevalence exhibited in different skeletal series are made. Dietary variation is the most common explanation for cavities prevalence. The aim of this paper is to verify if it is possible to compare caries prevalence reported on papers for archaeological skeletal series. Another goal is to determine if other factors besides diet are implicated in dental cavity prevalence explanation. Twenty six papers about dental health with caries prevalences published from 1999 to 2004 were analyzed for completeness. This assessment includes carious lesion diagnosis and characteristics, age, sex and size characteristics of samples, and prevalence calculation method. The majority of the analyzed papers do not provide adequate information in the topics listed above. Only very few implicated factors other than diet as a contributor to caries lesions development

The practice of horticulture among the builders of Sambaquis and Coastal Camps in the São Francisco Bay Region, Santa Catarina: a bio-anthropological approach

A prática da horticultura entre grupos da pré-história brasileira é uma questão importante cuja investigação esbarra na ausência, quase total, de restos vegetais satisfatoriamente preservados. Por este motivo, na maioria dos casos o uso de cultivares costuma ser inferido por evidências indiretas e analogia etnográfica, principalmente para o contexto ambiental litorâneo. Alguns pesquisadores têm procurado alternativas na Antropologia Biológica tentando, assim, agregar informações biológicas e culturais, buscando construir uma matriz de informações mais complexa sobre a questão. É nesta abordagem bio-antropológica que o presente trabalho se insere, na medida em que propõe anexar aos dados arqueológicos, outros originados da pesquisa de marcadores osteológicos relacionados a mudança de subsistência e ao consumo de carboidratos. A pesquisa partiu da hipótese, construída pela arqueologia, de que os grupos responsáveis por assentamentos com cerêmica Itararé (acampamentos litorâneos) na região da Baía de São Francisco, em Santa Catarina, teriam uma subsistência baseada em produtos cultivados, enquanto que os grupos responsáveis pelos sambaquis sem cerâmica da mesma região seriam coletores-pescadores. Foram analisados os comportamentos apresentados por cárie, desgaste oclusal, perda dentária, abscessos peri-apicais, hipoplasia linear de esmalte e cribra orbitália, em 10 séries esqueletais oriundas de sítios sem cerâmica e 3 séries escavadas em sítios (ou camadas deposicionais) com cerâmica. Os vários padrões encontrados foram discutidos sob a luz das evidências arqueológicas e a partir de uma postura crítica em relação a capacidade dos marcadores osteológicos utilizados em responder questões sobre subsistência. Os resultados obtidos apontaram para a necessidade de uma revisão das hipóteses estabelecidas, quanto ao consumo de vegetais, sobre as estratégias de subsistência implementadas pelos grupos pré-históricos responsáveis por sambaquis e acampamentos litorâneos na região enfocada.The horticulture practice among Brazilian pre-historic groups is an important issue which investigation faces the absence, almost complete, of vegetables remains satisfactorily preserved. As a result, in most cases, the usage of cultigens uses to be inferred from indirect evidences and ethnographic analogy, mainly concerning the seaside environment context. Some researchers have tried alternatives in the Biological Anthropology, aiming, this way, to add biological and cultural information, intending to build a more complex information matrix about the question. It is within this bioanthropological approach that the present work is inserted, as long as it proposes to incorporate to the archeological data other data generated from the osteological markers related to the subsistence and to the carbohydrate consumption. The research begun from the hypothesis, constructed by the Archeology, that the groups accountable for the Itararé ceramics settlements (coastal camps) in the São Francisco bay area, in the Santa Catarina state, would have a agricultural subsistence system, while the sambaqui groups without ceramics in the same region would be gatherers-fishers. The behaviour related to caries, oclusal wear, antemortem tooth loss, periapical abscess, linear enamel hypoplasia and criba orbitalia were analyzed in 10 skeletal series originated from the sites without ceramics and in 3 series excavated in sites (or depositional layers) with ceramics. The several patterns found were discussed under the light of the archeological evidences and from a critical postura regarding the osteological markers capability to answer questions about subsistence. The results pointed to the need of a revision in the established hypotheses, about the vegetable consumption, concerning the subsistence strategies implemented by the pre-historic sambaqui groups and coastal camps in the focused region

The practice of horticulture among the builders of Sambaquis and Coastal Camps in the São Francisco Bay Region, Santa Catarina: a bio-anthropological approach

