Enthesopathies as occupational stress markers: Evidence from the upper limb

Enthesopathies—that is, “musculo‐skeletal stress markers”—are frequently used to reconstruct past lifestyles and activity patterns. Relatively little attention has been paid in physical anthropology to methodological gaps implicit in this approach: almost all methods previously employed neglect current medical insights into enthesopathies and the distinction between healthy and pathological aspects has been arbitrary. This study presents a new visual method of studying fibrocartilaginous enthesopathies of the upper limb (modified from Villotte: Bull Mém Soc Anthropol Paris n.s. 18 (2006) 65–85), and application of this method to 367 males who died between the 18th and 20th centuries, from four European identified skeletal collections: the Christ Church Spitalfields Collection, the identified skeletal collection of the anthropological museum of the University of Coimbra, and the Sassari and Bologna collections of the museum of Anthropology, University of Bologna. The analysis, using generalized estimating equations to model repeated binary outcome variables, has established a strong link between enthesopathies and physical activity: men with occupations involving heavy manual tasks have significantly (P‐value < 0.001) more lesions of the upper limbs than nonmanual and light manual workers. Probability of the presence of an enthesopathy also increases with age and is higher for the right side compared with the left. Our study failed to distinguish significant differences between the collections when adjusted for the other effects. It appears that enthesopathies can be used to reconstruct past lifestyles of populations if physical anthropologists: 1) pay attention to the choice of entheses in their studies and 2) use appropriate methods. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Body mass and stature estimation based on the first metatarsal in humans

Archaeological assemblages often lack the complete long bones needed to estimate stature and body mass. The most accurate estimates of body mass and stature are produced using femoral head diameter and femur length. Foot bones including the first metatarsal preserve relatively well in a range of archaeological contexts. In this article we present regression equations using the first metatarsal to estimate femoral head diameter, femoral length, and body mass in a diverse human sample. The skeletal sample comprised 87 individuals (Andamanese, Australasians, Africans, Native Americans, and British). Results show that all first metatarsal measurements correlate moderately to highly (r = 0.62-0.91) with femoral head diameter and length. The proximal articular dorsoplantar diameter is the best single measurement to predict both femoral dimensions. Percent standard errors of the estimate are below 5%. Equations using two metatarsal measurements show a small increase in accuracy. Direct estimations of body mass (calculated from measured femoral head diameter using previously published equations) have an error of just over 7%. No direct stature estimation equations were derived due to the varied linear body proportions represented in the sample. The equations were tested on a sample of 35 individuals from Christ Church Spitalfields. Percentage differences in estimated and measured femoral head diameter and length were less than 1%. This study demonstrates that it is feasible to use the first metatarsal in the estimation of body mass and stature. The equations presented here are particularly useful for assemblages where the long bones are either missing or fragmented, and enable estimation of these fundamental population parameters in poorly preserved assemblages.     

Sex determination of adolescent skeletons using the distal humerus

Accurate determination of the sex of immature skeletal remains is difficult in the absence of DNA, due to the fact that most sexually dimorphic features of the human skeleton develop as secondary sex characteristics during adolescence. Methods of assessment of adult skeletons cannot reliably be applied to adolescent skeletons because of the transitional nature of the skeleton at puberty and the variability of the adolescent growth spurt. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the accuracy of Rogers's method of morphological sex determination using the distal humerus (Rogers: J Forensic Sci 44 ( 1999 ) 55–59) to assess the sex of adolescent skeletons. The sample consists of 7 documented adolescent skeletons from the Christ Church Spitalfields collection at the British Museum of Natural History and 35 from the Luis Lopes skeletal collection housed in the National History Museum (Museu Bocage) of the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Ages range from 11 to 20 years. The technique achieved an accuracy of 81% on the combined sample of 42. This method can be applied to adolescent skeletons once the trochlea begins fusing to the humeral diaphysis, which occurred by age 11 years in the test samples. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Application of the Bang and Ramm age at death estimation method to two known‐age archaeological assemblages

The Bang and Ramm method uses root dentine translucency (RDT) length in sectioned or unsectioned teeth as a sole indicator of chronological age at death in adult human remains. The formulae have been tested on modern remains of known age and on modern and archaeological remains of unknown age. This is the first published study of the method on known‐age archaeological specimens and tests whether RDT is a good indicator of chronological age in buried human remains. We applied the Bang and Ramm equations to two 18th and 19th century assemblages excavated from the crypt of Christ Church, Spitalfields, and the cemetery of All Hallows by the Tower. Translucency was defined by shining a light through the external unsectioned root surface and was measured from digital images of 583 and 83 nonmolar roots from 126 Spitalfields and 12 All Hallows individuals, respectively, aged 21–81 years. Average absolute difference between real age and estimated age was 10.7 years and 8.4 years for Spitalfields and All Hallows individuals, respectively, with 58% and 75% estimated within 10 years of known age, and 29% and 33% estimated within five years of known age. These estimations are comparable to results from other ageing methods applied to the Spitalfields collection. Ages from both populations were estimated largely to the middle ranges, with younger individuals overestimated and older individuals underestimated. This is a common occurrence when using inverse calibration, where age is treated as the dependent variable and the ageing feature as the independent variable. Am J Phys Anthropol 155:332–351, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A blind test of mandibular morphology for sexing mandibles in the first few years of life

Loth and Henneberg ([2001] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 115:179-186) proposed that consistent shape differences exist between male and female juvenile mandibles which can be used to predict sex with an accuracy of 81%. A sample of known sex and age from the Spitalfields Collection was examined blind twice and resulted in an overall accuracy of only 64%. The tests also showed that: 1) the method sexed males more reliably than females; and 2) consistency was low.     

Effects of age and occupation on cortical bone in a group of 18th-19th century British men

The effects of age and occupation on cortical bone in a group of adult males from the 18th-19th century AD skeletal collection from Christ Church Spitalfields, London, were investigated. Cortical bone was monitored using metacarpal radiogrammetry. Individual age at death was known exactly from coffin plates. Occupation for individuals was known from historical sources. Results showed that continued periosteal apposition was evident throughout adult life, but from middle age onwards this was outstripped by about 2:1 by endosteal resorption, so that there was net thinning of cortical bone. The rate of cortical thinning resembled that seen in modern European males. Cross-sectional properties, as measured by second moments of area, bore no relationship to occupation. The results may suggest that, firstly, patterns of loss of cortical bone have remained unchanged in males for at least two centuries in Britain, and secondly, that biomechanical analyses of metacarpal cortical bone may be rather insensitive indicators of intensity of manual activity.     

Analysis of quantitative methods for rib seriation using the Spitalfields documented skeletal collection

Accurate rib seriation is essential in forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology for determination of minimum numbers of individuals, sequencing trauma patterns to the chest, and identification of central ribs for use in age estimation. We investigate quantitative methods for rib seriation based on three metric variables: superior (anterior) costo-transverse crest height (SCTCH), articular facet of the tubercle-to-angle length (AFTAL), and head-to-articular facet length (HAFL). The sample consists of complete but unseriated sets of ribs from 133 individuals from the documented (known age and sex) and undocumented skeletal collections of Christ Church Spitalfields, London. This research confirms the results of an earlier study (Hoppa and Saunders [1998] J. Forensic. Sci. 43:174-177) and extends it with the application of two new metric traits and further analyses of sex differences. Analyses of variance showed that SCTCH and AFTAL are significantly associated (P < 0.001) with rib number. Tukey tests of pairwise rib comparisons revealed that for two dimensions (SCTCH and AFTAL), the central ribs (3rd-6th) are significantly distinct from each other (P < 0.05). Using simple ranking of either the SCTCH or AFTAL traits, the proportion of correctly identified ribs within +/-1 position was 80%, compared to initial seriation using morphological methods (Dudar [1993] J. Forensic. Sci. 28:788-797; Mann [1993] J. Forensic. Sci. 28:151-155). Significant sex dimorphism was also identified for these two traits. Analysis of the HAFL trait produced somewhat equivocal results, suggesting that this variable is not reliable for rib seriation. The variable SCTCH proves to be the most useful dimension for seriation, and shows that all but the 7th-9th ribs can be distinguished from others in the sequence, with important results for the 4th rib, where ranking allowed identification in 86% of cases, consistent with morphological methods for intact ribs.     

Increasing human tooth length between birth and 5.4 years

Most previous studies of tooth development have used fractional stages of tooth formation to construct growth standards suitable for aging juvenile skeletal material. A simple alternative for determining dental age is to measure tooth length throughout development. In this study, data on tooth length development are presented from 63 individuals of known age at death, between birth and 5.4 years, from an archeological population recovered from the crypt of Christ Church, Spitalfields, London. Isolated developing teeth (304 deciduous, 269 permanent) were measured in millimeters and plotted against individual age. Regression equations to estimate age from a given tooth length, are presented for each deciduous maxillary and mandibular tooth type and for permanent maxillary and mandibular incisors, canines, and first permanent molars. Data on the earliest age of root completion of deciduous teeth and initial mineralization and crown completion of some permanent teeth in this sample are given, as well as the average crown height and total tooth length from a small number of unworn teeth. This method provides an easy, quantitative and objective measure of dental formation appropriate for use by archeologists and anthropologists. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Directional asymmetry in the forelimb of Macaca mulatta

Asymmetry was investigated in the forelimbs of 150 rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) skeletons using measurements of right and left humerii, radii, ulnae, second metacarpals, and femora. Seven of the ten forelimb dimensions were larger on the right than on the left side. Paired t-tests revealed that the mean of the right side was significantly larger than that for the left for two measurements of the ulna and two of the humerus. No measurement was significantly larger on the left than on the right side. These results indicate a small but significant asymmetry in the forelimb bones of rhesus monkeys and, as is the case for humans, the direction of asymmetry favors the right side. Our findings are consistent with an interpretation of hypertrophy of certain muscles and opens the question of whether rhesus monkeys preferentially use their right forelimbs for manipulative tasks that require manual dexterity, as is the case for humans. These forelimb skeletal asymmetries are discussed in light of the recent literature on cortical asymmetry and handedness in nonhuman primates.     

Test of the Lamendin aging method on two historic skeletal samples

The Lamendin aging method involves the quantification of root translucency and the attachment position of the periodontal membrane. It was developed using recent medical-examiner specimens, and was tested on modern skeletal samples such as the Terry Collection (Lamendin et al. [1992] J. Forensic Sci. 37:1373-1379; Prince and Ubelaker [2002] J. Forensic Sci. 47:107-116). The method may be one of the most useful for estimating age after the mid-30s. The current study is an evaluation of the Lamendin criteria on two historic skeletal samples from Britain. Both the Christ's Church Spitalfields and St. Bride's Church collections represent documented skeletal samples that were interred in the 18th and 19th centuries. In total, 1,188 teeth from 220 adult individuals were examined from these two collections. The Lamendin method requires measuring total root length (cementoenamel junction to apex), gingival regression (cementoenamel junction to periodontal ligament attachment), and root translucency (root apex to maximum level of root translucency) on the labial surface of single-rooted teeth. Our results indicate that postmortem factors affect the applicability of the Lamendin technique to archaeological and historical samples. In particular, root translucency disappears with time, or is obscured by unknown postmortem taphonomic effects related to the length of interment or postmortem environment. Thirty-five percent of our sample showed no root translucency, indicating that caution is required when applying this method to archaeological or historical remains. The mean error of age estimates for Spitalfields and St. Bride's was higher than in the original study of Lamendin et al. ([1992] J. Forensic Sci. 37: 1373-1379), and higher than in the test by Prince and Ubelaker ([2002] J. Forensic Sci. 47:107-116) of the Lamendin method on the Terry Collection.     

Linear enamel hypoplasias as indicators of systemic physiological stress: evidence from two known age-at-death and sex populations from postmedieval London

