Chapter 1. Introduction: Towards Refining the Concept of mobility (original) (raw)
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Introduction: Towards Refining the Concept of Mobility
2014
Bone has an ability to model and remodel itself such that its distribution and material properties refl ect factors occurring during the lifetime of an individual. Known factors infl uencing bone properties range from nonmechanical (e.g., age, sex, diet, health, and hormones) to mechanical ones (e.g., activity level and patterns). A lifetime accumulation of these inputs, therefore, should be refl ected in the structure of bone diaphyses at the death of an individual. Inferring the inputs of these factors from long bone diaphyses of long dead individuals, whether Holocene agriculturalists or hunter-gatherers, or earlier human ancestors, depends in part on modern analogues being used to help identify and isolate the contributions of these factors. This chapter is both an introduction to and a synthesis of the collaborative effort that is recounted within the volume, and that is aimed at understanding the impact of human mobility as one such input to diaphyseal form.
Approaches in Past Human Life: The Osteological Paradox of Commingled and Fragmented Human Remains
Academia Letters, 2021
The constant curiosity of humanity, whether to understand religious and cultural themes of its past or even for academic purposes (Gaston 2018), has highlighted the importance of Archaeology and the archaeological research itself. What the meticulous and constant archaeological research of past life has revealed, is that all discoveries matter. Objects of major or minor importance have their value, as well as human osteological remains. Especially skeletal remains constitute a substantial tool to perceive past human activity in all its various forms. From a basic inventory, where researchers determine the number of individuals and the presence of their bones, to various microscopic studies, ancient human remains can provide answers to a multitude of questions. Therefore, acquiring new scientific methods and designingauxiliarytools has become paramount for the research of osteological remains (Ubelaker 1989), as their study is steadily growing (Buikstra and Beck 2017). With the integration of Osteoarchaeology, researchers could create a more concise picture of the past populations and their daily life. Data about their sex, age, stature, and pathological conditions are requisite about the palaeodemographic study of a population, the circumstances surrounding their death (White and Folkens 2005), along with the socioeconomic conditions of the society itself (Follér 1992). The origin, development, and progress of disease in past generations, as to how these individuals adapted to environmental changes can be investigated through the study of palaeopathology (Nesse and Williams 1994; Aufderheide and Rodriguez-Martin 1998). Palaeopathology can be considered as a sub-discipline of osteoarchaeology-biological anthropology, focusing on primary evidence of abnormalities from human osteological remains that could indicate the presence of a health affliction (Roberts and Manchester 2007).
Bone paleohistology and human evolution
Journal of anthropological sciences
life-history and evolution of fossil vertebrates may be studied through the analysis of their mineralised tissues. The mineralization of bone tissue during life allows the preservation of skeletal parts after the death of the organism, which become –together with teeth– the bulk of the mammalian fossil record. Although traditionally considered a static element, bone is in fact a dynamic and complex tissue that grows throughout life of the organism, changing in size, shape and position (Enlow, 1982) in response to a variety of internal and external stimuli. The dynamic nature of bone tissue together with the strength allow bones to perform structural functions –providing mobility, support, and protection for the body, as well as a reservoir for essential minerals. At the histological level, bones grow and react to stimuli modulating the activity of the cells responsible for the formation and removal of bone tissue. As a consequence, histological features due to the activity of the bo...
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2013
The nature of long bone formation and the pathways of interaction between bone samples and the burial environment suggest that portions of the bones disconnected from the arterial system are resistant to diagenetic alteration. Preliminary work on femurs from Early Bronze Age hunter-gatherers in Cis-Baikal, Siberia shows that the nature and progression of chemical changes in the bone matrix due to microbial attack can be analyzed using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Intra-osteon variability in elemental concentrations and strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr) indicate the presence of unaltered portions of bone within diagenetically modified bone and suggest that useful data remain accessible. These biogenic signals can potentially be useful for mobility research in broad terms and the smaller timescales within an individual’s lifetime (months, years), accessible therein. Laser ablation microsampling of femur specimens showed that intra-osteon elemental composition of Ba, Re, and Cs varied within and was correlated between multiple osteons of a single bone. Portions of chemically unaffected bone were identified within, and effectively discriminated from diagenetically altered bone tissue. Areas showing visual alterations and erratic or uncorrelated Ca and Sr elemental results also had anomalous Sr isotope ratios, suggesting diagenetic alteration in those places. Compositional and isotopic analysis of intact portions of bone supports the hypothesis that hunter-gatherer groups in Cis-Baikal made numerous major movements during their lives. Microscopic analysis of long bones clarifies aspects of biodeterioration and correlations between trace elemental results and diagenetic alteration. Microsampling of intact portions of bone expands the scope of available materials for research on mobility and other aspects of human past behaviour.
