Junno, Juho-Antti

Niinimäki, Jaakko

Niskanen, Markku

Nurminen, Nora

Väre, Tiina

English

Journal.fi

237Tiina Väre, Nora Nurminen, Jaakko Niinimäki, Juho-Antti Junno & Markku Niskanen HARRIS LINES IN THE LATE MEDIEVAL TO EARLY MODERN SKELETAL MATE-RIAL FROM THE OULU CATHEDRAL AND IIN HAMINA CHURCHYARD SITESFennoscandia archaeologica XXXIII (2016)INTRODUCTIONLines of arrested growth, better known as Harris lines (HL) are line formations of increased bone density visible in radiographs. They are found in metaphyseal regions of long bones and repre-sent the position of growth plate during the cycle of osseus growth arrest and growth resumption. Traditionally these lines are understood as a re-sult of malnutrition and pathological conditions during growth (e.g. Harris 1926; 1931; 1933). However, alternative explanation has suggested that they are results of growth spurts (Alfonso-Durruty 2011; Papageorgopoulou et al. 2011). HL are found in modern-day clinical materials as well as in archaeological human bones.Traditionally paleopathologists have been interested in HL as they may correlate with childhood development stress and, as a result, describe living conditions or health status of in-dividuals (McHenry 1968; Hughes et al. 1996; Berrocal-Zaragoza & Subirá 2008; Beom et al. 2014). They are often used as an indicator of poor nutritional status or other stress factors of small children and juveniles (Mays 1985; 1995; Gronkiewicz et al. 2001; Ameen et al. 2005; Ge-ber 2014) as it is more difficult to identify them in adults (Mays 1995) due to bone remodelling (Garn & Schwager 1967; Hummert & Van Ger-Tiina Väre, Archaeology, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 1000, FI-90014 Oulun yliopisto, Finland: tiina.vare@oulu.fi; Nora Nurminen, Archaeology, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 1000, FI-90014 Oulun yliopisto, Finland; Jaakko Niinimäki, Center for Medical Imaging, Physics and Technology Research of University of Oulu and Oulu University hospital, P.O. Box 50, FI-90029 OYS, Finland; Juho-Antti Junno, Archaeology, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 1000, FI-90029 Oulun yliopisto, Finland and Medi-cal Research Center of University of Oulu and Oulu University hospital, P.O. Box 5000, FI-90014 OYS, Finland; Markku Niskanen, Archaeology, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 1000, FI-90014 Oulun yliopisto, Finland.ven 1985). For instance, Piontek et al. (2001) studied HL in skeletons from medieval cem-etery in Cedynia, Poland, and found that their frequency was at the largest between the ages of 6 to 12, and then dropped significantly in older age categories. It is thus believed that the ma-jority of HL in this population was developed during this age phase. In addition, females may have a slightly higher tendency to develop HL due to the differences in bone remodelling rates between the sexes (Arnay-de-la Rosa et al. 1994; Lewis & Roberts 1997; Papageorgopoulou et al. 2011; Beom et al. 2014).Mays (1995) examined nearly 700 skeletal remains (10th to 19th centuries) excavated from church and churchyard in Wharram Percy, North Yorkshire, England, for the presence of HL. Of these skeletons 107 juveniles and 181 adults scored for HL. Nevertheless, also much higher prevalence has been obtained. Papageorgopou-lou et al. (2011) studied the occurrence of HL by looking at 241 tibiae from medieval Swiss remains (11th to 15th centuries) using a stand-ardised, semi-automated detection and analysis tool. HL were found in 185 of the examined in-dividuals (76.8%). Apparently even less than severe stress can lead to development of HL (Dreizen et al. 1964). Moreover, in order for them to be observable in 238bones, the individual needs to recover from the causative factor of HL (Lewis & Roberts 1997). This in turn suggests a better state of health com-pared to ones who die before developing any possible indicators of stress in their skeleton. Essentially, HL should be used in association with other indicators of malnutrition, disease or stress (Hughes et al. 1996; McEwan et al. 2005; Alfonso-Durruty 2011). MATERIALSThe studied material consisted of 86 disarticu-lated tibiae and 69 femora excavated from late medieval/early modern churchyard sites in Oulu and Iin Hamina (Fig. 1). The preservation state of bones varied, and only the bones with well-preserved distal metaphyses were chosen for the analysis. The sites are situated c 40 km apart on the coast of Bothnian Bay in Northern Ostroboth-nia, Finland. The material thus represents the late-14th-century to late-18th-century popula-tion of the coastal Northern Ostrobothnia. The Oulu Cathedral site is located centrally in the city of Oulu and its skeletal remains date to the 17th and 18th centuries. The site was excavated in 1996 and 2002. In addition to several tombs built of stone and wood and individual graves, pits of secondarily placed human bones were uncovered during the excavations (Sarkkinen & Kehusmaa 2002; Maijanen 2006; Lipkin & Kuokkanen 2014). The material used in this study consists of these disarticulated bones of individuals of different ages and sexes. Only 9 tibiae and 19 femora are from Oulu, while the rest of the material originates from Iin Hamina. These bones were excavated in 2009 from Iin Hamina discontinued churchyard site. Similarly to the Oulu material, the bones used in this study derive from secondary location, ‘a bone pit’. Based on the crania found in the pit, the minimum number of individuals was 160 and the distribution of sexes rather even. Most of the bones where those of adults and the pres-ervation of fragile children’s bones was poorer, a typical feature in osteoarchaeological materials. The bones from Iin Hamina are slightly older than those excavated from the Oulu Cathedral site, dating roughly from the late 14th century to the early 17th century (Heikkilä 2011; Korpi & Kallio-Seppä 2011). Altogether 86 tibiae (L=40; R=46) and 69 femora (L=37; R=32) were selected for the ra-diological imaging. Because the material con-sists of disarticulated bones instead of complete skeletal individuals, the two sides needed to be considered separately in analyses to avoid over-representation, as the sides would likely have been bilaterally affected. METHODSRadiographs were obtained with a digital radi-ography system (Digital Diagnost, Philips Med-ical Systems, Hamburg, Germany) on a Bucky table with 115 cm source to detector distance and exposed at 58 kVp and 3 mAs. The pixel Fig. 1. Oulu Cathedral and Iin Hamina church­yard sites are located on the coast of Bothnian Bay in Northern Ostrobothnia, approximately 40 km apart. Illustration: T. Väre.239size of the obtained images was 0.14 x 0.14 mm and detector records 12 bits in gray level. Im-ages were evaluated using a radiology worksta-tion with high resolution diagnostic displays by musculoskeletal radiologist. HL that exceeded half of the bone thickness were calculated at both metaphyses of tibia and distal metaphysis of femur.RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONIn analyses HL were observed in nearly 75% of the tibiae and c 36% of the femora in the mate-rial. The proportion of bones affected with HL is similar in both sides (Table 1). In several bones more than one line were radiologically observ-able (Fig. 2). The prevalence of HL in tibiae is similar to that obtained in the study of me-dieval Swiss population (Papageorgopoulou et al. 2011). However, the percentage of affected tibiae is a minimum number as several bones were missing their proximal ends (N=20, five of which had no distal HL). Thus, it remains uncertain whether the proximal metaphyses of these bones were also affected. Nevertheless, in comparison with the distal ends of tibiae, the HL were clearly less often pre-sent in the proximal ends, which was also observed in the Swiss sample (Papageorgopoulou et al. 2011). In our sample, it was uncommon for the proximal metaphysis to be solely affected (N=6). Overall, HL occurring in the proximal end of tibia was approximately as common as in Fig. 2. Several Harris lines are seen in the radiographs of the tibiae from the Oulu Cathedral site. An example is indicated by an arrow. Photo: