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Beginning some 10,000 years ago, humans began a dramatic alteration in living conditions relating especially to the shift in lifeway from foraging to farming. In addition to the initiation of and increasing focus on the production and consumption of domesticated plant carbohydrates, this revolutionary transformation in diet occasioned a decline in mobility and an increased size and agglomeration of populations in semipermanent or permanent settlements. These changes in life conditions presented an opportunity for increased transmission of pathogenic microbes from host to host, such as those that cause major health threats affecting most of the 7.5 billion members of our species today. This article discusses the bioarchaeology of infectious disease, focusing on tuberculosis, treponematosis, dental caries, and periodontitis, all of which continue to contribute to high levels of morbidity and mortality among the world's populations today.

Introduction The influence of environment and behavior on skull morphology was first discussed centuries ago. In the fifth century BC, Herodotus remarked on apparent differences in cranial robusticity between Persians and Egyptians: “The skulls of Persians are so weak that if you so much as throw a pebble at one of them, you will pierce it; but the Egyptian skulls are so strong that a blow with a large stone will hardly break them.” He interpreted the strength of Egyptian skulls to the lifelong exposure of their heads to the sun. Since the time of Herodotus, the influence of environment and behavior, no matter how specious the interpretation, has been only minimally considered in discussions of cranial morphology in archaeological remains. Beginning in the eighteenth century, osteologists relied on craniofacial variation for determining population history and classification, with little attention given to the biological significance of observed patterns, especially from a population perspective (Armelagos et al., 1982; Carlson & Van Gerven, 1979; Cook, 2006; Larsen & Walker, 2010; Powell, 2005). As with the study of long bone morphology discussed in Chapter 6, there has been a gradual reorientation from typological/historical to population variation analyses. This emphasis focuses on processes and functions that influence cranial morphology, revealing the adaptive and behavioral significance of variation from a population perspective. This chapter’s central discussion is built on the premise that craniofacial morphology is a biological ensemble, influenced by processes involving the central role of the masticatory complex – composed of the jaws, teeth, and associated muscle – bone interactions – during growth and development and throughout adulthood (Daegling, 2010; Lieberman, 2011). Both intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence craniofacial growth, just as with any other skeletal tissue in the body. Throughout life, the cranium grows and adapts in an epigenetic context where environmental and functional factors operate on an underlying genetic infrastructure (Carlson, 2005).

Introduction Documentation of past foodways is not only intrinsically valuable, but it also provides the requisite resource context for evaluating effects of nutrition on growth and development, assessing stress and disease from paleopathological indicators, and interpreting skeletal adaptation, among other topics discussed in the foregoing chapters. There is a range of conventional approaches for characterizing past diets and inferring nutritional outcomes, including analysis of plant and animal remains, coprolites, pottery residues, and tools used for food production and consumption. These approaches provide a record of what foods were consumed, but do not give a representation of the proportions of foods or food classes consumed by past populations. The poor preservation of plants in many archaeological contexts, for example, inhibits documentation of their role in diets in many settings. Food refuse is often subject to preservation-related biases that prevent accurate or otherwise meaningful nutritional interpretation. Moreover, food refuse deriving from ritual uses may or may not have been eaten. Beginning in the late 1970s, a collaboration between an archaeologist and a geochemist on the analysis of stable isotope composition of carbon in archaeological human remains (van der Merwe & Vogel, 1978; Vogel & van der Merwe, 1977) started a revolution in dietary reconstruction having implications for issues of interest in the study of past populations, all linked either directly or indirectly to diet. Following this pioneering research, stable isotopes have become a standard data set for addressing fundamental questions about diet and dietary adaptation in past populations, enhancing our ability to characterize past human diets and their variation in general (Burton, 2008; Katzenberg, 2008; Lee-Thorp, 2008; Schoeninger, 2010). Simply, the documentation of isotope signatures passed from the foods being eaten to the consumer allows the identification of diet with considerably greater precision than with conventional archaeological data involving recovery of plant and animal remains alone. These biochemical signatures do not represent a “reconstruction” of diet; rather, they facilitate the identification of consumption profiles of different foods eaten by past populations. If consumption profiles are identified accurately, then it becomes possible to get at the real “meat” of the matter, namely, nutritional inferences and broader implications for understanding past human adaptation in a broad biocultural context.