Bone Morphologies and Histories: Life Course Approaches in Bioarchaeology
The duality of the skeleton as both a biological and cultural entity has formed the theoretical basis of bioarchaeol-ogy. In recent years bioarchaeological studies have stretched the early biocultural concept with the adoption of life course approaches in their study design and analyses, making a significant contribution to how we think about the role of postnatal plasticity. Life course theory is a conceptual framework used in several scientific fields of biology and the social sciences. Studies that emphasize life course approaches in the examination of bone morphology in the past are united in their interrogation of human life as a result of interrelated and cumulative events over not only the timeframe of individuals, but also over generations at the community level. This article provides an overview of the theoretical constructs that utilize the life course concept, and a discussion of the different ways these theories have been applied to thinking about trajectories of bone morphology in the past, specifically highlighting key recent studies that have used life course approaches to understand the influence of growth, stress, diet, activity, and aging on the skeleton. The goal of this article is to demonstrate the scope of contemporary bioarchaeological studies that illuminate the importance of environmental and behavioral influence on bone morphology. Understanding how tra-jectories of bone growth and morphology can be altered and shaped over the life course is critical not only for bio-archaeologists, but also researchers studying bone morphology in living nonhuman primates and fossil primate skeletons. Am J Phys Anthropol 159:
Osteoarchaeology: A Guide to the Macroscopic Study of Human Skeletal Remains
Osteoarchaeology: A Guide to the Macroscopic Study of Human Skeletal Remains covers the identification of bones and teeth, taphonomy, sex and ancestry assessment, age estimation, the analysis of biodistances, growth patterns and activity markers, and paleopathology. The book aims to familiarize the reader with the main applications of osteoarchaeology and provide the necessary knowledge required for the implementation of a broad range of osteological methods. It is ideal as a complement to existing textbooks used in upper level undergraduate and graduate courses on osteoarchaeology, human osteology, and, to some extent, forensic anthropology. Pedagogical features include ample illustrations, case study material, revision exercises, and a glossary. Additional features comprise macros that facilitate data processing and analysis, as well as an extensive chapter on applied statistics.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
The second millennium BC was a period of significant social and environmental changes in prehistoric India. After the disintegration of the Indus civilization, in a phase known as the Early Jorwe (1400–1000 BC), hundreds of agrarian villages flourished in the Deccan region of west-central India. Environmental degradation, combined with unsustainable agricultural practices, contributed to the abandonment of many communities around 1000 BC. Inamgaon was one of a handful of villages to persist into the Late Jorwe phase (1000–700 BC), wherein reliance on dry-plough agricultural production declined. Previous research demonstrated a significant decline in body size (stature and body mass index) through time, which is often used to infer increased levels of biocultural stress in bioarchaeology. This article assesses evidence for growth disruption in the immature human skeletal remains from Inamgaon by correlating measures of whole bone morphology with midshaft femur compact bone geometry and histology. Growth derangement is observable in immature archaeological femora as an alteration in the expected amount and distribution of bone mass and porosity in the midshaft cross-section. Cross-section shape matched expectations for older infants with the acquisition of bipedal locomotion. These results support the hypothesis that small body size was related to disruptions in homeostasis and high levels of biocultural stress in the Late Jorwe at Inamgaon. Further, the combined use of geometric properties and histological details provides a method for teasing apart the complex interactions among activity and “health,” demonstrating how biocultural stressors affect the acquisition and quality of bone mass.
Recent progress in bioarchaeology: approaches to the osteological paradox
Journal of Archaeological Research, 2003
The publication of The Osteological Paradox (Wood et al., 1992, Current Anthropology, 33:343-370) a decade ago sparked debate about the methods and conclusions drawn from bioarchaeological research. Wood et al. (1992, Current Anthropology, 33:343-370) highlighted the problematic issues of selective mortality and hidden heterogeneity in frailty (susceptibility to illness), and argued that the interpretation of population health status from skeletal remains is not straightforward. Progress in bioarchaeology over the last few years has led to the development of tools that will help us grapple with the issues of this "osteological paradox." This paper provides a review of recent literature on age and sex estimation, paleodemography, biodistance, growth disruption, paleopathology, and paleodiet. We consider how these advances may help us address the implications of hidden heterogeneity in frailty and selective mortality for studies of health and adaptation in past societies.