Mary Jackes

Healthy but mortal: Human biology and the first farmers of western Europe

What do we know about the effects of the transition to agriculture on human biology? A literature has grown up that gives us the impression that we know a great deal about what happened to bones and teeth when people became sedentary farmers. A review of the sources of these ideas and the evidence supporting them, especially based on work in Portugal, reveals that a reconsideration of the biological consequences of farming in Europe is overdue.

On Paradox and Osteology

Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199308%2F10%2934%3A4%3C434%3AOPAO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0Current Anthropology is currently published by The University of Chicago Press.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTORs Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTORs Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/ucpress.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academicjournals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers,and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community takeadvantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.http://www.jstor.orgMon Oct 22 15:54:16 2007

THE PALEODEMOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL PORTUGAL AND THE MESOLITHIC-NEOLITHIC TRANSITION

Newly available information on the excavation of the Portuguese Mesolithic shell middens, Cabeco da Arruda and Moita do Sebastiao, has allowed reassessment of the paleodemography of the sites. Following the restudy of Arruda and an examination of Moita site structure, we now discuss the problem of arriving at a minimum number of individuals (MNI) for Moita and use the age distribution of the dead to estimate the total fertility rate (TFR). We confirm the difference between Moita and Arruda and note their divergence from the Neolithic site of Casa da Moura. Our method of estimating TFR, deriving from the use of West model tables, is explained and is tested by reference to historical data sets and by calculation of equivalent demographic values using the Brass relational table approach. Our focus is the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition and we establish the context of demographic change in the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic of central Portugal by reference to changing environmental, nutritional and disease conditions. The low level of population growth at Moita would have increased during the occupation of Arruda. However, subsequent changes in climate and sea levels led to unfavorable conditions and we hypothesize that the Tagus lowlands were abandoned in favor of healthier uplands where there was a rebound and an increase in population growth in response to changed lifeways

Teeth and the past in Portugal: pathology and the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition.

Carious lesions are considered an important marker of dietary change at the transition from hunting and gathering to horticulture. Within the context of the transition to the Neolithic in Central Portugal, this paper discusses factors which must be taken into consideration in reporting dental pathology frequencies. Three sites are examined, two late Mesolithic shell middens and one early Neolithic burial cave dating before 5500 calBP which is taken to b e the end of the transition period. Comparability of results across different burial types and depositional environments requires close attention to methodology. Despite inclusion of necessary detail on caries type, age of onset of pathology and age distribution within the sample, factors such as the use of teeth as tools and post-mortem alteration of teeth may make it impossible to be certain of rates of pathology. Inter-site differences in dental pathology may result, not only from diet, but from differing adult age distributions: when burial modes and deposits are dissimilar, differing diagenesis and taphonomy may further bias pathology rates, as well the use of teeth as tools which can affect attrition, trauma and tooth loss rates.

New information on Melides stable isotopes

Abstract In 1994 we published the unexpected result of an extreme Mesolithic stable isotope signal from a Neolithic context (Lubell et al. 1994; Table 1). The sample, identified as Gruta de Lagar I, was from one of two caves at the site of Melides, near the Atlantic coast of Portugal between Sines and Setúbal. A sample from the second cave at Melides, Cerca do Zambujal, gave results consonant with our Neolithic samples from north of the Tagus River. Lagar I, on the other hand, had stable isotope values similar to Cabeço da Arruda N, a Late Mesolithic individual from the Muge Valley to the north-east of Melides.