Introduction Human remains are a central data source for documenting temporal and spatial patterning of biological relatedness. Determination of biological relatedness has traditionally been achieved via analysis of phenotypic skeletal and dental traits and their intra- and inter-population variation. Biological distance or biodistance analysis is based on the premise that the variation in morphological traits of the skeleton reflects underlying genotypic variation. Although biodistance analysis pertains largely to characterizing phenotypic variation, genotypic variation is becoming increasingly important via the study of ancient DNA (aDNA). Regardless of the type of biodistance data, the degree of relatedness presupposes that a greater frequency of shared attributes indicates closer genetic affinity than a lower frequency of shared attributes. In this regard, the orientation of the research is linked to the questions being asked about intra- and inter-population interactions, ranging from continental-scale, containing many sites, to regional-scale containing multiple sites, to single site analyses focusing on individual variation within a population (Figure 9.1). Biodistance analysis is motivated by three key interests (after Buikstra et al., 1990). First, results are important for investigation of issues relating to evolutionary history, such as genetic drift and selection, gene flow, and the influence of geography and other isolating mechanisms on biological relatedness (Conner, 1990; Droessler, 1981; Heathcote, 1994; Ossenberg, 1986; Rothhammer & Silva, 1990; Sciulli, 1990; Scott & Turner, 1997; Stojanowski & Schillaci, 2006). By understanding the degree of relatedness, it becomes possible to characterize temporal relationships in the identification of local in situ development, or migration, or some combination thereof (Konigsberg, 2006).

Introduction For the entire evolution of our species, we have been exposed to a wide range of infectious agents – parasites, bacteria, and viruses – resulting in a range of diseases. The dental and skeletal evidence for some of these diseases, mostly chronic, is well documented (Aufderheide & Rodriguez-Martin, 1998; Ortner, 2003; Roberts & Manchester, 2005). Current bioarchaeological inquiry emphasizes biocultural perspectives of disease in relation to social, cultural, and environmental contexts and risks for infection, impacts on population, and implications for pathogen – host evolution (Armelagos & Van Gerven, 2003; Buikstra, 2010; Buikstra & Cook, 1980; Larsen & Walker, 2010). This growing record of health in past populations and especially the emphasis on origins and evolution of infectious disease in the biocultural context provides a powerful approach for understanding health determinants and outcomes in the world we live in today. Infection by a pathogen does not always result in disease. The progression from infection to disease depends on agent pathogenicity, transmission route from agent to host, and the strength and nature of the response of the host (Brown et al., 2011; Inhorn & Brown, 1990; Smith & Moss, 1994). Many acute infectious diseases or epidemics result in death of the infected individual soon after microbial attack. These infectious diseases leave no skeletal record, clouding the full picture of disease and its relationship to mortality in past populations. A number of chronic infectious diseases affect osseous tissues in patterned ways. Despite the interpretive drawbacks and sometimes lack of specificity, the study of bone lesions documenting disease provides important perspectives on health in earlier societies and the impacts of particular living circumstances on the human condition.

The bioarchaeological record of human remains viewed in the context of ecology, subsistence, and living circumstances provides a fundamental source for documenting and interpreting the impact of plant and animal domestication in the late Pleistocene and early to middle Holocene. For Western Asia, Catalhoyuk (7100–5950 cal BC) in central Anatolia, presents a comprehensive and contextualized setting for interpreting living circumstances in this highly dynamic period of human history. This article provides an overview of the bioarchaeology of Catalhoyuk in order to characterize patterns of life conditions at the community level, addressing the question, What were the implications of domestication and agricultural intensification, increasing sedentism, and population growth for health and lifestyle in this early farming community? This study employs demography, biogeochemistry, biodistance analysis, biomechanics, growth and development, and paleopathology in order to identify and interpret spatial and temporal patterns of health and lifestyle under circumstances of rapid population growth and aggregation and changing patterns of acquiring food and other resources. The record suggests that the rapid growth in population size was fueled by increased fertility and birthrate. Although the household was likely the focus of economic activity, our analysis suggests that individuals interred in houses were not necessarily biologically related. Predictably, the community employed resource extraction practices involving increased mobility. Although oral and skeletal indicators suggest some evidence of compromised health (e.g. elevated subadult infection, dental caries), growth and development of juveniles and adult body size and stature indicate adjustments to local circumstances.

