Vitamin D status in post-medieval Northern England: Insights from dental histology and enamel peptide analysis at Coach Lane, North Shields (AD 1711-1857).

Objectives: The post-medieval period in Europe saw a dramatic increase in metabolic bone disease related to vitamin D deficiency (VDD). Recent paleopathological work has utilized interglobular dentin (IGD) as a proxy for poor vitamin D status during development, while enamel peptide analysis allows the identification of chromosomal sex in non-adult remains. Here we explore the relationship between sex, the presence of IGD, and macroscopic markers of VDD in an industrial era assemblage from Northeast England.

The expendables: Bioarchaeological evidence for pauper apprentices in 19th century England and the health consequences of child labour.

Child labour is the most common form of child abuse in the world today, with almost half of child workers employed in hazardous industries. The large-scale employment of children during the rapid industrialisation of the late 18th and early 19th centuries in England is well documented. During this period, the removal of pauper children from workhouses in cities to work as apprentices in rural mills in the North of England was commonplace.

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.

Compounding vulnerabilities: Syndemics and the social determinants of disease in the past.

Objective: This article explores the theory and utility of a syndemic approach for the study of disease in the past. Syndemic principles are examined alongside other theoretical developments within bioarchaeology. Two case studies are provided to illustrate the efficacy of this approach: Tuberculosis and vitamin D deficiency in 18th and 19th century England, and malaria and helminth infections in Early Medieval England.

Health inequality in Britain before 1750.

Background: This study examines the claim that social inequality in health in European populations was absent prior to 1750. This claim is primarily based on comparisons of life expectancy at birth in England between general and ducal (elite aristocrat) social classes from the 1550s to the 1870s.

Methods: We examined historic childhood mortality trends among the English ducal class and the general population, based on previously published data.

Height and health in Roman and Post-Roman Gaul, a life course approach.

Objective: The present study explores growth and health in Roman (1st-3rd centuries CE) and Post-Roman (4th-7th centuries CE) Gaul, incorporating a life-course approach, to better understand the influence of Roman practices and lifestyles on health, and the impact of cultural change from the Roman to the Post-Roman period.

Materials And Methods: The skeletal remains of 844 individuals were analyzed for non-specific signs of physiological stress, including growth disruption (diaphyseal and adult maximum femur length), dental enamel hypoplastic defects (DEH), cribra orbitalia (CO), and periosteal reaction of the tibiae (Tibia PR).

Results: The Gallo-Roman sample demonstrated shorter femoral lengths, and higher rates of DEH and Tibia PR.

Sex estimation of teeth at different developmental stages using dimorphic enamel peptide analysis.

Objectives: This study tests, for the first time, the applicability of a new method of sex estimation utilizing enamel peptides on a sample of deciduous and permanent teeth at different stages of mineralization, from nonadults of unknown sex, including perinates.

Materials And Methods: A total of 43 teeth from 29 nonadult individuals aged from 40 gestational weeks to 19 years old were analyzed. The sample included pairs of fully mineralized and just developing teeth from the same individual.

Desperately seeking stress: A pilot study of cortisol in archaeological tooth structures.

Objectives: Cortisol is a glucocorticoid hormone produced through activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. It is known as the "stress hormone" for its primary role in the body's stress response and has been the focus of much modern clinical research. Within archaeology, only a few studies have analyzed cortisol in human remains and these have been restricted to hair (Webb et al.

At the world's edge: Reconstructing diet and geographic origins in medieval Iceland using isotope and trace element analyses.

Objectives: A multi-isotope study was conducted on individuals buried at Skriðuklaustur monastery (AD 1493-1554) to investigate their geographic origins and dietary composition. Comparative material from individuals excavated from Skeljastaðir, an inland farm site was also analyzed.

Materials And Methods: Bone collagen was extracted from 50 humans (Skriðuklaustur and Skeljastaðir) and 25 animals (Skriðuklaustur) and analyzed for δ C, δ N, and δ S.

North and south: A comprehensive analysis of non-adult growth and health in the industrial revolution (AD 18th-19th C), England.

