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Lewis ME, French JC, Rossoni-Notter E, Notter O, Moussous A, Sparacello V, Boschin F, Ricci S, Nowell A. An assessment of puberty status in adolescents from the European Upper Paleolithic. J Hum Evol 2024:103577. [PMID: 39266410 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103577] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2024] [Revised: 07/26/2024] [Accepted: 07/26/2024] [Indexed: 09/14/2024]
Abstract
Childhood and adolescence are two life-history stages that are either unique to humans, or significantly expanded in the human life course relative to other primates. While recent studies have deepened our knowledge of childhood in the Upper Paleolithic, adolescence in this period remains understudied. Here, we use bioarchaeological maturational markers to estimate puberty status of 13 Upper Paleolithic adolescents from sites in Russia, Czechia, and Italy to 1) evaluate the feasibility of the application of bioarchaeological puberty assessment methods to Upper Paleolithic (Homo sapiens) skeletal individuals, 2) estimate the timing and tempo of puberty in Upper Paleolithic adolescents compared to other archaeological populations analyzed using the same method, and 3) characterize adolescence in the Upper Paleolithic by contextualizing the results of this puberty assessment with data on individual and population-level health, morbidity and burial practices. Our results revealed that while puberty had begun by 13.5 years of age for the majority of individuals, there was a lot of variability, with the adolescents from Arene Candide (AC1 and AC16), both aged around 16 years when they died, taking several years longer to progress through puberty than their peers. Assessing the age of menarche was challenging due to the paucity of female adolescents, but based on the available evidence, it appears to have occurred between 16 and 17 years of age. For some, full adulthood had been achieved by 17-22 years, similar to the patterns seen in modern wealthy countries and in advance of historic populations living in urbanized environments. The bioarchaeological analysis of puberty among Upper Paleolithic adolescents has important implications for the study of the emergence of adolescence within human-life histories, as well as for understanding the developmental plasticity of sexual maturation across past and present human populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mary E Lewis
- Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6NZ, UK
| | - Jennifer C French
- Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, 12-14 Abercromby Square, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7WZ, UK
| | - Elena Rossoni-Notter
- Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology of Monaco, 56 bis Boulevard du Jardin Exotique, 98000, Monaco
| | - Olivier Notter
- Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology of Monaco, 56 bis Boulevard du Jardin Exotique, 98000, Monaco
| | - Abdelkader Moussous
- Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology of Monaco, 56 bis Boulevard du Jardin Exotique, 98000, Monaco
| | - Vitale Sparacello
- Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Cagliari, Cittadella Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy
| | - Francesco Boschin
- University of Siena, Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, Via Laterina 8, 53100, Siena, Italy
| | - Stefano Ricci
- University of Siena, Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, Via Laterina 8, 53100, Siena, Italy
| | - April Nowell
- Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, Cornett Building Room B228, 3800 Finnerty Road, Victoria, BC, V8P 5C2, Canada.
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An infant burial from Arma Veirana in northwestern Italy provides insights into funerary practices and female personhood in early Mesolithic Europe. Sci Rep 2021; 11:23735. [PMID: 34907203 PMCID: PMC8671481 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-02804-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2021] [Accepted: 11/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The evolution and development of human mortuary behaviors is of enormous cultural significance. Here we report a richly-decorated young infant burial (AVH-1) from Arma Veirana (Liguria, northwestern Italy) that is directly dated to 10,211-9910 cal BP (95.4% probability), placing it within the early Holocene and therefore attributable to the early Mesolithic, a cultural period from which well-documented burials are exceedingly rare. Virtual dental histology, proteomics, and aDNA indicate that the infant was a 40-50 days old female. Associated artifacts indicate significant material and emotional investment in the child's interment. The detailed biological profile of AVH-1 establishes the child as the earliest European near-neonate documented to be female. The Arma Veirana burial thus provides insight into sex/gender-based social status, funerary treatment, and the attribution of personhood to the youngest individuals among prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups and adds substantially to the scant data on mortuary practices from an important period in prehistory shortly following the end of the last Ice Age.
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Halcrow S, Warren R, Kushnick G, Nowell A. Care of Infants in the Past: Bridging evolutionary anthropological and bioarchaeological approaches. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2020; 2:e47. [PMID: 37588386 PMCID: PMC10427473 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2020.46] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
The importance of care of infants and children in palaeoanthropological and human behavioural ecological research on the evolution of our species is evident in the diversity of research on human development, alloparental care, and learning and social interaction. There has been a recent surge of interest in modelling the social implications of care provision for people with serious disabilities in bioarchaeology. However, there is a lack of acknowledgement of infant and child care in bioarchaeology, despite the significant labour and resources that are required, and the implications this has for health outcomes within societies. Drawing on the recent proliferation of studies on infancy and childhood in evolutionary anthropology and bioarchaeology, this paper presents ways the subdisciplines may draw on research developments from each field to advance a more holistic understanding of the evolutionary, social and health significance of infant and children care in the past.
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Affiliation(s)
- Siân Halcrow
- Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, New Zealand
| | - Ruth Warren
- Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, New Zealand
| | - Geoff Kushnick
- School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Research School of Humanities and the Arts, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University, Australia
| | - April Nowell
- Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, Canada
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Nowell A, French JC. Adolescence and innovation in the European Upper Palaeolithic. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2020; 2:e36. [PMID: 37588373 PMCID: PMC10427464 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2020.37] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Childhood and adolescence are two stages of development that are unique to the human life course. While childhood in the Pleistocene has received considerable attention in recent years, adolescence during the same period remains an understudied area of research. Yet it is during adolescence that key social, physical and cognitive milestones are reached. Thus, through studying adolescents, there is enormous potential for improving our understanding of Upper Palaeolithic lifeways more broadly. The reason for the dearth of these types of studies may be the perceived methodological difficulty of identifying adolescents in the archaeological record. In many ways, it is easier to distinguish children (sensu lato) from adults based on size, developmental age and associated artefacts. Adolescents, however, are often seen as more ambiguous, more liminal. Working within an evolutionary framework and using a definition of adolescence rooted in biology, we draw on psychology, ethnography and palaeodemography to develop a model of what it might have meant to be a 'teenager' in the European Upper Palaeolithic. Citing the biological, social and cognitive changes that occur during this life stage, we propose an important role of teenagers in the origins and spread of new ideas and innovations throughout the Late Pleistocene.
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Affiliation(s)
- April Nowell
- Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, PO Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria, BC, CanadaV8W 2Y2
| | - Jennifer C. French
- University College London, Institute of Archaeology, 31–34 Gordon Square, LondonWC1H 0PY, UK
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Moving Beyond the Obstetrical Dilemma Hypothesis: Birth, Weaning and Infant Care in the Plio-Pleistocene. THE MOTHER-INFANT NEXUS IN ANTHROPOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-27393-4_10] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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