Enamel hypoplasias are useful indicators of systemic growth disturbances during childhood, and are routinely used to investigate patterns of morbidity and mortality in past populations. This study examined the pattern of linear enamel hypoplasias in two different burial populations from 18th and 19th Century church crypts in London. Linear enamel hypoplasias on the permanent dentitions of individuals from the crypt of Christ Church, Spitalfields, were compared to enamel defects on the teeth of individuals from St. Bride's. The method used involves the identification of enamel defects at a microscopic level, and systemic perturbations are detected by matching hypoplasias among different tooth classes within each individual. The pattern of linear enamel hypoplasias was contrasted between individuals from the burial sites of Spitalfields and St. Bride's, between males and females, and between those aged less than 20 years of age and those aged over 20 years at death. Six different parameters were examined: frequency of linear enamel hypoplasias, interval between defects, duration of hypoplasias, age at first occurrence of hypoplasia, age at last occurrence of hypoplasia, and the percentage of enamel formation time taken up by growth disturbances. All individuals in the study displayed linear enamel hypoplasias, with up to 33% of total visible enamel formation time affected by growth disruptions. Multiple regression analysis indicated a number of significant differences in the pattern of enamel hypoplasias. Individuals from Spitalfields had shorter intervals between defects and greater percentages of enamel formation time affected by growth disturbances than did individuals from St. Bride's. Females had greater numbers of linear enamel hypoplasias, shorter intervals between defects, and greater percentages of enamel formation time affected by growth disturbances than males. There were also differences in the pattern of enamel hypoplasias and age at death in this study. Individuals who died younger in life had an earlier age at first occurrence of enamel hypoplasia than those who survived to an older age. The pattern of enamel hypoplasias detected in this study was influenced by tooth crown geometry and tooth wear such that most defects were found in the midcrown and cervical regions of the teeth, and greater numbers of defects were identified on the anterior teeth. Differences in sensitivity of the parameters used for the detection of enamel hypoplasias were found in this study. The percentage of visible enamel formation time affected by growth disturbances was the parameter that identified the greatest number of significant differences among the subgroups examined.     

Sex discrimination from the acetabulum in a twentieth-century skeletal sample from France using digital photogrammetry

Digital photogrammetric methods were used to collect diameter, area, and perimeter data of the acetabulum for a twentieth-century skeletal sample from France (Georges Olivier Collection, Musée de l’Homme, Paris) consisting of 46 males and 36 females. The measurements were then subjected to both discriminant function and logistic regression analyses in order to develop osteometric standards for sex assessment. Univariate discriminant functions and logistic regression equations yielded overall correct classification accuracy rates for both the left and the right acetabula ranging from 84.1% to 89.6%. The multivariate models developed in this study did not provide increased accuracy over those using only a single variable. Classification sex bias ratios ranged between 1.1% and 7.3% for the majority of models. The results of this study, therefore, demonstrate that metric analysis of acetabular size provides a highly accurate, and easily replicable, method of discriminating sex in this documented skeletal collection. The results further suggest that the addition of area and perimeter data derived from digital images may provide a more effective method of sex assessment than that offered by traditional linear measurements alone.     

Impact of industrialization: comparative study of child health in four sites from medieval and postmedieval England (A.D. 850-1859)

The morbidity and mortality profiles of 831 non-adult skeletons from four contrasting sites in medieval and postmedieval England were compared to assess whether urbanization and later industrialization, had a detrimental effect on the health of the inhabitants. Failure in the population's ability to adapt to these environments should be evident in the higher rates of mortality, retarded growth, higher levels of stress, and a greater prevalence of metabolic and infectious disease in the urban groups. Non-adult skeletons were examined from Raunds Furnells in Northamptonshire, from St. Helen-on-the-Walls and Wharram Percy in Yorkshire, and from Christ Church Spitalfields in London. Results showed that a greater number of older children were being buried at the later medieval sites and that the skeletal growth profiles of the medieval urban and rural children did not differ significantly. A comparison of the growth profiles of St. Helen-on-the-Walls (urban) and Spitalfields (industrial) showed that the Spitalfields children were up to 3 cm shorter than their later medieval counterparts. At Spitalfields, cribra orbitalia and enamel hypoplasias occurred during the first 6 months of life, and 54% of the non-adults had evidence of metabolic disease. It is argued that differences in the morbidity and mortality of non-adults from urban and rural environments did exist in the past, but that it was industrialization that had the greatest impact on child health. Environmental conditions, urban employment, socioeconomic status, and changes in weaning ages and infant feeding practices contributed to differences in health in rural, urban, and industrial environments.     

