When the body endures physiological stress during childhood it will react by disrupting the growth of skeletal elements. By doing so, the body will be able to utilize nutrients for survival rather...Show moreWhen the body endures physiological stress during childhood it will react by disrupting the growth of skeletal elements. By doing so, the body will be able to utilize nutrients for survival rather than putting energy towards growth. When a physiological disruption leaves a permanent mark on the skeleton or dentition it is called a non-specific indicator of stress. A small vertebral neural canal is one such non-specific indicator of stress. The vertebral neural canal is the hole in each vertebra through which the spinal cord passes. A small vertebral neural canal is an indicator of physiological stress during childhood. This thesis examines the relationship between physiological stress and urbanization by studying the vertebral neural canal size. Adults from St Mary Graces, a medieval skeletal collection with a mixed socioeconomic status, and St Bride’s Lower, a post-medieval collection with a low to middle class socioeconomic status, were analyzed for this study. Both archaeological sites are located in London, England, which was already an urban settlement during medieval times, but became even more urbanized during the post-medieval period. Measurements of the inner and outer diameter of the vertebral neural canal were taken. Statistical analysis was used to determine whether there were any differences in vertebral neural canal size between the two archaeological sites. The data was also used to establish whether there were any differences in vertebral neural canal size between sexes and age groups. Results show that the physiological stress did not increase with increased urbanization in the St Bride’s Lower sample and that males benefited more from the further urbanization of London than the females. The study also showed that only the inner diameter, and not the outer diameter, provided information on physiological stress. Overall, this study has further defined the possibilities and limitations of using the vertebral neural canal diameter as an indicator of stress and increased our understanding of the impact of urbanization on physiological stress.Show less
Humans are adapters. We not only adapt ourselves to the environment, more often than not we adapt the environment itself to suit our needs, our wishes, and our ideas. This urge to change does not...Show moreHumans are adapters. We not only adapt ourselves to the environment, more often than not we adapt the environment itself to suit our needs, our wishes, and our ideas. This urge to change does not stop with the environment. The human body itself is often used as a canvas where we express who we are, where we express our identity. This thesis discussed one type of such expression of identity: artificial cranial modification (often abbreviated as "ACM"). As the modification can only be done successfully on individuals younger than three years old, it does not express individual identity but rather the group identity the individual's parents belonged to. This makes cranial modification an interesting field of research, which can tell archaeologists many things about past populations. The two populations studied in this thesis originate from the Bolivian Andes; an area with a high percentage of modified crania but a low percentage of research. The aim of this work is thus to add to the information of cranial modification in the Bolivian Andes, which was done through the study of 60 mostly Tiwanaku-period (500 - 1000 CE) crania from two different Andean regions: the Altiplano, and the Cochabamba valles. The Cochabamba valles, although emulating the Tiwanaku culture, remained very much independent, a fact which is confirmed in the results of this thesis. The most striking difference turned out to be the influence of sex on modification presence, which was found to be statistically significant in the valles sample and not in the Altiplano crania. Other differences were found as well: annular modification is much more frequent in the Altiplano, with tabular being more popular in the valles. The annular types are mostly cylindrical in the valles whereas the conical variant is more common in the Altiplano. Occipitally curved tabular modifications only occur in the Altiplano, with the lambdoidally flattened variant being most common. Frontally curved tabular modifications, then, only occur in the valles. Lastly, erect modifications occurred relatively more in the Altiplano sample, where it made up half of the tabular subtypes, than in the valles. Osteological effects of ACM on the cranium were studied as well. These did not indicate regional results, showing that, all cultural differences aside, the populations were not too different from each other. The non-metric traits that seemed to be influenced by cranial modification in the sample are the prevalence of the left infraorbital foramen, right pterygo-spinous bridge and left tympanic dehiscence, as well as the metopic suture retention. The results show that although the populations lived near, and were in contact with, each other, regional cultural differences do exist. Extrapolating findings of the Altiplano's Tiwanaku culture to the rest of the Bolivian Andes is thus not correct, something that should be kept in mind for future (much needed) research in the area. This thesis was made possible by the archaeological museum INIAM of the Universidad Mayor de San Simón in Cochabamba and the zooarchaeological laboratory from the Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz, which granted access to their collections.Show less
Congenital syphilis is a disease which still affects thousands of people throughout the world in a modern society. If untreated, congenital syphilis can be extremely debilitating and can even cause...Show moreCongenital syphilis is a disease which still affects thousands of people throughout the world in a modern society. If untreated, congenital syphilis can be extremely debilitating and can even cause death. Although the cure for congenital syphilis is relatively simple with modern medicine, this was not always the case. Congenital syphilis was responsible for thousands of deaths in the past, yet this is not visible in the archaeological record. There are several reasons why the true prevalence rate of congenital syphilis is not visible in the archaeological record such as, the common underrepresentation of juvenile skeletal remains. it is however possible that some potential cases of congenital syphilis are being misdiagnosed in the archaeological record because of the confusion surrounding the diagnostic criteria. By improving the diagnostic criteria of congenital syphilis, new archaeological cases may become evident.Show less
This research examines fracture risks in post-Medieval the Netherlands. The challenges of daily life as well as interpersonal violence means humans are always at risk of fractures to the skeleton....Show moreThis research examines fracture risks in post-Medieval the Netherlands. The challenges of daily life as well as interpersonal violence means humans are always at risk of fractures to the skeleton. Given the occurrence of fractures across societies archaeologists have the opportunity to compare the fracture risk between populations and investigate the effects of social and economic standing. Research into long bone fractures in the Netherlands has been done for medieval sites, but not for post medieval sites. This research addresses this gap in fracture research. The main question of this research is: What can the analysis of long bone fractures tell us about life in various places in post-medieval the Netherlands. The first sub question tests the hypothesis that the position, and pattern of fractures was influenced by the socioeconomic status and lifestyle of the inhabitants of Middenbeemster. The second and third sub questions compare the frequency and distribution of long bone fractures (clavicle, humerus, radius, ulna, femur, tibia, and fibula) from four post-medieval the Netherlands sites (Eindhoven, Gouda, Middenbeemster and Roosendaal) from different socioeconomic backgrounds (e.g. low and high status) and living environments (e.g. urban and rural). The data from the Middenbeemster sample was collected by the author the other data was drawn from reports and books. There were three main findings in this research. First, it found that the assemblage from Middenbeemster has fractures that are consistent with traditional farming injuries, but differed from those described in other bioarchaeological studies, suggesting that farming in post-medieval the Netherlands might have been different or posted different dangers from those in other places. Second it found that the urban site of Eindhoven had significantly more long bone fractures compared to the rural site of Middenbeemster. There was also a difference in the distribution of fractures between the sites. This suggests that in post-medieval the Netherlands urban living had more risks of long bone fractures than rural living. Third, there was no difference in the long bone fracture rate between the high status site of Gouda and the low status site of Roosendaal. This shows that socioeconomic status did not have a significant effect on fracture risk. This thesis has broadened our understanding of fracture risk in post-medieval the Netherlands by providing some preliminary conclusions about the relationship between environmental and socioeconomic factors and fracture risk. This research, however, still requires more comparative data sets to confirm these preliminary conclusions, and test new hypotheses.Show less
