Shelley R. Saunders

Biological anthropology of the human skeleton

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION (M. ANNE KATZENBERG AND SHELLEY R. SAUNDERS). PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION (M. ANNE KATZENBERG AND SHELLEY R. SAUNDERS). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. CONTRIBUTORS. FOREWORD (JANE E. BUIKSTRA). PART: I THEORY AND APPLICATION IN STUDIES OF PAST PEOPLES. 1. Bioarchaeological Ethics: A Historical Perspective on the Value of Human Remains (Phillip L. Walker). 2. Forensic Anthropology: Methodology and Diversity of Applications (Douglas H. Ubelaker). 3. Taphonomy and the Nature of Archaeological Assemblages (Ann L. W. Stodder). PART II: MORPHOLOGICAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL ANALYSES. 4. Juvenile Skeletons and Growth-Related Studies (Shelley R. Saunders). 5. Histomorphometry of Human Cortical Bone: Applications to Age Estimation (Alexander G. Robling and Sam D. Stout). 6. Biomechanical Analyses of Archaeological Human Skeletons (Christopher B. Ruff). 7. Morphometrics and Biological Anthropology in the Postgenomic Age (Benedikt Hallgrimsson, Miriam Leah Zelditch, Trish E. Parsons, Erika Kristensen, Nathan M. Young, and Steven K. Boyd). 8. Reading Between the Lines: Dental Development and Subadult Age Assessment Using the Microstructural Growth Markers of Teeth (Charles M. FitzGerald and Jerome C. Rose). 9. Dental Morphology (G. Richard Scott). PART III: PREHISTORIC HEALTH AND DISEASE. 10. Dental Pathology (Simon Hillson). 11. Analysis and Interpretation of Skeletal Trauma (Nancy C. Lovell). 12. Light and Broken Bones: Examining and Interpreting Bone Loss and Osteoporosis in Past Populations (Sabrina C. Agarwal). PART IV: CHEMICAL AND GENETIC ANALYSES OF HARD TISSUES. 13. Stable Isotope Analysis: A Tool for Studying Past Diet, Demography, and Life History (M. Anne Katzenberg). 14. Bone Chemistry and Trace Element Analysis (James Burton). 15. DNA Analysis of Archaeological Remains (Anne C. Stone). PART V: QUANTITATIVE METHODS AND POPULATION STUDIES . 16. Metric Analysis of Skeletal Remains: Methods and Applications (Michael Pietrusewsky). 17. Nonmetric Trait Variation in the Skeleton: Abnormalities, Anomalies, and Atavisms (Shelley R. Saunders and Dori L. Rainey). 18. Advances in Paleodemography (George R. Milner, James W. Wood, and Jesper L. Boldsen). 19. Method and Theory in Paleodemography, with an Application to a Hunting, Fishing and Gathering Village from the Late Eastern Woodlands of North America (Richard S. Meindl, Robert P. Mensforth, and C. Owen Lovejoy). Index .

Improved DNA extraction from ancient bones using silica-based spin columns

We describe a simple method for extracting polymerase chain reaction-amplifiable DNA from ancient bones without the use of organic solvents. Bone powders are digested with proteinase K, and the DNA is purified directly using silica-based spin columns (QIAquick3, QIAGEN). The efficiency of this protocol is demonstrated using human bone samples ranging in age from 15 to 5,000 years old.

Weaning and infant mortality : Evaluating the skeletal evidence

Studies of prehistoric patterns of health and disease focus on interpretations of the evidence from hard tissue remains of past peoples. These interpretations are based on observations of living peoples and the sources of stress which may be expected to leave a record in their bones and teeth. One presumed source of stress that has received wide attention in the recent literature is weaning. The process of weaning is often associated with elevated risks of infant mortality and morbidity because infants no longer receive passive immunity from their mothers, and they are exposed to new sources of infection through the weaning diet. The process of weaning has also been tied to the duration of the contraceptive effects of nursing and the return of fecundity, which in turn provides information about birth spacing and population growth. Recently some of the basic assumptions about nursing and weaning, and their effects on morbidity, mortality and population growth, have been challenged, based on new technical and cross-cultural information. It is clear from the demographic literature that some studies based on skeletal samples tend to be too simplistic in terms of the causes of infant morbidity and mortality. This paper reviews current research which relates weaning and infant mortality to health and reproduction in past populations and evaluates studies of enamel hypoplasia and bone chemistry for reconstructing infant feeding practices in the past.

A Test of Several Methods of Skeletal Age Estimation using a Documented Archaeological Sample

ABSTRACTThis study presents the results of blind tests of four morphological methods of adult age at death estimation from the human skeleton as well as a statistical technique for combining multiple age indicators, carried out on personally identified skeletons from a nineteenth century Canadian pioneer cemetery. Sample sizes for the four methods ranged from 27 to 49 individuals. Personal identification of skeletons was based on legible coffin plates checked against complete parish registers available for the entire tenure of the cemetery. All four methods presented disparate problems of application most common of whiQh was increasing bias and inaccuracy with increasing age. Other difficulties include sampling inadequacies and considerable variability inherent in the original standards. The multifactorial aging approach as a means of consolidating age estimates from a variety of methods fared no better than simple averaging of age estimates. The authors recommend the use of a variety of age estimation me...