Objective: Stark health inequalities exist in the present day between the North and South of England, with people in the South, overall, experiencing better health across a range of parameters (e.g., life expectancy and number of years spent in good health).

'Til Poison Phosphorous Brought them Death': A potentially occupationally-related disease in a post-medieval skeleton from north-east England.

This paper describes the pathological changes observed on the skeleton of a c.12-14 year old person buried in a north-east England Quaker cemetery dated to AD 1711-1857. Bone formation (woven and lamellar) and destruction are present mainly on the mandible, clavicles, sternum and scapulae, long bones of the right arm, left ribs, spine, ilia, and the femora and tibiae.

Entangled lives: Implications of the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis for bioarchaeology and the life course.

Epidemiological research since the 1980s has highlighted the consequences of early life adversity, particularly during gestation and early infancy, for adult health (the "Barker hypothesis"). The fast-evolving field of molecular epigenetics is providing explanatory mechanisms concerning phenotypic plasticity in response to developmental stressors and the accumulation of disease risk throughout life. In addition, there is now evidence for the heritability of poor health across generations via epigenetic modifications.

Coming of age in Roman Britain: Osteological evidence for pubertal timing.

Objectives: Puberty is a key transitional phase of the human life course, with important biological and social connotations. Novel methods for the identification of the pubertal growth spurt and menarche in skeletal remains have recently been proposed (Shapland and Lewis, 2013, 2014). In this study we applied the methods to two Romano-British cemetery samples (1st-early 5th centuries AD) in order to investigate the timing of puberty during this period and further assess the veracity of the methods.

Gendered Differences in Accidental Trauma to Upper and Lower Limb Bones at Aquincum, Roman Hungary.

It was hypothesized that men and women living in the border provinces of the Roman Empire may have encountered different risks associated with their different occupations and activities. Limb bone trauma data were used to assess sex-based differences in physical hazards and evidence for fracture healing and treatment. Two hundred and ten skeletons were examined from a late 1st to early 4th century AD cemetery at Aquincum (Budapest, Hungary).

An unusual exostotic lesion of the maxillary sinus from Roman Lincoln.

This report provides a differential diagnosis of an exostotic bony lesion within the left maxillary sinus of a Romano-British (3rd to 4th century AD) adult male from Newport, Lincoln. Macroscopic, radiographic, and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) analyses suggest that the lesion is likely of odontogenic origin. The overall size of the lesion and areas of sclerosis and radiolucency, together with its hypothesised odontogenic origin, suggest that the lesion represents a chronic exostotic osteomyelitic reaction to the presence of odontogenic bacteria.

The proximal ulna as an additional diagnostic feature of advanced rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is considered to be an uncommon condition in paleopathology, although several case studies have recently been published. These studies tend to focus on changes in the small joints of the hands and feet, which are the most diagnostic, though these skeletal elements are often poorly preserved in archaeological contexts. This study aims to highlight another common trait that has been observed in multiple cases of RA in the clinical and paleopathological record: erosive lesions on the proximal ulna.

The use of non-adult vertebral dimensions as indicators of growth disruption and non-specific health stress in skeletal populations.

Objective: Traditional methods of detecting growth disruption have focused on deficiencies in the diaphyseal length of the long bones. This study proposes the implementation of vertebral measurements (body height and transverse diameter of the neural canal) from non-adults (0-17 years) as a new methodology for the identification of growth disruption.

Methods: Measurements of vertebral body height and transverse diameter were taken from 96 non-adult skeletons and 40 adult skeletons from two post-medieval sites in England (Bow Baptist, London and Coronation Street, South Shields).

Brief and precarious lives: infant mortality in contrasting sites from medieval and post-medieval England (AD 850-1859).

This study compares the infant mortality profiles of 128 infants from two urban and two rural cemetery sites in medieval England. The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of urbanization and industrialization in terms of endogenous or exogenous causes of death. In order to undertake this analysis, two different methods of estimating gestational age from long bone lengths were used: a traditional regression method and a Bayesian method.