Palynological investigations in sediments of ancient lake Duvensee,Schleswig-Holstein (North Germany)

The Duvensee originated before the Alleroed in the Late Glacial, and had its largest areal coverage during the Preboreal. After the lake retreat, which began in early Boreal times, the marginal shore areas and nearshore islands were repeatedly inhabited by man in the early Mesolithicum. Archaeological excavations of human settlements and pollen analyses of sediment cores show evidence of lake level fluctuations in the ensuing period. The results disclose that shallow water sediments such as lake marls, algal muds and coarse detrital gyttjas predominate in the sequence. In keeping with the shallow water conditions, strong lateral facies changes were observed in the cores. The early Holocene deposits have almost the same thickness irrespective of their position in the shallow or deep parts of the lake basin. The subaerial exposure of the nearshore and island areas sometimes resulted in fern and reed peats. The last remnants of the lake, which was drained in 1850, lay in the marginal areas over shallow water sediments.     

Human skeletal remains from Cossack,Western Australia

Human remains of a male individual from Cossack, northwestern Australia are described. Absolute dating is not possible but site geomorphology restricts the upper limit to 6500 B.P. Morphologically and metrically the skull differs from those of recent Western Australian male Aborigines, but it is very similar to that of Kow Swamp I and others included in the “robust” prehistoric Australian Aboriginal group (Thorne, 1977). The specimen is important as indicating the widespread nature and probable recency of a large, robust Australian Aboriginal population demonstrably different to recent populations.     

Brief communication: Conjoined twins at angel mounds? an ancient DNA perspective

Conjoined twins are born when a single fertilized egg partially splits into two fetuses. A hypothetical case of infant conjoined twins from Angel Mounds, a Middle Mississippian site (A.D. 1050-1400) on the Ohio River near Evansville, Indiana, was discovered in 1941. Morphological analysis does not rule out the field interpretation of this double burial as twins. Ancient mitochondrial DNA recovered from both infants demonstrates that they were not maternal relatives, and hence that they cannot have been conjoined twins.     

Differential skeletal preservation at Windover Pond: causes and consequences

In this paper, we evaluate the causes of differential skeletal preservation in the Windover Pond skeletal series (8BR246). We collected data on sex and age for approximately 110 individuals, and calculated a preservation score for each individual based on the presence of 80 skeletal landmarks. Our research questions evaluated the relationship between bone preservation and individual age and sex, and between the presence of preserved brain material and skeletal preservation, and the effects of burial location on bone preservation. The results indicate variability in average preservation for the sample (micro = 0.53, SD = 0.22) with an apparent lack of sex-specific (P = 0.79) or age-specific (P = 0.37) differences in preservation. The relationship between brain and skeletal preservation (P = 0.15) was not significant. The horizontal distribution of burials was not significantly correlated with skeletal preservation (north: r = -0.10, P = 0.93; east: r = 0.09, P = 0.45); however, vertical depth was a significant predictor of preservation (r = -0.31, P = 0.005), indicating that skeletal preservation decreased as burials were located closer to the ground surface. The observed variability in preservation scores may be related to the partial drying and resubmergence of the uppermost burials for the last few millennia. Comparison of Windover element-specific survival rates with previous analyses based on terrestrial samples (Galloway et al. [1997] Forensic taphonomy, Boca Raton: CRC Press; Waldron [1987] Death, decay and reconstruction, Manchester: Manchester University Press; Willey et al. [1997] Am J Phys Anthropol 104:513-528) affirms the relationship between element weight or density and bone survival. The unique taphonomic context of our study sample effected little change in bone deterioration processes.     

Paleopathology of skeletal fluorosis

Skeletal fluorosis is one of a range of conditions causing excessive ossification and joint ankylosis in skeletons. It is rarely considered, however, in differential diagnoses of palaeopathological lesions. This paper considers the identification of skeletal fluorosis in a skeletal sample from the island of Bahrain, Arabian Gulf, dating to ca. 250 BC–AD 250. Approximately 4% of 255 adult skeletons in the sample have hyperostosic lesions resulting in joint ankylosis primarily of the lumbar vertebrae, as well as the major joints. These lesions most frequently occur among males in the 50+ age group. Chemical analysis on a small series of bone and dental samples confirmed the presence of high levels of fluoride, while staining of the teeth is evidence of dental fluorosis. The level of dental fluorosis is comparable with a naturally occurring fluoride level in water of between 1–2 ppm. The prevalence of hyperostosic lesions, however, appears higher than expected, and two possible reasons are suggested: confusion between a diagnosis of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis and skeletal fluorosis on partial or less severely affected skeletons; and the presence of predisposing factors for skeletal fluorosis on the island in the past. Am J Phys Anthropol 109:465–483, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Skeletal evidence of health and disease in pre-contact Alaskan Eskimos and Aleuts

There have been relatively few paleopathological studies of arctic populations to date, compared to other regions of North America. Studies aimed at elucidating patterns of health and disease in arctic peoples prior to contact and assessing inter- and intraregional differences in disease patterns have been particularly few. In the present study, five pre-contact skeletal samples (N = 193), representing 4 Eskimo populations from northern coastal Alaska and 1 Aleut population from the eastern Aleutian Islands, were examined macroscopically for the following indicators of health status: cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, trauma, infection, dental caries, abscesses, antemortem tooth loss, periodontal disease, and dental attrition. In addition, archeological and epidemiological data were used to help reconstruct the health of these populations. The goals of the analysis were 2-fold: 1) to assess the pre-contact health of North Alaskan Eskimos and Aleuts in order to provide a baseline comparison for the post-contact health of these groups, and 2) to determine if any differences in disease patterns exist between the Eskimos and Aleuts that might be related to differences in their physical environment, subsistence patterns, and cultural practices. The analysis revealed that both groups suffered from a variety of health problems prior to contact, including iron deficiency anemia, trauma, infection, and various forms of dental pathology. Statistical comparisons of the 2 groups revealed that Eskimos and Aleuts had different patterns of health and disease prior to contact. Most notably, the Aleuts had a significantly higher frequency of cranial trauma and infracranial infection than the Eskimos, while the latter had a significantly higher frequency of enamel hypoplasia. An examination of the physical and cultural environment of the 2 groups reveals several possible explanations for these differences, including warfare, subsistence pursuits, and housing practices. The documentation of these differences indicates that variability in pre-contact disease patterns can be identified between hunter-gatherer populations living in similar environments and exhibiting similar general lifestyles. Am J Phys Anthropol 107:51–70, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.