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PubMed1992

Estimating femur and tibia length from fragmentary bones: an evaluation of Steele's (1970) method using a prehistoric European sample.

Steele's (1970) regression method for estimating femur and tibia length from fragmentary bones is tested on a sample of complete femora (female N = 26; male N = 33) and tibiae (female N = 16; male N = 22) from a number of European Mesolithic and Neolithic sites. Over half of the regression equations given by Steele for predicting maximum length of the bone from the length(s) of one or more of its constituent segments are shown to produce inaccurate predictions in this test sample. However, a closer evaluation of these results, including calculation of regression equations for the test sample itself, reveals that this inaccuracy does not derive from any inherent flaw in Steele's method. Rather, it is shown that differential distribution of maximum bone length among the various bone segments as defined by Steele may occur due to variation in muscular activity pattern and intensity. This argues for the retention of Steele's basic method, with care being taken to match closely the activity pattern typical of the sample from which regression equations are derived with that of the population to which the equations are to be applied. The equations calculated in this study thus are provided for use where deemed appropriate.

Europe↗
PubMed1992

Shanidar 1: a case of hyperostotic disease (DISH) in the middle Paleolithic.

The Shanidar 1 Neandertal partial skeleton presents osteophytic lesions on its vertebrae and appendicular skeleton which appear independent of the multiple traumatic and degenerative joint disease lesions on the individual. In particular, the large flowing osteophyte on the L3 body, a smaller one on the L5 body, and enthesopathic osteophytes on both calcaneal tuberosities, both patellae and the left ulnar olecranon, support a diagnosis of hyperostotic disease (DISH). The diagnosis is supported by small enthesopathic osteophytes on the preserved femoral greater trochanter and scapular corocoid process. This diagnosis would make it the oldest hominid specimen clearly presenting this systemic condition.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Sex determination of infant and juvenile skeletons: I. Morphognostic features.

Ancient cemeteries are often characterized by a considerable number of infants and young children. Sex differences in childhood mortality, however, could rarely be studied up to now, mainly because there were only few proven traits for sexual determination of immature skeletons. Based on a historic sample of sixty-one children of known sex and age from Spitalfields, London (37 boys, 24 girls), sexually distinctive traits in the mandible and ilium are presented for morphognostic diagnosis. Besides other features, boys typically show a more prominent chin, an anteriorly wider dental arcade, and a narrower and deeper sciatic notch than girls. Most of the traits presented in this study allow individuals between birth and five years of age to be successfully allocated to either sex in 70-90% of the cases.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1993

Seronegative spondyloarthropathies and diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis in ancient northern Chile.

Bioarchaeological research of ancient Amerindians was undertaken to test the hypothesis that seronegative spondyloarthropathies (SNS) and diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) existed in prehistoric South Americans. An osteological-radiographic model was developed from clinical literature and systematically applied to 504 archaeological human remains housed at the Universidad de Tarapacá in Arica, Chile, to search for evidence of these arthritides. The results showed that SNS existed with an average frequency of 7% for the adult sample and DISH averaged 4% in individuals over 40 years old. It was found that the antiquity of SNS date back at least 5,000 years in both New World and Old World populations. In contrast, the antiquity of DISH in the Americas is not clear because no previous studies have dealt with this subject; however, this research finds mild DISH cases dating back 4,000 years in northern Chile. It was also found that SNS and DISH exhibit a trend of increasing incidence with the advent of agro-pastoral activities and village formation.

Arthritis↗
PubMed1993

Zuttiyeh face: a view from the East.

We analyze the phylogenetic position of the frontofacial fragment from Zuttiyeh, Israel. This specimen is dated to the Middle Pleistocene (the latest estimate is between 250 and 350 kyr) and is associated with the Acheulo-Yabrudian, which makes it the oldest cranium from the region. It has been previously regarded as a Neandertal, and early "anatomically modern Homo sapiens," and a generalized specimen ancestral to both. These different phylogenetic interpretations of its features have a historic basis but in our view also result from a confusion of grade and intraspecies clade as valid sources of variation. We show here that generally the differences that distinguish Zuttiyeh from Neandertals are similarities it shares with the Zhoukoudian remains. These similarities involve a unique combination of features, and suggest the possibility of an ancestral relationship. It is less likely that Middle Pleistocene remains from Europe or sub-Saharan Africa are uniquely or significantly ancestral to Zuttiyeh. An accurate understanding of the relationship between populations of eastern and western Asia is important for resolving the more general questions surrounding the position of the Upper Pleistocene Levant populations in human evolution, including (1) whether there are significantly different contemporary Mousterian populations in the Upper Pleistocene, (2) whether Neandertals are clearly intrusive in the region, and (3) whether there is an early appearance of (what many workers call) "anatomically modern Homo sapiens." The hypothesis of a recent unique African ancestry for all modern humans is disproved by our study, which shows Asia as a significant source area for at least some living populations.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Cannibalism in Chaco Canyon: the charnel pit excavated in 1926 at Small House ruin by Frank H.H. Roberts, Jr.

A charnel pit that contained the disarticulated and intentionally damaged remains of eight incomplete adult and subadult Anasazi skeletons was found and excavated in 1926 by F.H.H. Roberts, Jr., at an AD 900 ruin he named Small House, located in Chaco Canyon, northwestern New Mexico. Damage includes extensive perimortem cranial and postcranial bone breakage, cut marks, anvil-hammerstone abrasions, burning, many missing vertebrae, and fragment end-polishing. Together, these six types of perimortem damage are believed to be the taphonomic signature of prehistoric Anasazi cannibalism. The possible cause of the Small House episode is discussed within the framework of two explanatory models--random social pathology and institutionalized social control by violent means.

Bone and Bones↗
PubMed1993

Proximal femur of Australopithecus africanus from Member 4, Makapansgat, South Africa.

A left proximal femur (MLD 46) from Member 4, Makapansgat, South Africa is described and analyzed. It consists of the head, neck, and a small segment of the shaft that extends to just below the lesser trochanter. The femur exhibits degenerative joint disease in the form of marginal osteophyte formation and thus its taxonomic identity has been somewhat obscured. Consideration of all like-sized mammalian femora from Makapansgat suggests that the femur is that of either a felid or hominid. Comparison of MLD 46 to femora of extent and extinct felids reveals that MLD 46 does not possess two morphological features that are characteristic of felids, namely a deep, prolonged trochanteric fossa and a high neck-shaft angle. Simple shape variables (ratios) and multivariate analyses consistently place MLD 46 with modern and fossil hominids, and most closely align it with the australopithecines. We conclude that the femur is most reasonably attributable to Australopithecus africanus, which is the only hominid yet identified from Makapansgat. Despite its pathological condition, MLD 46 is the most complete proximal femur known for A. africanus, thereby permitting further morphological comparisons with homologues of A. afarensis and Paranthropus. Marginal osteophytes of mammalian femoral heads characteristically occur in individuals of advanced age, suggesting that MLD 46 may have lived some time with the disease. Finally, MLD 46 is considerably larger than the previously described specimen, Sts 14, from Sterkfontein Member 4. There may be as great a contrast in body size in A. africanus as there is between the large and small specimens of A. afarensis.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Hypertrophy of the acetabulo-cristal buttress in Homo sapiens.

In the early 1970s, excavation at the King site, a contact period Mississippian village in northwest Georgia, yielded the skeletal remains of a robust male (King 65) possessing marked hypertrophy of the acetabulo-cristal buttress. The buttress is morphologically similar to that of Plio-Pleistocene Homo but it is accompanied by an anatomically modern degree of thickening of the gluteal table of the ilium. Although the degree of cortical thickness of the gluteal table of the ilium is apparently species-specific, hypertrophy of the acetabulo-cristal buttress is developmental and may be expressed in all species of Homo.

Acetabulum↗
PubMed1993

Treponematosis in regional and chronological perspective from central Gulf Coast Florida.

Examination of five central Gulf Coast Florida archaeological skeletal series (n = 547) from the late prehistoric and early historic periods reveals the presence of pathological lesions characteristic of treponemal infection. These skeletal remains of native American populations represent a crucial time regarding hypotheses about the exchange of syphilis between the Old and New World or the mutation of one treponemal infection into another. Comparison of the lesions with those observed in modern studies of treponemal infection does not support an interpretation of venereal syphilis. The data from this study and from other archaeological skeletal series indicate the presence of a treponemal disease prior to European contact. The skeletal elements from Florida do not suggest that the disease changed dramatically following contact with Europeans. It is possible that cases of nonspecific postcranial pathology can be explained by the presence of this disease in the Florida populations. This study indicates that a treponemal disease was endemic throughout the region by at least A.D. 1000.

