Heterogeneity in experiences of vitamin D deficiency in an early to mid-19th century population from Montreal, Quebec.

Objective: To use the prevalence of prenatal/infancy interglobular dentine (IGD) as a proxy for suboptimal vitamin D status and explore its link to mortality, biological sex, cultural behaviours and environmental factors during the end of the pre-industrial/ beginning of the industrial period.

Materials: 50 skeletons from the St. Antoine cemetery (1799-1854), Montreal, Quebec with a well-preserved first mandibular molar.

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) as a means of assessing the presence of uric acid in archeological human remains: Challenges and future directions.

Objectives: This research aimed to replicate the Swinson, D., Snaith, J., Buckberry, J.

Pathogen prospecting of museums: Reconstructing malaria epidemiology.

Malaria is a disease of global significance. Ongoing changes to the earth's climate, antimalarial resistance, insecticide resistance, and socioeconomic decline test the resilience of malaria prevention programs. Museum insect specimens present an untapped resource for studying vector-borne pathogens, spurring the question: Do historical mosquito collections contain DNA, and, if so, can museum specimens be used to reconstruct the historical epidemiology of malaria? In this Perspective, we explore molecular techniques practical to pathogen prospecting, which, more broadly, we define as the science of screening entomological museum specimens for human, animal, or plant pathogens.

Perspectives on anemia: Factors confounding understanding of past occurrence.

Objective: This paper reviews factors confounding the understanding of the past occurrence of anemia. Using the evidence gathered, a framework is presented of ways forward to enable greater confidence in diagnosing acquired anemia in paleopathology, facilitating insights into longer-term perspectives on this globally relevant condition.

Results: To date, porotic lesions have been central to paleopathological investigations of anemia.

Structural violence and institutionalized individuals: A paleopathological perspective on a continuing issue.

Past and present institutions (e.g., state and public hospitals, assisted living facilities, public nursing homes) have struggled with structural issues tied to patient care and neglect, which often manifests in the form of fracture trauma, and may explain why institutionalized individuals are at higher risk for this injury.

Assessing diagnostic certainty for scurvy and rickets in human skeletal remains.

Objectives: Identifying scurvy and rickets has important implications for understanding adaptations and variability among past communities, and bioarchaeologists now regularly evaluate these conditions. Due to the increased number of studies, cases with less clear-cut lesions and variable preservation are now frequently reported. Despite an improved understanding of the biological mechanisms for disease expression, there is a lack of consensus on the language used to express diagnostic certainty, limiting comparability.

Twenty-first century bioarchaeology: Taking stock and moving forward.

This article presents outcomes from a Workshop entitled "Bioarchaeology: Taking Stock and Moving Forward," which was held at Arizona State University (ASU) on March 6-8, 2020. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (ASU), and the Center for Bioarchaeological Research (CBR, ASU), the Workshop's overall goal was to explore reasons why research proposals submitted by bioarchaeologists, both graduate students and established scholars, fared disproportionately poorly within recent NSF Anthropology Program competitions and to offer advice for increasing success. Therefore, this Workshop comprised 43 international scholars and four advanced graduate students with a history of successful grant acquisition, primarily from the United States.

Thoracic trauma: Clinical and paleopathological perspectives.

Objectives: Although trauma is one of the most significant areas of study in paleopathology, most studies focus on fractures of single anatomical elements. Paleopathological research on regional trauma, such as of the thorax, is rare. This paper explores the causes, complications, and consequences of adult thoracic trauma using clinical data in order to inform paleopathological research.

Pathology or expected morphology? Investigating patterns of cortical porosity and trabecularization during infancy and early childhood.

Increased cortical porosity is associated with a heightened risk of skeletal fragility due to bone loss and structural decay in adults. However, few studies have examined the etiology of cortical porosity in infants and children. This study examines whether age-related changes in femoral growth and locomotor development influence femoral midshaft cortical porosity in a sample of 48 individuals (fetal to 3.

Quantifying cortical bone in fragmentary archeological second metacarpals.

Objectives: Skeletal variation in cortical bone thickness is an indicator of bone quality and health in archeological populations. Second metacarpal radiogrammetry, which measures cortical thickness at the shaft midpoint, is traditionally used to evaluate bone loss in bioarcheological and some clinical contexts. However fragmentary elements are regularly omitted because the midpoint cannot be determined.

Intersectionality and trauma analysis in bioarchaeology.

Intersectionality, the theory named by Kimberlé Crenshaw, outlines how multiple elements of an individual's social identity overlap to create and preserve societal inequalities and discrimination. Recently bioarchaeology's engagement with intersectionality has become increasingly explicit, as the field recognizes the lived experience of multiple axes of an individual's identity. Evidence of trauma can remain observable in an individual's skeleton for years, making it an ideal subject of study for intersectional analyses in bioarchaeology.

A joint medico-historical and paleopathological perspective on vitamin D deficiency prevalence in post-Medieval Netherlands.

Objective: By applying a joint medico-historical and paleopathological perspective, this paper aims to improve our understanding of factors influencing past vitamin D deficiency in ten Dutch 17th to 19th-century communities of varying socioeconomic status and settlement type.

Materials: Vitamin D deficiency is evaluated in 733 individuals of both sexes and all age groups: Silvolde (n = 16), Rotterdam (n = 23), Rhenen (n = 24), Noordwijkerhout (n = 27), Gouda1and 2 (n = 40; n = 59), Roosendaal (n = 51), Den Haag (n = 93), Hattem (n = 113), and Beemster (n = 287).

