Human consumption of seaweed and freshwater aquatic plants in ancient Europe.

During the Mesolithic in Europe, there is widespread evidence for an increase in exploitation of aquatic resources. In contrast, the subsequent Neolithic is characterised by the spread of farming, land ownership, and full sedentism, which lead to the perception of marine resources subsequently representing marginal or famine food or being abandoned altogether even at the furthermost coastal limits of Europe. Here, we examine biomarkers extracted from human dental calculus, using sequential thermal desorption- and pyrolysis-GCMS, to report direct evidence for widespread consumption of seaweed and submerged aquatic and freshwater plants across Europe.

An integrative skeletal and paleogenomic analysis of stature variation suggests relatively reduced health for early European farmers.

Human culture, biology, and health were shaped dramatically by the onset of agriculture ∼12,000 y B.P. This shift is hypothesized to have resulted in increased individual fitness and population growth as evidenced by archaeological and population genomic data alongside a decline in physiological health as inferred from skeletal remains.

A possible case of paralysis in early modern Vilnius and the implications for social care.

Objective: To present a case of possible paralysis from early modern Vilnius and to discuss the potential level of care that was provided in the society of that time.

Materials: A partially disturbed skeleton of a young female from a 16th-17th century Orthodox Christian cemetery.

Methods: Macroscopic, osteometric and X-ray examinations coupled with a literature review aimed at providing a differential diagnosis.

An integrative approach to studying plasticity in growth disruption and outcomes: A bioarchaeological case study of Napoleonic soldiers.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate how much variation in adult stature and body mass can be explained by growth disruption among soldiers who served in Napoleon's Grand Army during the Russian Campaign of 1812.

Methods: Linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) were recorded as representations of early life growth disruption, while the impact on future growth was assessed using maximum femur length (n = 73) as a proxy for stature and maximum femoral head diameter (n = 25) as a proxy for body mass. LEH frequency, severity, age at first formation, and age at last formation served as explanatory variables in a multiple regression analysis to test the effect of these variables on maximum femur length and maximum femoral head diameter.

A treponemal genome from an historic plague victim supports a recent emergence of yaws and its presence in 15 century Europe.

Developments in techniques for identification of pathogen DNA in archaeological samples can expand our resolution of disease detection. Our application of a non-targeted molecular screening tool for the parallel detection of pathogens in historical plague victims from post-medieval Lithuania revealed the presence of more than one active disease in one individual. In addition to Yersinia pestis, we detected and genomically characterized a septic infection of Treponema pallidum pertenue, a subtype of the treponemal disease family recognised as the cause of the tropical disease yaws.

A rare case of child abuse from early modern Lithuania.

The aim of this article was to describe the outcome of a probable case of physical abuse in the remains of a child dating from the 16-18 centuries CE. The skeleton of a subadult was recovered during archaeological excavations carried out in the village of Užubaliai, located in Alytus in southern Lithuania, and subsequently curated in the Faculty of Medicine at Vilnius University. The bones of this child were observed macroscopically and then submitted for radiological investigation.

Social differences in oral health: Dental status of individuals buried in and around Trakai Church in Lithuania (16th-17th c.c.).

The evaluation of social differences in dental health is based on the assumption that individuals belonging to a higher social class consumed a different diet than a common people. The aim of our study was to analyse and compare dental health of 16(th) - 17(th) c. individuals, buried inside and around the Roman Catholic Church in Trakai (Lithuania).

Im Osten etwas Neues: Anthropological analysis of remains of German soldiers from 1915-1918.

In the summer of 2005, exhumation and identification of the remains of German soldiers was performed in Panevezys (Northern Lithuania). Historical data indicate that in autumn of 1915 the building of a local gymnasium was transformed into a military hospital, and casualties were buried in its garden. The hospital functioned until the German withdrawal in the winter 1918.