Bone Diseases↗
PubMed1993

Fish-eaters and farmers: dental pathology in the Arabian Gulf.

Twelve skeletal samples, previously published, from the Arabian Gulf have been used to trace differences in diet and subsistence patterns through an analysis of dental pathology. The skeletons date from 3,000 BC to AD 1,500 and cover a variety of geographical locations: off-shore islands, Eastern Arabia, and Oman. The dental conditions analyzed are attrition, caries, calculus, abscessing, and antemortem tooth loss (AMTL). Results indicate four basic patterns of dental disease which, while not mutually exclusive, correspond to four basic subsistence patterns. Marine dependency, represented by the Ras el-Hamra population, is indicated by severe attrition, low caries rates, wear-caused abscessing, and a lack of AMTL. The second group of dental diseases--moderate attrition and calculus, low rates of caries, wear-caused abscessing, and low-moderate rates of AMTL--affects populations subsisting on a mixture of pastoralism or fishing and agriculture (Failaka, Umm an-Nar, Bronze Age Maysar, Bronze Age Shimal, and Iron Age Galilah). Mixed farming populations (Iron Age Maysar and Islamic Bahrain) experienced low-moderate attrition, high rates of caries and calculus, abscessing due to caries, and severe AMTL. The final group of dental diseases affects populations practicing intensive gardening (Bronze and Iron Age Bahrain, and Sites 3 and 5, Ras al-Khaimah). These groups experienced slight attrition, high rates of caries, low rates of calculus deposition, and severe AMTL.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Postcranial robusticity in Homo. II: Humeral bilateral asymmetry and bone plasticity.

The analysis of humeral asymmetry in Recent human skeletal samples and an extant tennis-player sample documents minimal asymmetry in bone length, little asymmetry in distal humeral articular breadth, but pronounced and variable asymmetry in mid- and distal diaphyseal cross-sectional geometric parameters. More specifically, skeletal samples of normal modern Euroamericans, prehistoric and early historic Amerindians, and prehistoric Japanese show moderate (ca. 5-14%) median asymmetry in diaphyseal cross-sectional areas and polar second moments of area, whereas the tennis-player sample, with pronounced unilateral physical activity, exhibits median asymmetries of 28-57% in the same parameters. A sample of Neandertals with nonpathological upper limbs exhibits similarly low articular asymmetry but pronounced diaphyseal asymmetries, averaging 24-57%. In addition, three Neandertals with actual or possible post-traumatic upper limb alterations have the same low articular asymmetry but extremely high diaphyseal asymmetries, averaging 112-215%. These data support those from experimental work on animals, exercise programs of humans, and human clinical contexts in establishing the high degree of diaphyseal plasticity possible for humans, past and present, under changing biomechanical loading conditions. This lends support to activity-related functional interpretations of changing human diaphyseal morphology and robusticity during the Pleistocene.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Vertebral arthritis and physical activities in the prehistoric southeastern United States.

Vertebral arthritis is examined in a prehistoric Native American sample from northwestern Alabama. Both osteophytosis (OP) of the vertebral bodies and osteoarthritis (OA) of the apophyseal facets are highest in the lumbar vertebrae, followed by the cervical and thoracic segments, although differences are much more striking in OP. OA is bilaterally asymmetric, with greater prevalence on the right side in the upper thoracic region. Much of the patterning seen in arthritis in this and other samples is due to the stresses imposed by spinal curvature and weight-bearing due to our erect posture. In addition, handedness is the probable cause of asymmetry in OA. However, the high levels of cervical OP are unexpected, and may be due to use of the tumpline in carrying burdens.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1994

Spinal arthritis and physical stress at Bronze Age Harappa.

