Beemster was a rural municipality in the Netherlands which was founded in the 17th century on drained land. The cemetery of Middenbeemster lies in the central village of Beemster and was used from...Show moreBeemster was a rural municipality in the Netherlands which was founded in the 17th century on drained land. The cemetery of Middenbeemster lies in the central village of Beemster and was used from the 17th to 19th century and 450 skeletons were excavated in 2011. Forty nine subadults from the ages of one to fifteen years were examined for rickets. In the 19th century, rickets had become epidemic in most industrialised cities throughout Northern Europe. Crude rickets prevalence in contemporaneous urban populations from the Netherlands varied from 1% to 7%. To identify this disease in the sample of Middenbeemster ten features as described by Ortner and Mays (1998) were scored. Bending deformities of the lower limbs or at least three non-bending features had to be present in order to diagnose rickets. Five individuals displayed evidence of rickets, which is 10.2% of the entire sample. This alone is a high rickets prevalence, but even more for a rural community. In addition, all the affected individuals belonged to the same age category, one to three years (n=25), so the age-specific prevalence becomes much higher at 20.0%. This is an unexpectedly high prevalence of rickets in a community where sunlight was readily available. Specific practices and activities associated with the young age of affected individuals must have diminished sunlight exposure to such a degree that their diet was not sufficient enough to replenish required vitamin D levels to prevent rickets development. Cultural practices including the swaddling of older infants, occlusive clothing for infants and children, keeping the young indoors, and the famine of 1845-1847 likely have contributed to this high rickets prevalence.Show less
In the summer of 2011, archaeologists from Leiden University excavated the post-Medieval cemetery site of Middenbeemster, the Netherlands. The Middenbeemster skeletal collection provides unique...Show moreIn the summer of 2011, archaeologists from Leiden University excavated the post-Medieval cemetery site of Middenbeemster, the Netherlands. The Middenbeemster skeletal collection provides unique research possibilities due to the availability of detailed historical information on a portion of the excavated individuals. The discovery of a historical map of the cemetery allows for the identification of all individuals buried after 1829, providing age at death, sex, and socioeconomic status. This study applies biomechanical models to cross-sections of human limb bones in order to assess the variability in the habitual activities that were practised by the male and female inhabitants of the Beemster polder from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Cross-sections were obtained by Computed Tomography Scanning of lower and upper limb bones followed by digital sectioning. By combining historical data and the principles of bone functional adaptation, a reconstruction of life on one of the first polders is attempted. Results show that the presence of a sexual division of labour where the males were generally more mobile than females, and performed more strenuous manual activities. The males were very similar in limb bone strength and shape, but the female sample showed a high amount of variability. While a portion of the females were relatively gracile, other females showed very robust lower and upper limb bones indicating high mobility and strenuous manual labour. This indicates that economic roles were not the same for all females in the seventeenth to nineteenth century Beemster polder. The current study represents the first time that cross-sectional geometric analysis has been applied to a Dutch archaeological population. The results obtained from the current study are therefore a valuable contribution to the international fields of bioarchaeology and biological anthropology.Show less
