Bioarchaeology

El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar la salud oral y la dieta de las poblaciones que habitaron en el norte de la provincia de Mendoza durante los siglos XVII-XIX. Se exploran las prevalencias de caries, abscesos, desgaste dental, pérdida de dientes premortem y postmortem. Se comparan y discuten las prevalencias halladas a nivel cronológico y entre subgrupos poblacionales de diferentes condiciones socioeconómicas. La muestra está compuesta por 46 individuos tanto adultos como subadultos de ambos sexos, recuperados en cementerios de los puntos arqueológicos Ruinas de San Francisco y de La Caridad. Los resultados se presentan por diente y por individuo teniendo en cuenta la edad y el sexo. Se observaron diferencias a nivel cronológico y espacial, ya que el grado de desgaste, el porcentaje de caries y de pérdida de dientes aumentó a lo largo del tiempo, y afectaron en mayor medida a los individuos inhumados en los sectores del templo de mayor estatus. Se discuten los resultados en relación a información histórica y arqueológica. Palabras clave: salud oral-dieta-poblaciones históricas-Mendoza. . D.A. Mansegosa 2018. Dieta y condiciones de salud oral en poblaciones históricas del norte de Mendoza. [Dossier] Revista de Arqueología Histórica Argentina y Latinoamericana 12: 589-615. Buenos Aires.

This study utilizes multi-isotopic analysis to reconstruct diet and source-water consumption from human remains collected at Carrizales, in the Zaña Valley of northern coastal Peru. Carrizales is a multi-component site that encompasses the remains of 1) Early Intermediate Period (200-800 CE) cemeteries (Conjuntos 126 and 127); 2) Late Sicán / Lambayeque period (ca. 1100-1350 CE) domestic occupations (Conjuntos 125, 128 and 131); and 3) a planned town (reducción) into which indigenous people were resettled under Spanish rule, circa 1572 CE (Conjunto 123). Faunal and botanical assemblages at the site differ significantly between the Late Sicán/Lambayeque and early colonial phases, suggesting a distinct shift in local subsistence regimes following Spanish colonization and resettlement.
Human remains were collected from Carrizales for the characterization of dietary isotopes and further examination of the impacts of Spanish colonialism on native foodways. Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotope values were characterized in the enamel carbonate, bone carbonate, and bone collagen of individuals associated with Early Intermediate Period contexts (N=4) and the late 16th century chapel within the site’s reducción (N=21). Over half of the study sample failed to produce viable bone collagen, an issue that is common in bioarchaeological samples from the north coast of Peru. However, among those with viable bone collagen and carbonate, there were minimal differences in δ13C, δ18O, and δ15N values between the two phases. This extends to values in enamel carbonate, which is highly resistant to diagenesis. Therefore, patterns in isotope values do not mirror the significant differences manifest in food remains from Carrizales. We suggest that (1) the diets of Early Intermediate Period individuals and Early Colonial period individuals buried at the site were quite similar, contrasting with the patterns indicated by Late Intermediate Period food remains; and (2) both populations obtained water from similar sources – a pattern that reinforces the characterization of reducción in the Zaña valley as a relatively local phenomenon in which nearby populations were concentrated into planned towns, rather than drawn from distant valleys.