This study examines joint changes in the vertebral skeleton in human remains excavated in 1987 and 1988 at Bronze Age Harappa, an urban center of the Indus Valley civilization. The sample consists of 23 complete skeletons from primary burial context, the partial remains of more than 69 other individuals, and hundreds of skeletal elements from secondary context, totalling 3,084 vertebral joint margins and articular surfaces. Marginal bone proliferation, pitting of articular surfaces, eburnation, and ankylosis were scored macroscopically for vertebral body margins and surfaces and posterior apophyseal facet joints. Marginal lipping is far more prevalent on the vertebral bodies than on the apophyseal facets and surface pitting is also more frequent on vertebral bodies although its expression is relatively low overall. Cervical vertebrae in this sample exhibit the same amount of marginal new bone and much more surface pitting of the vertebral bodies than do either thoracic or lumbar vertebrae; the cervical segment also exhibits the most severe expressions of both types of lesions. In addition, although the frequencies of cervical and lumbar posterior facet involvement are similar, the cervical facets exhibit much more severe lipping as well as the only cases of eburnation and ankylosis. Pitting of the posterior facets is most common in the lumbar segment, but the cervical examples are the only severe cases. It is proposed that the severe joint changes in the cervical spine result from trauma, perhaps accumulated microtrauma from activity stresses. There are no age or sex associated patterns in the frequency of arthritis although this result may be influenced by the small proportions of the total sample for which age and sex could be determined.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Brief communication: additional cranial remains from Vindija cave, Croatia.

Two additional cranial specimens from Vindija cave, Croatia, are described. One specimen is a zygomatic, providing the first information about the midfacial anatomy of the Vindija hominids. The other specimen is a frontal/supraorbital torus fragment. Both specimens exhibit morphology typically associated with Neandertals. They derive from level G1 and provide further indication that both the level G3 and G1 hominids at Vindija represent Neandertals.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Developmental, diachronic, and demographic analysis of cribra orbitalia in the medieval Christian populations of Kulubnarti.

Previous analysis of cribra orbitalia in the medieval populations of Kulubnarti focused only on the presence or absence of the lesion relative to age, sex, and cultural period. Demographic consideration of the lesion was limited to a gross comparison of lesion frequencies and probabilities of dying by age group. The scope of the earlier work has been expanded in the present research to include the consideration of cribra orbitalia from a developmental, demographic, and diachronic perspective. The sample consisted of the same 334 crania analyzed by Van Gerven et al. ([1981] J. Hum. Evol. 10:395-408). All skulls showing the lesion were dichotomized as active or healing, and separate life tables were constructed for those with lesions and those without. The results demonstrate that active lesions are confined entirely to infancy and childhood with formation beginning as early as six months and ending by the twelfth year. This childhood pattern is consistent with the iron deficiency anemia hypothesis proposed by Carlson et al. ([1974] J. Hum. Evol. 3:405-410). Among young adults (16-40), healing lesions occur more frequently in males than females. In the older age categories, however, females exhibit a higher frequency of partially healed lesions than males. A life table comparison of those with and those without cribra orbitalia reveals a dramatic reduction in mean life expectancy for those with the lesion across the formative childhood years (birth-16). This reduction peaks at age 5 where 78% of the children exhibit lesions and where they, as a group, have a mean life expectancy 15.5 years below those without the lesion.

Anemia, Hypochromic↗
PubMed1994

Treponematosis and Lyme borreliosis connections: explanation for Tchefuncte disease syndromes?

A convergence of evidence from macroscopic, radiographic and histologic examination indicates that treponemal infection was present in the 16ST1 Tchefuncte Indian burial population, dated 500 B.C. to 300 A.D. Pattern and nature of lesions suggests that chronic infection induced by variants of the spirochete Treponema pallidum, causing endemic syphilis and/or yaws, resulted in third-stage osseous response. It is suggested that Tchefuncte Indians acquired partial immunity to treponemal infection by exposure to a variant of the related spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. Partial immunity would help explain the relatively mild expression of the treponemal disease process in the 16ST1 skeletal population and the apparent absence of venereal syphilis. Presence of the Borrelia burgdorferi spirochete might be linked to a single incidence of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

Arthritis, Juvenile↗
PubMed1994

Intra- and interobserver concordance in scoring Harris lines: a test on bone sections and radiographs.

Little attention has been devoted to assessing the reproducibility of (paleo) pathological observations. Harris lines (HL) are among the markers most used to determine chronology of stresses suffered during growth. Nevertheless, their scoring entails remarkable methodological difficulty. Bone sections (S) and radiographs (R) of 29 adult tibiae of archeological provenance (medieval) were scored for HL by five observers. At regular intervals of time, each observer gave two independent counts on both series. Results show a) a substantial interobserver disagreement of HL estimates for both sectional and radiographic records, and b) a high level of intraobserver error.

Adult↗