Methods: Rickets and residual rickets are macroscopically assessed using established criteria.

Osteoporosis, osteomalacia, and hip fracture: A case study from the Terry collection.

Objective: This case study describes a perimortem hip fracture in a documented individual from the Robert J. Terry Skeletal Collection. The purpose of this paper is to comprehend how co-occurring conditions contributed to fracture risk and to understand the effect of the injury on this individual.

Using teeth as tools: Investigating the mother-infant dyad and developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis using vitamin D deficiency.

Objectives: With a growing interest in the mother-infant dyad and the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis among biological and medical anthropologists, this study set out to provide all the information required to evaluate if mineralization defects in dentine might be caused by vitamin D deficiency in the critical first 1000 days of life.

Materials And Methods: Information was compiled on dentine formation in utero to approximately 18 years, and a method for determining the location of the neonatal line in dentine was devised, allowing the assessment of the prenatal and early life period. Re-evaluation of previously analyzed teeth (n = 61) was undertaken with detailed examination of n = 5/22 first permanent molars forming in the prenatal and critical early life periods.

Perimortem fracture manifestations and mortality after hip fracture in a documented skeletal series.

Objective: Unhealed hip fractures are underrepresented in the archaeological record, suggesting that better identification criteria are required. This paper evaluates whether a sample of documented perimortem hip fractures displayed classic perimortem features and which features may facilitate better identification of such fractures in the archaeological record.

Materials: Ten individuals from the Robert J.

Micro-CT assessment of dental mineralization defects indicative of vitamin D deficiency in two 17th-19th century Dutch communities.

Objectives: This study investigates vitamin D deficiency patterns in individuals from birth to the beginning of adolescence. Microscopic computed tomography (micro-CT) evaluation of interglobular dentine (IGD) in teeth provides information on the age of disease onset and the number of deficient periods per individual, which will increase our understanding of factors influencing vitamin D deficiency prevalence, including sociocultural practices and latitude.

Materials And Methods: Beemster and Hattem, two Dutch 17th-19th century communities, yielded relatively high prevalences of rickets (15-24%) and residual rickets (15-24%).

Analysis of patterning in the occurrence of skeletal lesions used as indicators of vitamin D deficiency in subadult and adult skeletal remains.

Paleopathological investigations of conditions linked to vitamin D deficiency have increased in the last twenty years, and a suite of skeletal lesions has been established to aid in the diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency disease in subadults and adults. This paper analyzes the occurrence of these lesions in a large skeletal series comprising 3541 Roman period individuals (1st-6th century AD). Sixteen lesions reported in rickets in subadults, and 13 associated with residual rickets and osteomalacia in adults, were analyzed.

Radiographically recognizable? An investigation into the appearance of osteomalacic pseudofractures.

Pseudofractures, lucent bands that occur due to a build-up of osteoid, are a key feature of osteomalacia. In paleopathology, pseudofractures are often marked by small, linear cracks in the cortex of the bone surrounded by irregular, bony spicule formation. Radiography can be used to help diagnose pseudofractures, both clinically and in paleopathology.

Maintaining mobility after fracture: A biomechanical analysis of fracture consequences at the Roman Sites of Ancaster (UK) and Vagnari (Italy).

Objective: This study uses biomechanical data from tibiae to investigate the functional consequences of lower limb fractures. Adults with malunited fractures are hypothesized to have experienced altered mobility, indicated by asymmetric tibial cross-sectional geometries (CSG).

Materials: Ninety-three adults from Roman (1st to 4th centuries CE) Ancaster, UK and Vagnari, Italy (Ancaster n = 16 adults with lower limb fracture:53 without fracture; Vagnari n = 5:19) METHODS: Biplanar radiographs were used to quantify and compare tibial CSG properties and asymmetries between individuals with and without fractures to femora, tibiae, and/or fibulae.

Cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis: A biological approach to diagnosis.

Objectives: Porotic lesions of the skull (cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis) are one of the most common types of lesion identified in archaeological human bone and have also been found in hominins and non-human primates. Because of the frequency with which such lesions are found there has been extensive debate on the possible causes and whether they are linked, with much of the debate centering on anemia. The biological approach to diagnosis in paleopathology used by Don Ortner and recently proposed more formally as a technique to facilitate diagnosis in paleopathology by Simon Mays may offer a means of answering some of the questions surrounding these lesions.

Possible scurvy in the prisoners of Old Quebec: A re-evaluation of evidence in adult skeletal remains.

Scurvy is known to have been present in many past communities but recognising the condition in adult skeletal remains poses significant challenges. Fifty skeletons of Protestant prisoners who died between 1746 and 1747 were excavated in 1986-1987 from the walls of Old Quebec, Canada. Documentary sources indicate scurvy was present, and those considered the most likely candidates (n=9) were selected for re-evaluation using recently published macroscopic diagnostic criteria.

Picking up the pieces: Utilizing the diagnostic potential of poorly preserved remains.

With pressures on time and resources available to those undertaking research in paleopathology, poorly preserved archaeological human remains can often receive limited attention or be completely excluded from the analysis of archaeological sites. Although incomplete skeletons often yield minimal demographic information and can complicate the diagnosis of some pathological conditions, this is not universal. Significant information can be obtained even in partial remains on metabolic bone diseases (where, by definition, the whole skeleton is involved), and for conditions such as osteoarthritis and fractures which can be diagnosed in isolation.