J. Niinimäki. N Aff. % L Aff. % R Aff. %Tibia dist. 86 58 67.44 40 27 67.50 46 31 67.39Tibia prox. 66 37 56.06 29 17 58.62 37 20 54.05Tibia 86 64 74.42 40 30 75.00 46 34 73.91Femur dist. 69 25 36.23 37 15 40.54 32 10 31.25All 157 91 57.96 77 45 58.44 78 44 56.41Table 1. Harris lines in the lower extremity long bones from Iin Hamina and Oulu Cathedral churchyards.240the distal shaft of femur. Unfortunately the mate-rial consisting of disarticulated bones does not allow examining whether they were typically simultaneously afflicted. As our material consisted of secondary buri-als and mostly individual bones, reliable sex and age determination was impossible. This may be significant, although the above-mentioned dif-ference in the tendency to develop HL between the sexes has not been observed in all the studied populations (e.g. Mays 1995). The population of Iin Hamina has been estimated to have died relatively young (Heikkilä 2011), which may partially explain the high prevalence of HL, as the lesions are more difficult to identify in adults (Mays 1995). However, Papageorgopoulou et al. (2011) did not report any differences between the age groups in the Swiss sample. If the presence of HL is, indeed, interpreted indicating disturbances in nutrition or health during the growth period, the studied sample seem to have suffered from less than ideal child-hood conditions. The mean statures in Iin Ham-ina were estimated as c 161.8 cm for men and c 153.9 cm for women, and in Oulu as c 166.9 cm for men and c 154.6 cm for women respec-tively (Maijanen 2006; Kortelainen et al. 2011). According to these estimates both populations were rather short. For instance, the current mean height for young Finnish men is 180.7 cm and for women 167.2 cm (Saari et al. 2011). The stature is influenced by childhood conditions: factors such as poor nutrition or malabsorption caused by disease often result in short adult stat-ure (Eveleth & Tanner 1990: 222–3; Malina et al. 2004: 511–2). Short mean statures and high prevalence of HL in our sample may indicate disturbances in childhood conditions.The present research was the first attempt to study Harris lines in osteoarchaeological materi-als of Northern Finland. In the future we hope to continue our study with other skeletal materi-als and also combine the information of HL with other adequate research methods, such as os-teometry and stable isotope analyses. Ten right tibiae from Iin Hamina were already sampled for stable isotope analyses to assess their nutri-tion. To enable further comparisons, five of these bones were affected with HL, while five showed no signs of these defects.REFERENCESArchival sourcesSarkkinen, M. & Kehusmaa, A. 2002. Oulun Tuomiokirkon kirkkotarhasta. Arkeologin-en tutkimuskertomus vuodelta 2002. Re-search report, National Board of Antiquities, Helsinki .LiteratureAlfonso-Durruty, M. P. 2011. Experimental as-sessment of nutrition and bone growth’s velocity effects on Harris lines formation. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 145 (2): 169–80. Ameen, S., Staub, L., Ulrich, S., Vock, P., Ballm-er, F. & Anderson, S. E. 2005. Harris lines of the tibia across centuries: a comparison of two populations, medieval and contemporary in Central Europe. Skeletal Radiology 34 (5): 279–84.Arnay-de-la Rosa, M., González-Reimers, E., Castilla-Garcia, A. & Santolaria-Fernandez, F. 1994. Radiopaque transverse lines (Har-ris lines) in the Prehispanic population of El Hierro (Canary Islands). Anthropologischer Anzeiger 52 (1): 53–7.Beom, J., Woo, E. J., Lee, I. S., Kim, M. J., Kim, Y. S., Oh, C. S., Lee, S. S., Lim, S. B. & Shin, D. H. 2014. Harris lines observed in human skeletons of Joseon Dynasty, Korea. 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Harris Lines in the Late medieval to Early Modern Skeletal Material from the Oulu Cathedral and Iin Hamina Churchyard sites

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Harris Lines in the Late medieval to Early Modern Skeletal Material from the Oulu Cathedral and Iin Hamina Churchyard sites

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