Sex determination of infant and juvenile skeletons: I. Morphognostic features

Ancient cemeteries are often characterized by a considerable number of infants and young children. Sex differences in childhood mortality, however, could rarely be studied up to now, mainly because there were only few proven traits for sexual determination of immature skeletons. Based on a historic sample of sixty-one children of known sex and age from Spitalfields, London (37 boys, 24 girls), sexually distinctive traits in the mandible and ilium are presented for morphognostic diagnosis. Besides other features, boys typically show a more prominent chin, an anteriorly wider dental arcade, and a narrower and deeper sciatic notch than girls. Most of the traits presented in this study allow individuals between birth and five years of age to be successfully allocated to either sex in 70–90% of the cases. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Sexual dimorphism of root length on a Greek population sample

Sexual dimorphism in teeth has been an area of research for osteoarchaeologists and forensic anthropologists studying human skeletal remains. As most studies have been based on the mesiodistal and buccolingual crown measurements, sexual dimorphism from root length dimensions remains “neglected” by comparison to crown dimensions. The aim of the present study was to test the existence of sexual dimorphism in the root length of single-rooted teeth with the purpose of investigating whether maximum root length can be reliably used to determine sex. A total of 774 permanent teeth in 102 individuals (58 males and 44 females) from the Athens Collection were examined. The maximum root length of each tooth was measured on the mesial, distal, buccal, and lingual side. Almost all teeth presented a high degree of sexual dimorphism with males showing numerically higher values in root length than females. The most dimorphic teeth were the maxillary second incisors followed by maxillary canines. The percentage of sexual dimorphism reached 16.56%, with maxillary teeth showing the highest degree of dimorphism. The classification results show that the overall correctly specified group percentage ranged from 58.6% to 90.0%. The data generated from this study suggest that root length measurements offer a reliable method for determining sex and are therefore useful in osteoarchaeological studies, particularly in cases of fragmented or cremated material, but also in forensic contexts. Moreover, root length can be used to separate the remains of female and male subadult individuals with a high level of accuracy thus addressing one of the most problematic issues in human osteoarchaeology and anthropology as immature skeletons are the most difficult to sex.     

太原地区现代人头骨的研究

本文报告了太原地区男、女组现代人头骨测量性状的基本统计量和非测量性状的出现情况,记述和讨论了它们的两侧差异和性别差异情况,建立了以多个项目测量值鉴定华北人头骨性别的判别函数。     

Sex assessment using the proximal tibia

The proximal end of the human tibia is sexually dimorphic. Tibial condyles from 100 individuals in the Hamann-Todd Collection were measured. Regression equations retrodicted known sex with 86-95% accuracy. A test sample of 20 individuals also from the Hamann-Todd Collection was classified with 85-100% accuracy. A sample of 20 prehistoric individuals provisionally sexed by using crania and innominate bones was classified with 85-100% agreement. Thus, the proximal tibia may be useful in determining the sex of a skeleton.     

Age estimation from the auricular surface of the ilium: a revised method

A revised method for estimating adult age at death using the auricular surface of the ilium has been developed. It is based on the existing auricular surface aging method of Lovejoy et al. ([1985] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 68:15-28), but the revised technique is easier to apply, and has low levels of inter- and intraobserver error. The new method records age-related stages for different features of the auricular surface, which are then combined to provide a composite score from which an estimate of age at death is obtained. Blind tests of the method were carried out on a known-age skeletal collection from Christ Church, Spitalfields, London. These tests showed that the dispersion of age at death for a given morphological stage was large, particularly after the first decade of adult life. Statistical analysis showed that the age-related changes in auricular surface are not significantly different for males and females. The scores from the revised method have a slightly higher correlation with age than do the Suchey-Brooks pubic symphysis stages. Considering the higher survival rates of the auricular surface compared with the pubic symphysis, this method promises to be useful for biological anthropology and forensic science.     

Sex determination of fragmentary crania by analysis of the cranial base

The cranial base can be used to determine the sex of fragmentary or deformed skulls. An initial study used nine measurements taken from 100 crania in the Terry Collection. The sample was divided equally by race and sex. Six regression models were formulated that predicted correctly the sex of the sample with 71-90% accuracy. In a separate test, a control sample of 20 skulls, also drawn from the Terry Collection but not involved with formulating the regression equations, was correctly classified with 70-85% accuracy.