the old sydney burial ground: clues about the health and diet of the first british settlers of...
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ABSTRACTS / HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology 64 (2013) 142–162 147
The life and times of two people from the Bronze Age in northeast Thailand
K. Domett*, A. Colbert, N. Chang (James Cook University, Townsville, Australia),[email protected]
Individual-based case studies using a bioarchaeological approach can tease out the minutiae of lifein earlier societies that can easily be missed in population based statistical studies. They provide theopportunity to fully integrate the biological and archaeological evidence from a single grave and canbuild a picture of biological and social variability in a community. To illustrate the usefulness of thisapproach two burials excavated from a Bronze Age cemetery within the northeast Thai site of Ban NonWat were studied in detail. Burial 671 was a young man in early adulthood who had experienced asignificant traumatic injury to his left femur; despite some healing, the injury had long lasting effects onthe remainder of his short life, leaving him with a disability but perhaps not a disadvantage. Burial 676was a middle aged woman of markedly short stature. A combination of unique and non-local funeraryremains and an outlying strontium isotope ratio (87Sr/86Sr) suggest this woman had not always livedwithin this community. These are just two stories from a collection of nearly 700 individuals from BanNon Wat but between these two case-studies many identity and socio-cultural issues, such as levelsof community care for the disabled and the assimilation of immigrants, are raised for discussion.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jchb.2013.02.013
The Old Sydney Burial Ground: Clues about the health and diet of the first British settlers ofAustralia
D. Donlon* (University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia), T. Lowe (Casey and Lowe Pty Ltd),[email protected]
A salvage excavation of the Old Sydney Burial Ground, the first permanent European cemetery inAustralia, revealed 66 graves, 30 of which still contained skeletal remains and teeth. While the boneswere in extremely poor condition, over 100 teeth were recovered from 9 individuals. Given the rarityof human remains from this period of Australia’s history, an attempt was made to retrieve as muchinformation as possible from these teeth. The teeth were measured in the hope of throwing light onancestry. They were also observed for presence of caries, degree and rate of attrition and incidence ofdental enamel hypoplasia. Tooth size was also compared with a nineteenth-century sample of descen-dants of British settlers. Results indicate tooth size was small relative to both Australian Aboriginalsand nineteenth century non-Aboriginal Australians. The incidence of caries was low as was the inci-dence of dental enamel hypoplasia and attrition. These results have implications for the diet and healthof the first British settlers of Australia.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jchb.2013.02.014
Does rapid change in early developmental environments predispose individuals to reduced finalheights because of earlier menarche?
B. Floyd (University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand),[email protected]
This study evaluates the claim that in non-Western settings (particularly China) experiencing rapidsocioeconomic change, height growth may be constrained. Constraints are argued to potentially arisefrom both intergenerational inertia and earlier menarche and cessation of skeletal growth. The latterassociation is based upon evidence from several epidemiological studies that report positive associa-tions between age at menarche and adult stature. This relationship, in turn, has been explained as theinfluence of rising estrogens on long bone maturation preceding menarche. Longitudinal studies ofheight growth in mostly European population samples do not, however, report similar significant dif-