El objetivo general del presente trabajo de investigación es realizar una aproximación a la bioarqueología de la población subadulta que fue enterrada en la Catedral de Panamá Viejo entre 1540 y 1671. Este estudio se desarrolla a través del análisis de 186 piezas dentales, permanentes y deciduas, encontradas entre el conjunto de restos mezclados durante las excavaciones efectuadas en 2017 por parte del equipo del proyecto ArtEmpire. A partir de la implementación de la metodología propuesta por la antropología dental, se lograron identificar los rasgos para la estimación de la edad de la muestra analizada, además de registrar las lesiones asociadas a las patologías dentales que sufrieron en vida y algunas variaciones morfológicas que permiten hacer referencia a su filiación poblacional.
Teniendo en cuenta de los sesgos característicos de una muestra obtenida en un cementerio, se observa que los individuos de edad comprendida entre 2 meses y 6 años fueron los más representados, seguidos por los individuos entre los 7 y 12 años y, finalmente, por los jóvenes entre 13 y 18 años. En cuanto a las patologías, se observa una mayor incidencia de defectos hipoplásicos, seguidos por caries, calculo dental y opacidad de esmalte, además de varios casos de desgaste dental.
La información bioantropológica sobre los individuos subadultos obtenida a través de esta investigación aporta nuevos datos que complementan los conocimientos ya adquiridos por otros investigadores acerca de la población que vivió en Panamá Viejo durante la época colonial. En particular, este estudio quiso enfatizar la importancia de los niños en el registro arqueológico, que por muchos años han pasado desapercibidos, enfocándose en el reto que representa el uso de metodologías adecuadas para la obtención de datos precisos sobre esta categoría de individuos. En segundo lugar, el análisis de una muestra compuesta por restos mezclados, dada su naturaleza, representa un desafío para los investigadores. Por tanto, el interés de este trabajo es el de obtener la información procedente de este tipo de restos que, generalmente, es poco aprovechada a causa de la dificultad dada por la falta de integridad de los restos aislados del contexto original.

This study utilizes multi-isotopic analysis to reconstruct diet and source-water consumption from human remains collected at Carrizales, in the Zaña Valley of northern coastal Peru. Carrizales is a multi-component site that encompasses the remains of 1) Early Intermediate Period (200-800 CE) cemeteries (Conjuntos 126 and 127); 2) Late Sicán / Lambayeque period (ca. 1100-1350 CE) domestic occupations (Conjuntos 125, 128 and 131); and 3) a planned town (reducción) into which indigenous people were resettled under Spanish rule, circa 1572 CE (Conjunto 123). Faunal and botanical assemblages at the site differ significantly between the Late Sicán/Lambayeque and early colonial phases, suggesting a distinct shift in local subsistence regimes following Spanish colonization and resettlement.
Human remains were collected from Carrizales for the characterization of dietary isotopes and further examination of the impacts of Spanish colonialism on native foodways. Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotope values were characterized in the enamel carbonate, bone carbonate, and bone collagen of individuals associated with Early Intermediate Period contexts (N=4) and the late 16th century chapel within the site’s reducción (N=21). Over half of the study sample failed to produce viable bone collagen, an issue that is common in bioarchaeological samples from the north coast of Peru. However, among those with viable bone collagen and carbonate, there were minimal differences in δ13C, δ18O, and δ15N values between the two phases. This extends to values in enamel carbonate, which is highly resistant to diagenesis. Therefore, patterns in isotope values do not mirror the significant differences manifest in food remains from Carrizales. We suggest that (1) the diets of Early Intermediate Period individuals and Early Colonial period individuals buried at the site were quite similar, contrasting with the patterns indicated by Late Intermediate Period food remains; and (2) both populations obtained water from similar sources – a pattern that reinforces the characterization of reducción in the Zaña valley as a relatively local phenomenon in which nearby populations were concentrated into planned towns, rather than drawn from distant valleys.

During times of social upheaval, such as the implementation of new imperial rule, major demographic changes can occur in populations. One osteological aspect that can be scored are changes in stature through time due to new stressors, inequalities, immigrations or migrations, and/or other such phenomena. This study aims to discover if there were major demographic shifts in stature for communities in the Andahuaylas region of the South-Central Andes dated between the Late Intermediate Period (LIP, AD 1000-1400) and Late Horizon (LH, AD 1400-1532). During the LIP, the Chanka cultural group were the prominent population, but then the Inca expanded into the region during the LH. The LIP sample population consists of Chanka individuals at the site of Cachi (N=37). The stature variation of the Chanka at Cachi will be compared to the newly excavated individuals at the complex site of Sondor (N=11), which has evidence of both LIP Chanka and LH Inca occupations. Using the Chanka at Cachi as a baseline, this project is the first step in understanding what happened to the local culture of the Chanka at Sondor and how the Inca influenced them.

