1. Sex-related morbidity and mortality in non-adult individuals from the Early Medieval site of Valdaro (Italy). The contribution of dental enamel peptide analysis
- Author
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Eugenio Bortolini, Luca Bondioli, Stefano Benazzi, Carla Figus, Federico Lugli, Valentina Costa, Alessia Nava, Sara Conti, Beatrice Peripoli, Leonardo Lamanna, Sara Silvestrini, Alessandra Sperduti, Lugli F., Figus C., Silvestrini S., Costa V., Bortolini E., Conti S., Peripoli B., Nava A., Sperduti A., Lamanna L., Bondioli L., and Benazzi S.
- Subjects
Peptide analysis ,Archeology ,Physiology ,Context (language use) ,Biology ,Lesion ,proteomics ,stomatognathic system ,medicine ,0601 history and archaeology ,LC-MS/MS ,Non-adult ,AMELX ,amelogenin ,non-adults ,sex estimation ,tooth enamel ,060101 anthropology ,060102 archaeology ,Enamel paint ,Osteology ,Proteomic ,06 humanities and the arts ,Tooth enamel ,stomatognathic diseases ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,visual_art ,visual_art.visual_art_medium ,Amelogenin ,medicine.symptom - Abstract
In this work, osteological and paleopathological analyses are combined with liquid-chromatography mass\ud spectrometry to study life and death of 30 non-adult individuals from an Early Medieval Italian funerary context\ud (Valdaro, 7th-8th cent. AD). We estimated individual sex by exploiting sexual differences in enamel-bounded\ud peptides. Enamel proteins were extracted through an acid etching of the whole tooth crowns for 4 samples\ud and through a partial digestion of small enamel chunks for the remaining 26 samples. Both protocols were\ud informative on the sex of the individuals through the identification of amelogenin isoforms (AMELX and\ud AMELY). In addition, low-mineralized tooth germs were analysed and they provided reliable information on the\ud infants’ sex. We observed the presence of 13 males and 17 females among the non-adults of Valdaro, not\ud significantly different from a random sample with an equal frequency of males and females. Cribra cranii and\ud endocranial lesion occurrence showed an association with sex, with higher frequencies in male individuals.
- Published
- 2020