Skeletons represent the most direct evidence of the biology of past populations, and their study provides insight into health and well-being, dietary history, lifestyle (activity), violence and trauma, ancestry, and demography. These areas help inform our understanding of a range of issues, such as the causes and consequences of adaptive shifts in the past (e.g., foraging to farming, sedentarism), the biological impact of invasion and colonization, differential access to food and other resources (e.g., by gender or status), and conflict and warfare. Central to bioarchaeological inquiry are the interaction between biology and behavior and the role of environment on health and lifestyle. Bioarchaeological analysis has traditionally focused on local settings. However, important perspective on general questions of human adaptation is possible both regionally and globally.

The arrival of Europeans in the New World had profound and long-lasting results for the native peoples. The record for the impact of this fundamental change in culture, society, and biology of Native Americans is well documented historically. This paper reviews the biological impact of the arrival of Europeans on native populations via the study of pre- and postcontact skeletal remains in Spanish Florida, the region today represented by coastal Georgia and northern Florida. The postcontact skeletal series, mostly drawn from Roman Catholic mission sites, are among the most comprehensive in the Americas, providing a compelling picture of adaptation and stress in this setting. Study of paleopathology, dental and skeletal indicators of physiological stress, stable isotope (carbon and nitrogen) analysis, tooth microwear, and skeletal morphology (cross-sectional geometry) reveals major alterations in quality of life and lifestyle. The bioarchaeological record indicates a general deterioration in health, declining dietary diversity and nutritional quality, and increasing workload in the contact period. The impact of contact in Spanish Florida appears to have been more dramatic in comparison with other regions, which likely reflects the different nature of contact relations in this setting versus other areas (e.g., New England, New France). The bioarchaeological record represents an important information source for understanding the dynamics of biocultural change resulting from colonization and conquest.

Alepotrypa Cave, one of the richest and best preserved Neolithic sites in Greece, was occupied by early farmers from ca. 5000 to 3200 BC. Study of human remains from this site contributes important information to the bioarchaeological record for this period. The remains are from the cave's Ossuary II, a secondary deposit containing the disarticulated remains of at least 20 individuals, including adults and sub-adults. A high frequency of porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia suggests the presence of chronic iron deficiency anaemia. A combination of two possible factors could explain this situation, including reliance on an iron-deficient cereal diet, and presence of high pathogen and parasitic loads resulting from poor hygiene and contamination of the communal water source. These lesions may also be related to some type of inflammatory process. Some 31% of individuals display healed cranial depressed fractures, indicating evidence of violent (non-lethal) confrontations. Stable isotope analysis reveals a predominantly terrestrial C3 diet, with little evidence of marine food consumption, despite close proximity to coastal resources. The presence of various domesticated plants suggests that these C3 foods may have been agricultural. Moreover, a high frequency of dental caries is consistent with a diet involving significant carbohydrate consumption. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The biocultural interpretation of skeletal remains is based upon the foundation of skeletal biology. In this review we examine the current state of skeletal biology research outside of the mainstream anthropology literature. The focus is on the structural changes of bone development and growth, and modeling and repair in the four bone surfaces: periosteal, Haversian, endosteal, and trabecular. The pattern of skeletal changes is placed within the framework of the human life span. New perspectives and direction of research on the environmental, biological, and genetic influences on modeling and remodeling processes are discussed chronologically at each bone surface. Implications for biological anthropologists are considered. This approach emphasizes variation in skeletal biology as a dynamic record of development, maturity, and aging. Yrbk Phys Anthropol 54:86–98, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This study tests the hypothesis that the colonial economy of the Lambayeque region of northern coastal Peru was associated with a mechanically strenuous lifestyle among the indigenous Mochica population. To test the hypothesis, we documented the changes in the prevalence of degenerative joint disease (or DJD) in human remains from the late pre-Hispanic and colonial Lambayeque Valley Complex. Comparisons were made using multivariate odds ratios calculated across four age classes and 11 principle joint systems corresponding to 113 late pre-Hispanic and 139 postcontact adult Mochica individuals. Statistically significant patterns of elevated postcontact DJD prevalence are observed in the joint systems of the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and knee. More finely grained comparison between temporal phases indicates that increases in prevalence were focused immediately following contact in the Early/Middle Colonial period. Analysis of DJD by sex indicates postcontact males experienced greater DJD prevalence than females. Also, trends between pre- and postcontact females indicate nearly universally elevated DJD prevalence among native colonial women. Inferred altered behavioral uses of the upper body and knee are contextualized within ecological, ethnohistoric, and ethnoarchaeological frameworks and appear highly consistent with descriptions of the local postcontact economy. These patterns of DJD appear to stem from a synergism of broad, hemispheric level sociopolitical alterations, specific changes to Mochica activity and behavior, regional economic intensification, and local microenvironmental characteristics, which were all focused into these biological outcomes by the operation of a colonial Spanish political economy on the north coast of Peru from A.D. 1536 to 1751.

The Yayoi period represents the earliest point of agricultural dependence in Japan, dating from approximately 2500 BP to AD 300. Yayoi period people consumed wet-rice as a primary subsistence base. This article uses dental caries prevalence to interpret the biocultural implications of agriculture among these people by testing the following hypotheses: 1) Yayoi period agriculturalists had greater frequencies of carious teeth than Jomon period foragers, 2) regional variation in carious tooth frequencies will be observed among Yayoi period agriculturalists, while 3) variation in carious tooth frequencies will be observed between male and female agriculturalists. Statistically significant differences in carious teeth were observed between the agriculturalists from Southern Honshu and all other samples. These differences suggest greater reliance on cariogenic plants among farmers from Southern Honshu and are consistent with an agricultural economy. The people of the Yayoi period from Tanegashima Island and Northern Kyushu did not have significantly different carious tooth frequencies compared to Jomon period foragers. This suggests that rice alone was not a more cariogenic dietary substance than those consumed by Jomon period foragers but a cariogenic food nonetheless. Dietary heterogeneity between the prehistoric people of the Yayoi period from Southern Honshu and those from Northern Kyushu and Tanegashima Island is also inferred from these differences. Significantly greater frequencies of carious teeth among older aged Yayoi period females compared with males suggest dietary differences between the sexes.

This study analyzes dental metric variation to examine the biological structure of the native population at Mission San Luis de Apalachee, a late 17th century mission located in the Apalachee Province of Spanish colonial Florida. Three topics are addressed: (1) comparison of tooth sizes among adult and subadults, (2) analysis of the bio-spatial structure of skeletons within the church area, and (3) comparison of phenotypic profiles of individuals interred within coffins in the ritual nucleus of the church: the altar region. Analyses indicate that subadults had smaller average tooth sizes than adults for the posterior dentition that was particularly evident in mandibular nonpolar molars and premolars. This disparity, also documented in two other mission populations, likely represents ontogenetic stress and resulting increased mortality among those most at risk for early death. Analysis of the spatial structure of graves failed to document biological structuring by side of the aisle or by burial row, although some gross differences were evident when front, middle, and rear church burials were compared. Individuals buried in coffins within the same row were phenotypically similar to one another. However, inter-row comparisons indicated lack of phenotypic similarity among all coffin interments. These analyses suggest maintenance of kin-structured burial for elites alone within the San Luis community.

