1
|
Nava A, Lugli F, Lemmers S, Cerrito P, Mahoney P, Bondioli L, Müller W. Reading children's teeth to reconstruct life history and the evolution of human cooperation and cognition: The role of dental enamel microstructure and chemistry. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 163:105745. [PMID: 38825260 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105745] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2024] [Revised: 05/25/2024] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 06/04/2024]
Abstract
Studying infants in the past is crucial for understanding the evolution of human life history and the evolution of cooperation, cognition, and communication. An infant's growth, health, and mortality can provide information about the dynamics and structure of a population, their cultural practices, and the adaptive capacity of a community. Skeletal remains provide one way of accessing this information for humans recovered prior to the historical periods. Teeth in particular, are retrospective archives of information that can be accessed through morphological, micromorphological, and biogeochemical methods. This review discusses how the microanatomy and formation of teeth, and particularly enamel, serve as archives of somatic growth, stress, and the environment. Examining their role in the broader context of human evolution, we discuss dental biogeochemistry and emphasize how the incremental growth of tooth microstructure facilitates the reconstruction of temporal data related to health, diet, mobility, and stress in past societies. The review concludes by considering tooth microstructure as a biomarker and the potential clinical applications.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alessia Nava
- Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillofacial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, via Caserta 6, Rome 00161, Italy.
| | - Federico Lugli
- Institut of Geosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438, Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Department of Chemical and Geological Science, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via Giuseppe Campi, 103, Modena 41125, Italy
| | - Simone Lemmers
- Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., AREA Science Park, s.s. 14 km 163,500, Basovizza, Trieste, Italy; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA, USA; Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Paola Cerrito
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Patrick Mahoney
- School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Giles Ln, Giles Ln, Canterbury CT2 7NZ, UK
| | - Luca Bondioli
- Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Padua, Piazza Capitaniato, 7, Padua 35139, Italy
| | - Wolfgang Müller
- Institut of Geosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438, Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center (FIERCE), Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Herrscher E, Valentin F, Zinger W, Pradier B, André G. Life histories in Fiji as reconstructed from first millennium CE Sigatoka Sand Dune burials using isotopes. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0300749. [PMID: 38723036 PMCID: PMC11081393 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300749] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/04/2024] [Indexed: 05/13/2024] Open
Abstract
This paper aims to re-examine the dietary practices of individuals buried at Sigatoka Sand Dunes site (Fiji) in Burial Ground 1 excavated by Simon Best in 1987 and 1988 using two approaches and a reassessment of their archaeological, bioarchaeological and chronological frame. First, stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis was applied to document dietary changes between childhood and adulthood using an intra-individual approach on paired bone-tooth. Second, the potential adaptation of the individuals to their environment was evaluated through regional and temporal comparisons using inter-individual bone analysis. Ten AMS radiocarbon dates were measured directly on human bone collagen samples, placing the series in a range of approximately 600 years covering the middle of the first millennium CE (1,888 to 1,272 cal BP). δ13C and δ15N ratios were measured on bone and tooth collagen samples from 38 adult individuals. The results show that δ15N values from tooth are higher than those s from bone while bone and tooth δ13C values are similar, except for females. Fifteen individuals were included in an intra-individual analysis based on paired bone and tooth samples, which revealed six dietary patterns distinguished by a differential dietary intake of marine resources and resources at different trophic levels. These highlight sex-specific differences not related to mortuary practices but to daily life activities, supporting the hypothesis of a sexual division of labour. Compared to other Southwest Pacific series, Sigatoka diets show a specific trend towards marine food consumption that supports the hypothesis of a relative food self-sufficiency requiring no interactions with other groups.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Estelle Herrscher
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, Minist Culture, LAMPEA, Aix–en–Provence, France
| | | | - Wanda Zinger
- Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo–and Palaeogenetics Group, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | | | - Guy André
- Aix Marseille University, CNRS, Minist Culture, LAMPEA, Aix–en–Provence, France
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Buikstra JE, DeWitte SN, Agarwal SC, Baker BJ, Bartelink EJ, Berger E, Blevins KE, Bolhofner K, Boutin AT, Brickley MB, Buzon MR, de la Cova C, Goldstein L, Gowland R, Grauer AL, Gregoricka LA, Halcrow SE, Hall SA, Hillson S, Kakaliouras AM, Klaus HD, Knudson KJ, Knüsel CJ, Larsen CS, Martin DL, Milner GR, Novak M, Nystrom KC, Pacheco-Forés SI, Prowse TL, Robbins Schug G, Roberts CA, Rothwell JE, Santos AL, Stojanowski C, Stone AC, Stull KE, Temple DH, Torres CM, Toyne JM, Tung TA, Ullinger J, Wiltschke-Schrotta K, Zakrzewski SR. Twenty-first century bioarchaeology: Taking stock and moving forward. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2022; 178 Suppl 74:54-114. [PMID: 36790761 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2021] [Revised: 01/20/2022] [Accepted: 01/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
