Strontium isoscape of sub-Saharan Africa allows tracing origins of victims of the transatlantic slave trade.

Strontium isotope (Sr/Sr) analysis with reference to strontium isotope landscapes (Sr isoscapes) allows reconstructing mobility and migration in archaeology, ecology, and forensics. However, despite the vast potential of research involving Sr/Sr analysis particularly in Africa, Sr isoscapes remain unavailable for the largest parts of the continent. Here, we measure the Sr/Sr ratios in 778 environmental samples from 24 African countries and combine this data with published data to model a bioavailable Sr isoscape for sub-Saharan Africa using random forest regression.

Nutritional supplementation, tooth crown size, and trait expression in individuals from Tezonteopan, Mexico.

Understanding how epigenetic factors impact dental phenotypes can help refine the use of teeth for elucidating biological relationships among human populations. We explored relationships among crown size, principal cusp spacing, and accessory cusp expression in maxillary dental casts of nutritionally supplemented (n = 34) and non-supplemented (n = 39) individuals from Tezonteopan, Mexico. We hypothesized that the non-supplemented group would exhibit smaller molar crowns and reduced intercusp spacing.

Bioarcheology has a "health" problem: conceptualizing "stress" and "health" in bioarcheological research.

This article provides a critical historical overview of the stress concept in bioarcheological research and critically evaluates the term "health" in reference to skeletal samples. Stress has a considerable history in 20th century physiological research, and the term has reached a critical capacity of meaning. Stress was operationalized around a series of generalized physiological responses that were associated with a deviation from homeostasis.

Changes in stature, weight, and nutritional status with tourism-based economic development in the Yucatan.

Over the past 40 years, tourism-based economic development has transformed social and economic conditions in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. We address how these changes have influenced anthropometric indicators of growth and nutritional status in Yalcoba, a Mayan farming community involved in the circular migration of labor in the tourist economy. Data are presented on stature and weight for children measured in 1938 in the Yucatan Peninsula and from 1987 to 1998 in the Mayan community of Yalcoba.

Maternal diets, nutritional status, and zinc in contemporary Mexican infants' teeth: Implications for reconstructing paleodiets.

Despite attempts to use zinc (Zn) concentrations in hard tissues to comment upon the degree of carnivory in past populations, zinc has yielded inconsistent trophic level effects. The question of what, if anything, zinc in human enamel reveals regarding past diets is the focus of this research. We test whether the zinc content of deciduous tooth enamel from contemporary Mexican infants varies by maternal dietary variables such as zinc intake, proportion of animal products consumed, and dietary components that are known to impact zinc absorption.

Variation in elemental intensities among teeth and between pre- and postnatal regions of enamel.

Microspatial analyses of the trace element composition of dental enamel are made possible using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Fine spatial resolution, multielement capabilities, and minimal sample destruction make this technique particularly well-suited for documenting the distribution of elements in sequentially calcifying layers of enamel. Because deciduous enamel forms from week 13 in utero up to 9 months postnatally (thereafter essentially becoming inert), the application of LA-ICP-MS allows for the retrospective measurement of prenatal and early postnatal trace-element uptake during a critical period of child development.

Application of laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to investigate trace metal spatial distributions in human tooth enamel and dentine growth layers and pulp.

Human tooth enamel provides a nearly permanent and chronological record of an individual's nutritional status and anthropogenic trace metal exposure during development; it might thus provide an excellent bio archive. We investigated the micro-spatial distribution of trace metals (Cu, Fe, Mg, Sr, Pb, and Zn) in 196 x 339 microm2 raster pattern areas (6.6 x 10(4) microm2) in a deciduous tooth using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS).