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The peopling, origins, and early prehistory of the Americas are topics of intense debate. However, few studies have used human remains to document and interpret patterns of health and lifestyle of Paleoamericans. This study provides the first investigation to characterize oral health in a series of early Holocene skeletal remains from Lagoa Santa, Brazil, a locality containing the remains of some of the earliest inhabitants of South America (10,000–7,000 BP). The sample is composed of 949 teeth and 1925 alveoli from an estimated 113 individuals excavated from 17 archaeological sites located in the State of Minas Gerais. We compare dental caries and abscess prevalence at Lagoa Santa to a large sample of human skeletons from the Western Hemisphere Project (WHP) database using both individual and tooth/alveolus count methods. In addition, antemortem tooth loss and tooth wear were analyzed in Lagoa Santa by sex and age. The results show that Lagoa Santa dental caries and abscess prevalence are significantly higher than observed among other hunter–gatherers included in the WHP database, except when abscess prevalence is considered by individual count. Adult females have less tooth wear coupled with higher prevalence of dental caries and antemortem tooth loss than adult males. These results point to an unexpected record of poor oral health at Lagoa Santa, especially among females. A diet based on a highly cariogenic combination of wild tubers and fruits is suggested as an explanation for the elevated rate, characterizing an early adaptation to a tropical environment in South America. Am J Phys Anthropol 154:11–26, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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 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.

One of the most fundamental developments in the history of our species—and one having among the most profound impacts on landscapes and the people occupying them—was the domestication of plants and animals. In addition to altering landscapes around the globe from the terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene, the shift from foraging to farming resulted in negative and multiple consequences for human health. Study of human skeletal remains from archaeological contexts shows that the introduction of grains and other cultigens and the increase in their dietary focus resulted in a decline in health and alterations in activity and lifestyle. Although agriculture provided the economic basis for the rise of states and development of civilizations, the change in diet and acquisition of food resulted in a decline in quality of life for most human populations in the last 10,000 years.

As a dental indicator of generalized physiological stress, enamel hypoplasia has been the subject of several Neandertal studies. While previous studies generally have found high frequencies of enamel hypoplasia in Neandertals, the significance of this finding varies with frequencies of enamel hypoplasia in comparative samples. The present investigation was undertaken to ascertain if the enamel hypoplasia evidence in Neandertals suggests a high level of physiological stress relative to a modern human foraging group, represented here by an archaeological sample of Inuit from Point Hope, Alaska. Unlike previous studies, this study focused specifically on linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), emphasizing systemic over localized causes of this defect by considering LEH to be present in an individual only if LEH defects occur on two anterior teeth with overlapping crown formation periods. Moreover, this study is the first to evaluate the average growth disruption duration represented by these defects in Neandertals and a comparative foraging group. In the prevalence analysis, 7/18 Neandertal individuals (from Krapina and southern France) and 21/56 Neandertal anterior teeth were affected by LEH, or 38.9% and 37.5% respectively. These values do not differ significantly from those of the Inuit sample in which 8/21, or 38.1% of individuals, and 32/111, or 28.8% of anterior teeth were affected. For the growth disruption duration analysis, 22 defects representing separate episodes of growth disruption in Neandertals were compared with 22 defects in the Inuit group using three indicators of duration: the number of perikymata (growth increments) in the occlusal walls of LEH defects, the total number of perikymata within them, and defect width. Only one indicator, the total number of perikymata within defects, differed significantly between the Inuit and Neandertal groups (an average of 13.4 vs. 7.3 perikymata), suggesting that if there is any difference between them, the Inuit defects may actually represent longer growth disruptions than the Neandertal defects. Thus, while stress indicators other than linear enamel hypoplasia may eventually show that Neandertal populations were more stressed than those of modern foragers, the evidence from linear enamel hypoplasia does not lend support to this idea.

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.

Human remains provide a fund of data for documenting and interpreting the quality of life, living conditions, and the costs and benefits of the foraging-to-farming transition and the dependence on domesticated food sources, especially those related to the adoption and spread of plant staples that today feed much of the world’s population, including the superfoods—wheat, rice and maize. This chapter presents comparative results of human bioarchaeological research programmes where human skeletal samples are large and well documented and where archaeological context (settlement systems, dietary reconstruction) is comprehensive: west and east Asia, Europe, and North America. These investigations reveal largely similar but variable health outcomes relating to the foraging-to-farming transition. The record shows a general picture of compromised health either with the shift from foraging to farming or with intensified farming.

Dietary reconstruction using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from archaeological human bone samples from coastal Georgia and northern and Gulf Coast Florida dating between 400 B.C. and A.D. 1700 serves to illustrate the complexity of the agricultural transition in that region. Isotope analysis of 185 collagen samples drawn from early prehistoric, late prehistoric, and contact-period mortuary sites encompasses two major adaptive shifts in the region, namely the adoption of maize agriculture in late prehistory and the increased emphasis on maize during the mission period. Prior to European contact—and especially before the establishment of Spanish missions among the Guale, Yamasee, Timucua, and Apalachee tribal groups—diet was strongly influenced by local environmental factors. Before contact, coastal and inland populations had different patterns of food consumption, as did populations living in Georgia and Florida. Coastal populations consumed more marine and less terrestrial foods than inland populations. In general, maize was adopted during the eleventh century A.D. by virtually all Georgia populations. However, with the exception of the Lake Jackson site, a major Mississippian center in northern Florida, Florida populations show little use of maize before contact. Following European contact, maize became wide-spread, regardless of location or habitat within the broad region of Spanish Florida. Missionization appears to have been an important factor in the convergence of native diets toward agriculture and away from foraging. This increased emphasis on maize contributed to a decline in quality of life for native populations.

Agriculture has long been regarded as an improvement in the human condition: Once Homo sapiens made the transition from foraging to farming in the Neolithic, health and nutrition improved, longevity increased, and work load declined. Recent study of archaeological human remains worldwide by biological anthropologists has shown this characterization of the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture to be incorrect. Contrary to earlier models, the adoption of agriculture involved an overall decline in oral and general health. This decline is indicated by elevated prevalence of various skeletal and dental pathological conditions and alterations in skeletal and dental growth patterns in prehistoric farmers compared with foragers. In addition, changes in food composition and preparation technology contributed to craniofacial and dental alterations, and activity levels and mobility decline resulted in a general decrease in skeletal robusticity. These findings indicate that the shift from food collection to food production occasioned significant and widespread biological changes in human populations during the last 10,000 years.

Measurement of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (613C and 615N) in samples of human bone collagen (n = 93) from a temporal series of four prehistoric (early preagricultural, late preagricultural, early agricultural, late agricultural) and two historic (early contact, late contact) periods from the Georgia Bight, a continental embayment on the southeast- ern U.S. Atlantic coast, reveals a general temporal trend for less negative S13C values and less positive 615N values. This trend reflects a concomitant de- crease in emphasis on marine resources and increased reliance on C,-based resources, especially maize. This dietary reorientation is most apparent for the early agricultural sample (AD 1150-1300), coinciding with the Mississip- pian florescence in the eastern United States. There is, however, a shift toward the use of C3 (non-maize) foods during the last prehistoric period (AD 1300-14501, which is likely related to environmental stress and social disrup- tion. A heavier use of maize and terrestrial resources in general after the establishment of mission centers on barrier islands is indicated. A reduced dietary breadth during the mission period may have contributed to the extinc- tion of these populations in the eighteenth century. 6 1992 Wiley-Liss, 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.

Recent advances in the methods of skeletal age estimation have rekindled interest in their applicability to paleodemography. The current study contributes to the discussion by applying several long established as well as recently developed or refined aging methods to a subsample of 121 adult skeletons from the early medieval cemetery of Lauchheim. The skeletal remains were analyzed by 13 independent observers using a variety of aging techniques (complex method and other multimethod approaches, Transition Analysis, cranial suture closure, auricular surface method, osteon density method, tooth root translucency measurement, and tooth cementum annulation counting). The age ranges and mean age estimations were compared and results indicate that all methods showed smaller age ranges for the younger individuals, but broader age ranges for the older age groups.

Investigations of skeletal remains from key archaeological sites reveal new data and offer insights on prehistoric life and health in the Southeast.The shift from foraging to farming had important health consequences for prehistoric peoples, but variations in health existedwithin communities that had made this transition. This new collection draws on the rich bioarchaeological record of the Southeastern United States to explore variability in health and behavior within the age of agriculture. It offers new perspectives on human adaptation to various geographic and cultural landscapes across the entire Southeast, from Texas to Virginia, and presents new data from both classic and little-known sites.The contributors question the reliance on simple cause-and-effect relationships in human health and behavior by addressing such key bioarchaeological issues as disease history and epidemiology, dietary composition and sufficiency, workload stress, patterns of violence, mortuary practices, and biological consequences of European contact. They also advance our understanding of agriculture by showing that uses of maize were more varied than has been previously supposed.Representing some of the best work being done today by physical anthropologists, this volume provides new insights into human adaptation for both archaeologists and osteologists. It attests to the heterogeneous character of Southeastern societies during the late prehistoric and early historic periods while effectively detailing the many factors that have shaped biocultural evolution.Contributors include: Patricia S. Bridges, Elizabeth Monaham Driscoll, Debra L. Gold, Dale L. Hutchinson, Keith P. Jacobi, Patricia M. Lambert, Clark Spencer Larsen, Lynette Norr, Mary Lucas Powell, Marianne Reeves, Lisa Sattenspiel, Margaret J. Schoeninger, Mark R. Schurr, Leslie E. Sering, David S. Weaver, and Matthew A. Williamson

The understanding of process in the archaeological record can only be achieved through the use of a wide range of information. This paper utilizes data from biological anthropology by looking at change in frequency of dental caries with the shift to an agricultural based economy on the prehistoric Georgia coast after c. AD 1150. There is an increase in frequency of carious lesions which is more marked in the females, thus indicating a relatively greater impact of the dietary shift on them than on the males. Most likely, this disparity is due to subsistence role differences between the sexes: males maintained hunting responsibilities, while females were responsible for agricultural related activity, including food preparation.

Structural characteristics of the femur are compared in preagricultural (2200 B.C.-A.D. 1150) and agricultural (A.D. 1150-1550) subsistence strategy groups from the Georgia coast. Using an automated technique, cross-sectional geometric properties used in structural analyses (areas, second moments of area) were determined at midshaft and distal to the lesser trochanter in 20 adults from each group. A significant decline in magnitude of almost every geometric property occurs in the agricultural group. The differences between groups are reduced but still significant for many properties after standardizing for bone length differences. In addition, a remodeling of the femoral cortex to one of relatively smaller medullary and subperiosteal diameter, as well as a more circular cross-sectional shape, is characteristic of agricultural femora. Thus, while the relative cross-sectional area of bone remains the same, the spatial distribution of bone area is different in the two groups. The results strongly suggest a relative reduction in mechanical loadings of the femur in the agricultural group, implying different levels and possibly types of activity involving the lower limb in the two groups. The data are also compared with similar data available for the Pecos Pueblo (agricultural) sample. The comparison indicates that types of activity may have been more similar in the two agricultural samples, but that general levels of activity were more similar in the Pecos Pueblo and Georgia coast preagricultural samples.

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.