This article presents outcomes from a Workshop entitled "Bioarchaeology: Taking Stock and Moving Forward," which was held at Arizona State University (ASU) on March 6-8, 2020. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (ASU), and the Center for Bioarchaeological Research (CBR, ASU), the Workshop's overall goal was to explore reasons why research proposals submitted by bioarchaeologists, both graduate students and established scholars, fared disproportionately poorly within recent NSF Anthropology Program competitions and to offer advice for increasing success. Therefore, this Workshop comprised 43 international scholars and four advanced graduate students with a history of successful grant acquisition, primarily from the United States. Ultimately, we focused on two related aims: (1) best practices for improving research designs and training and (2) evaluating topics of contemporary significance that reverberate through history and beyond as promising trajectories for bioarchaeological research. Among the former were contextual grounding, research question/hypothesis generation, statistical procedures appropriate for small samples and mixed qualitative/quantitative data, the salience of Bayesian methods, and training program content. Topical foci included ethics, social inequality, identity (including intersectionality), climate change, migration, violence, epidemic disease, adaptability/plasticity, the osteological paradox, and the developmental origins of health and disease. Given the profound changes required globally to address decolonization in the 21st century, this concern also entered many formal and informal discussions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jane E Buikstra
- Center for Bioarchaeological Research, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
| | - Sharon N DeWitte
- Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
| | - Sabrina C Agarwal
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Brenda J Baker
- Center for Bioarchaeological Research, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
| | - Eric J Bartelink
- Department of Anthropology, California State University, Chico, California, USA
| | - Elizabeth Berger
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, California, USA
| | | | - Katelyn Bolhofner
- School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
| | - Alexis T Boutin
- Department of Anthropology, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California, USA
| | - Megan B Brickley
- Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Michele R Buzon
- Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
| | - Carlina de la Cova
- Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA
| | - Lynne Goldstein
- Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
| | | | - Anne L Grauer
- Department of Anthropology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Lesley A Gregoricka
- Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Social Work, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, USA
| | - Siân E Halcrow
- Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Sarah A Hall
- Center for Bioarchaeological Research, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
| | - Simon Hillson
- Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Ann M Kakaliouras
- Department of Anthropology, Whittier College, Whittier, California, USA
| | - Haagen D Klaus
- Department of Sociology and Anthropology, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
| | - Kelly J Knudson
- Center for Bioarchaeological Research, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
| | - Christopher J Knüsel
- Préhistoire à l'Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie, University of Bordeaux, CNRS, MC, PACEA, UMR5199, F-33615, Pessac, France
| | | | - Debra L Martin
- Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
| | - George R Milner
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Mario Novak
- Center for Applied Bioanthropology, Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Kenneth C Nystrom
- Department of Anthropology, State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, New York, USA
| | | | - Tracy L Prowse
- Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Gwen Robbins Schug
- Environmental Health Program, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
| | | | - Jessica E Rothwell
- Center for Bioarchaeological Research, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
| | - Ana Luisa Santos
- Research Centre for Anthropology and Health (CIAS), Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Christopher Stojanowski
- Center for Bioarchaeological Research, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
| | - Anne C Stone
- Center for Bioarchaeological Research, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA
| | - Kyra E Stull
- Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nevada, USA
| | - Daniel H Temple
- Department of Sociology and Anthropology, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
| | - Christina M Torres
- Department of Anthropology and Heritage Studies, University of California, Merced, USA, and Instituto de Arqueología y Antropología, Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile
| | - J Marla Toyne
- Department of Anthropology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA
| | - Tiffiny A Tung
- Department of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Jaime Ullinger
- Bioanthropology Research Institute, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Connecticut, USA
| | | | | |
Collapse
|