Excavations at the Castillo de Huarmey archaeological site brought to light the first intact burial of female high-elite members of the Wari culture. It was found beneath a large adobe mausoleum, a landmark and focal point of the lower Huarmey Valley. Abundant grave goods, among which were precious metal artefacts, luxurious pottery, beautifully decorated bone and wooden objects, as well as spinning and weaving utensils, leave no doubt about the social status of individuals buried within the main chamber. The very unique character of the find was additionally emphasized by the fact that all of the buried individuals were women, accompanied by two grave guardians, and the remains of ancestors. This book presents the results of bioarchaeological analyses performed to date, and focuses on reconstructing the funeral rite and social status of the deceased.

Stable isotope analyses contributing to archaeological research in Anatolia was a relatively late bloomer, beginning in the early 2000s and only gathering pace in the last 5-10 years. Currently research into dietary habits, subsistence practices, and mobility has focused on early proto-sedentary and sedentary agricultural populations in Anatolia and in later historical periods. This has resulted in ca. 5-6000 years of prehistory being relatively untouched by such quantitative scientific techniques. Instead, research in these intervening periods has focused primarily on material culture, where artefacts are studied individually, largely detached from their surrounding environment and social, cultural, technological, and economic contexts. This is starting to change now in conjunction with the realisation of the importance of bioarchaeology as an encompassing field, providing a holistic approach to examining prehistoric populations.
This talk will discuss the importance and valuable contribution of stable isotope analyses in better understanding dietary and subsistence practices, and mobility. Furthermore, how when applied in conjunction with human osteological, archaeozoological, and archaeobotanical analyses we can begin to greater understand human interactions on an inter-population level and pan-regionally, as well as on a more local and intra-population level in these pivotal periods of societal development in Anatolia, and further afield.

The George S. Huntington anatomical collection is comprised of the skeletal remains of some 3600 immigrants and U.S.-born individuals. These persons died in public institutions, hospitals, and almshouses around New York City between 1893 and 1921. They were dissected as part of anatomical instruction at New York’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and subsequently became part of the doctor’s comparative skeletal collection.
Scholars who study similar skeletal series—e.g., from almshouses and other public institutions—tend to interpret skeletal data in relation to the “biology of poverty.” That is, scholars categorically treat individuals in such assemblages as “the poor.” Instead, I take an intersectional approach and focus on “elderly” Ireland-born women in the collection, exploring the relations between gender, class, citizenship, disability, and age.  Understandings of old age and the life course were in flux at the turn of the century. Industrialization, urbanization, and immigration reshaped communities, kinship, and notions of utility and productivity, affecting notions of aging and the aged body. This paper explores the embodied experience of aging in the Huntington collection in relation to discourses of aging in America. In particular, I consider how the skeletal remains and textual sources of the Huntington individuals challenge the simple ways in which immigrants––aging in public institutions––might be categorically understood as able or debilitated.

Medicine, health care, and healing comprise a subset of cultural practices that are under-represented in archaeological work in the Americas. In other parts of the world, rich textual traditions consisting of medical treatises or surgical manuals combined with archaeological evidence in the form of metal implements or tools have contributed to the rising popularity of an archaeology of medicine. Such textual traditions do exist, to an extent, in the Americas, often the focus of colonial writings or ethnohistorical works which are subsequently used by archaeologists to interpret archaeological data. However, there is much more that archaeologists can be saying about medicine and healing in the past, particularly from the perspective of material culture, or how these practices might have interfaced with the human body. Collaboration between archaeologists and ethnohistorians on this topic has the potential to truly paint a holistic picture. As an introduction to the present symposium, this paper will examine the history of the study of medicine and healing in the Americas from the perspectives of archaeology and ethnohistory and discuss some of the ways in which archaeological data from osteology, paleoethnobotany, archaeometry, and others can contribute to the study of medicine and healing in the Americas.

Julia Shaw & Naomi Sykes (2018) New directions in the archaeology of
medicine: deep-time approaches to human-animal-environmental care, World Archaeology, 50:3,
365-383

For full text (OPEN ACCESS):
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00438243.2018.1574393

This is the Introduction to our edited volume:
N. Sykes and J. Shaw, (eds.), 2018. Archaeology of Medicine and Healthcare, Special volume of World Archaeology 50(3): 365-383, https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rwar20/50/3?nav=tocList