Introduction The influence of environment and behavior on skull morphology was discussed quite early. In the fifth century BC, Herodotus remarked on apparent differences in cranial robusticity between Persians and Egyptians: ‘The skulls of Persians are so weak that if you so much as throw a pebble at one of them, you will pierce it; but the Egyptian skulls are so strong that a blow with a large stone will hardly break them.’ He interpreted these differences as being related to the lifelong exposure of the head to the sun and increased cranial thickening as a result in Egyptians but not in Persians. The influence of environment and behavior, no matter how specious the interpretation, has been only minimally considered in discussions of cranial morphology in archaeological remains since Herodotus drew the above conclusions about cranial robusticity. Beginning in the eighteenth century, osteologists relied on craniofacial variation for determining population history and classification, with little attention given to the biological significance of observed patterns (see Armelagos, 1968; Armelagos et al ., 1982; Carlson, 1976a, 1976b; Carlson & Van Gerven, 1977, 1979). As in investigations of long bone morphology, there has been a gradual reorientation from typological/historical to processual analyses. This new emphasis focusses on underlying processes that influence cranial morphology, revealing the adaptive and behavioral significance of variation.

Introduction Reflecting back over a half-century of research, Armelagos, Carlson, & Van Gerven lamented that ‘human osteology has been and continues to be dominated by an overriding concern for the description of biological differences between populations, the result of which has been an evergrowing number of taxonomic definitions’ (1982:310). They advocated an overhaul of the field – involving an overall reorientation from description to process – in order to better understand the underlying biological significance of human skeletal variation. Although they primarily addressed issues relating to skeletal morphology and the relationship between form and function, their proposed paradigmatic shift can be more broadly applied to the study of most other aspects of past humans remains discussed in the foregoing chapters of this book. In many ways, there has been a shift in bioarchaeology. This change has been facilitated by a number of important technological, methodological, and theoretical advances. To be sure, some of these advancements – for example, the growing sophistication of high-speed computers and computing – may have only fueled the fire for multivariate studies and increased elaboration of taxonomy and description (see Armelagos et al ., 1982; Larsen, 1987). On a more positive note, the revolution in computing brought about by the wide availability of powerful desktop computers has greatly enhanced our proficiency in analyzing complex problems in a more comprehensive fashion than was possible a decade or so ago.

The transition from a human diet based exclusively on wild plants and animals to one involving dependence on domesticated plants and animals beginning 10,000 to 11,000 y ago in Southwest Asia set into motion a series of profound health, lifestyle, social, and economic changes affecting human populations throughout most of the world. However, the social, cultural, behavioral, and other factors surrounding health and lifestyle associated with the foraging-to-farming transition are vague, owing to an incomplete or poorly understood contextual archaeological record of living conditions. Bioarchaeological investigation of the extraordinary record of human remains and their context from Neolithic Çatalhöyük (7100–5950 cal BCE), a massive archaeological site in south-central Anatolia (Turkey), provides important perspectives on population dynamics, health outcomes, behavioral adaptations, interpersonal conflict, and a record of community resilience over the life of this single early farming settlement having the attributes of a protocity. Study of Çatalhöyük human biology reveals increasing costs to members of the settlement, including elevated exposure to disease and labor demands in response to community dependence on and production of domesticated plant carbohydrates, growing population size and density fueled by elevated fertility, and increasing stresses due to heightened workload and greater mobility required for caprine herding and other resource acquisition activities over the nearly 12 centuries of settlement occupation. These changes in life conditions foreshadow developments that would take place worldwide over the millennia following the abandonment of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, including health challenges, adaptive patterns, physical activity, and emerging social behaviors involving interpersonal violence., John Templeton Foundation; National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration; Investments for the Future Program, Initiative d’Excellence of the University of Bordeaux; European Union (European Union); Horizon 2020; European Commission H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Program; Collaborative Projects of the France–Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies; National Science Foundation; American Research Institute in Turkey; American Association of Physical Anthropologists Professional Development Grant

Publisher Summary This chapter presents a synthesis of recent advances made in bioarchaeology, an emerging discipline that emphasizes the human biological component of the archaeological record. The chapter presents an examination of the impact of economy and behavior on skeletal and dental tissues. Skeletal and dental tissues are remarkably sensitive to the environment. Such factors as diet, disease, population size and mobility, physical exercise, and work leave indelible marks on these tissues. The chapter describes the means by which skeletal remains have been and can be used for understanding processes that underlie human behavior. It also explores the impact of different lifeways on the skeleton with reference to nonpathological and pathological changes in articular joints, bone form and function, and the nature of skeletal and dental changes in light of the use of the jaws and teeth in both masticatory and non-masticatory roles.