A prática da horticultura entre grupos da pré-história brasileira é uma questão importante cuja investigação esbarra na ausência, quase total, de restos vegetais satisfatoriamente preservados. Por este motivo, na maioria dos casos o uso de cultivares costuma ser inferido por evidências indiretas e analogia etnográfica, principalmente para o contexto ambiental litorâneo. Alguns pesquisadores têm procurado alternativas na Antropologia Biológica tentando, assim, agregar informações biológicas e culturais, buscando construir uma matriz de informações mais complexa sobre a questão. É nesta abordagem bio-antropológica que o presente trabalho se insere, na medida em que propõe anexar aos dados arqueológicos, outros originados da pesquisa de marcadores osteológicos relacionados a mudança de subsistência e ao consumo de carboidratos. A pesquisa partiu da hipótese, construída pela arqueologia, de que os grupos responsáveis por assentamentos com cerêmica Itararé (acampamentos litorâneos) na região da Baía de São Francisco, em Santa Catarina, teriam uma subsistência baseada em produtos cultivados, enquanto que os grupos responsáveis pelos sambaquis sem cerâmica da mesma região seriam coletores-pescadores. Foram analisados os comportamentos apresentados por cárie, desgaste oclusal, perda dentária, abscessos peri-apicais, hipoplasia linear de esmalte e cribra orbitália, em 10 séries esqueletais oriundas de sítios sem cerâmica e 3 séries escavadas em sítios (ou camadas deposicionais) com cerâmica. Os vários padrões encontrados foram discutidos sob a luz das evidências arqueológicas e a partir de uma postura crítica em relação a capacidade dos marcadores osteológicos utilizados em responder questões sobre subsistência. Os resultados obtidos apontaram para a necessidade de uma revisão das hipóteses estabelecidas, quanto ao consumo de vegetais, sobre as estratégias de subsistência implementadas pelos grupos pré-históricos responsáveis por sambaquis e acampamentos litorâneos na região enfocada.The horticulture practice among Brazilian pre-historic groups is an important issue which investigation faces the absence, almost complete, of vegetables remains satisfactorily preserved. As a result, in most cases, the usage of cultigens uses to be inferred from indirect evidences and ethnographic analogy, mainly concerning the seaside environment context. Some researchers have tried alternatives in the Biological Anthropology, aiming, this way, to add biological and cultural information, intending to build a more complex information matrix about the question. It is within this bioanthropological approach that the present work is inserted, as long as it proposes to incorporate to the archeological data other data generated from the osteological markers related to the subsistence and to the carbohydrate consumption. The research begun from the hypothesis, constructed by the Archeology, that the groups accountable for the Itararé ceramics settlements (coastal camps) in the São Francisco bay area, in the Santa Catarina state, would have a agricultural subsistence system, while the sambaqui groups without ceramics in the same region would be gatherers-fishers. The behaviour related to caries, oclusal wear, antemortem tooth loss, periapical abscess, linear enamel hypoplasia and criba orbitalia were analyzed in 10 skeletal series originated from the sites without ceramics and in 3 series excavated in sites (or depositional layers) with ceramics. The several patterns found were discussed under the light of the archeological evidences and from a critical postura regarding the osteological markers capability to answer questions about subsistence. The results pointed to the need of a revision in the established hypotheses, about the vegetable consumption, concerning the subsistence strategies implemented by the pre-historic sambaqui groups and coastal camps in the focused region

Child development, physiological stress and survival expectancy in prehistoric fisher-hunter-gatherers from the Jabuticabeira II shell mound, South Coast of Brazil.

In this study, we shed light on the interdependency of child growth, morbidity and life expectancy in the fisher-hunter-gatherers of the Jabuticabeira II shell mound (1214-830 cal B.C.E. - 118-413 cal C.E.) located at the South Coast of Brazil. We test the underlying causes of heterogeneity in frailty and selective mortality in a population that inhabits a plentiful environment in sedentary settlements. We reconstruct osteobiographies of 41 individuals (23 adults and 18 subadults) using 8 variables, including age-at-death, stature, non-specific stress markers (cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, periosteal reactions, periapical lesions and linear enamel hypoplasia), as well as weaning patterns based on stable isotope data to examine how stress factors module growth and survival. Our results show that shorter adult statures were linked to higher morbidity around weaning age and higher chances of dying earlier (before 35 years) than taller adult statures. In addition, short juvenile stature was related to physiological stressors and mortality. The adult "survivors" experienced recurrent periods of morbidity during childhood and adulthood, possibly associated with the high parasite load of the ecosystem and dense settlement rather than to malnourishment. An association between early-stress exposure and premature death was not demonstrated in our sample. To explain our data, we propose a new model called "intermittent stress of low lethality". According to this model, individuals are exposed to recurrent stress during the juvenile and adult stages of life, and, nevertheless survive until reproductive age or later with relative success