Accuracy of Sex Determination Using Morphological Traits of the Human Pelvis

This study assesses the accuracy and reliability of 17 individual morphological traits of the pelvis frequently used to determine the sex of human skeletal remains. A sample of 49 right and left adult hip bones and sacra of documented individuals were available from an historic church cemetery dating from the 19th century. A hypothetical ranking of the accuracy of traits was drawn from the literature. Next, individual traits were evaluated for precision and accuracy of observations, and combinations of two and three traits were evaluated for their collective effectiveness as sex indicators. The effect of age on the accuracy of traits for sex determination was also examined. Precision of traits was generally good. Several combinations of three criteria produced higher levels of accuracy than the trait list as a whole. A total of six traits was judged to be most effective as sex discriminators because of low intraobserver error levels and better than 83% accuracy rats. There was no indication of an age effect on the precision or accuracy of these traits although sample sizes are small.

Isotopic and dental evidence for infant and young child feeding practices in an imperial Roman skeletal sample

This study integrates isotopic, palaeopathological, and historical evidence to investigate infant and young child feeding practices in a Roman period (1st to 3rd centuries AD) skeletal sample from the Isola Sacra necropolis (Rome, Italy). Stable isotope analysis of bone collagen from 37 rib samples indicates that transitional feeding began by the end of the first year and weaning occurred by 2-2.5 years of age. Both delta(15)N and delta(13)C data clearly show the trophic level effect associated with breastfeeding. Childhood diet is investigated using dental pathology data in the deciduous dentitions of 78 individuals aged between 1 and 12 years. The presence of calculus, caries, and tooth wear in young children suggests that individuals were provided complementary foods and other items that impacted their dental health at an early age. The isotopic and dental data are generally consistent with the historical evidence from the Roman period with respect to the general timetable of weaning and the character of complementary foods. This is the first study to integrate isotopic and deciduous dental pathology data to explore infant and young child feeding practices in the Roman world.

A Discriminant Function Analysis of Deciduous Teeth to Determine Sex

Studies of deciduous teeth have concluded that crown size differences in these teeth between males and females are not reliable sex discriminators, in contrast to such differences in permanent teeth. This study measured the mesiodistal and faciolingual crown diameters of all deciduous teeth, as well as those of the permanent first molars, of 162 children from the Burlington Orthodontic Growth Study, conducted earlier in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. All 40 deciduous tooth diameters (20 mesiolingual and 20 faciolingual) were significantly different between the sexes, as were the permanent tooth diameters. Using three to five measurements of deciduous teeth, discriminant analyses of several samplings of these children produced discriminant functions in which 76 to 90% of the holdout samples were correctly classified by sex. Combinations of deciduous and permanent measurements were used to classify 83 to 85% of the holdout samples correctly. When compared with published data on other sample populations, the Burlington group is the most dimorphic for deciduous teeth and is within the range of permanent tooth dimorphisms of other populations. The level of classification accuracy, when using discriminant analysis of the deciduous teeth, can approach the accuracy levels of analysis using the permanent teeth.

Evaluation of Morphological and Histological Adult Skeletal Age-at-Death Estimation Techniques Using Ribs

Adult age-at-death estimation standards were applied to an independent sample (N = 50, 55) of documented ages 17.5 to 95 years. Estimates derived from the sternal rib end morphological and from the cortical rib histological techniques were compared with each other and to the documented ages. Comparisons to the documented ages reveal no statistically significant differences between the techniques. However, the comparison of each individuals estimates show a poor correlation (r = 0.54) despite the equal performance of the age estimations on the entire sample. Averaging of the two rib age estimates results in an estimate with a stronger Pearsons r (0.86) and a lower standard error of the estimate (7.5 years).

Two arch criteria of the ilium for sex determination of immature skeletal remains: a test of their accuracy and an assessment of intra- and inter-observer error.

Although the assignment of sex to immature skeletal remains is considered problematic, some traits have been considered useful for both forensic and bioarchaeological applications. One such trait is the arch criterion found in subadult ilia, which is defined relative to the greater sciatic notch-auricular surface area. In adults, the composite arch has also been described in relation to this area and has proven relatively successful in sex determination. This study offers an examination of the accuracy of the arch criterion and the composite arch in determining the sex of subadult skeletal remains, and an assessment of intra- and inter-observer scoring error. A sample of 97 skeletons of known sex and age (<15 years) from the Lisbon collection (Portugal) were selected and the traits were scored by three observers on orthogonal photos of each ilium. In general the agreement within (67.7-88.5%) and between (50.5-76.3%) examiners was poor and overall accuracy (26.7-52.6%) did not meet the expectations of that reported in previous studies. The authors suggest that this derives from great variation in morphology, difficulties in interpreting criteria and possibly a lack of association between the expression of the traits and sex. Careful examination of sex-related morphology in the immature skeleton and additional blind tests of so-called useful traits should continue to be carried out.

Midline Facial Tissue Thicknesses of Subadults from a Longitudinal Radiographic Study

Fourteen midline facial tissue measurements were taken from 615 tracings of lateral radiographs of subadults aged 8 to 20 years. The data were collected to examine two questions: First, are there differences in facial soft tissue measurements between female and male subadults? Second, do facial tissue thicknesses change as children grow? Results indicate that males exhibit greater tissue thickness measurements than females but only significantly so after age 14. Results further indicate a trend of increased facial tissue thickness as individuals grow; however, correlations are weak and suggest that other unknown factors are involved. Data presented here can be of practical application for facial reproduction in forensic cases.