Presentation abstracts

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Acute and chronic respiratory conditions are a significant global disease burden, affecting the lives of more than one billion people, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In these countries, socially disadvantaged people, especially those living in urbanizing areas, suffer disproportionately from respiratory morbidity and mortality resulting from overcrowding, air pollution, poor sanitation, and differential access to food, shelter, and medicine. These characteristics of life in the urbanizing areas of LMICs mimic lifeways in some of the earliest cities in history. As such, cities of antiquity can provide models for identifying those individuals most susceptible to poor respiratory health and how their position within society may have influenced that susceptibility. Because the English Industrial Revolution arguably laid the foundations for contemporary culture, international relations, and even health, industrial-era English cities are ideal candidates for exploring the relationship between social inequality and respiratory health disparities in the past. However, previous bioarchaeological research on the topic has focused largely on London. In light of recent research suggesting that London is a poor model for examining the health effects of urbanization in other areas of the country, this presentation showcases ongoing intersectional research efforts to examine respiratory morbidity and mortality in multiple urbanizing areas of industrializing England during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Funding bodies: McClure Scholarship for World Affairs, Thomas Fellowship.

Acknowledgements: Dr. Dawnie Steadman, Dr. Sharon DeWitte, Durham University, University of Bradford, English Heritage, Museum of London Centre for Human Bioarchaeology, and St. Bride's Church.

University of Missouri Research Reactor

The ancient city of Teotihuacan (AD 1-550) in central Mexico was the most populous urban center in Mesoamerica during the Classic period and a multi-ethnic hub that attracted migrants from across Mesoamerica. While past osteological research has examined population health as a whole, it has yet to be observed how the health and well-being of migrants compared to that of native-born residents. This presentation provides new data from strontium and oxygen isotopes and "survival analysis" to estimate if migrants at this city faced more elevated risks of mortality and greater reductions in survivorship than native Teotihuacanos. Samples for this analysis come from several different residential neighborhoods throughout the city including Tlajinga and La Ventilla.

Acknowledgements: This project was supported and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Dissertation Improvement Grant (BCS-1927690), the Proyecto Arqueológico Tlajinga Teotihuacan (PATT) funded by the U.S. NSF (BCS-13212447), and the Western University's (Ontario, Canada) Laboratory for Stable Isotope Science (Contribution 380).

Leiden University

The impact that the urbanisation process had on the life and health of Dutch populations has been widely explored by both archaeologists and historians. As the Netherlands urbanised faster than most other European countries, the impact that this rapid development had on the population was often dramatic and sometimes brought radical changes to people’s lifeways and wellbeing. However, this narrative of urban transformation has often overlooked the experiences of those who were too young to be considered an effective part of society (i.e., non-adults).

This paper examines three rural and urban cemeteries from the post-medieval Netherlands (1500-1850 CE): the rural community of Middenbeemster, and the urban sites of Arnhem and Eindhoven. The skeletal remains of 74 individuals between 4 and 20 years of age have been examined for indicators of upper respiratory infections (i.e., maxillary sinusitis and otitis media) to test the hypothesis that initial urbanisation resulted in higher rates of respiratory tract diseases in urban rather than in rural non-adults.

Results show no correlation between site and otitis media (χ2=0.003, p=0.953), but a strong and significant correlation between site and chronic maxillary sinusitis (χ2=7.408, p=0.006). This research suggests that, even if younger individuals were not completely included in social activities and labour, urbanisation still had implications for their health and welfare. Further research is advised to investigate and explore the urban experiences of non-adults.

Acknowledgements: We wish to thank the communities of Middenbeemster, Arnhem and Eindhoven for allowing the study of their ancestors. We also thank the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) for kindly providing the loan of a medical endoscope. This work was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) [project number: PGW.21.008].

University of Bradford

Incremental isotopic analysis of dentine collagen is a frequently utilised method for studying health in past populations. This research developed a method of incremental sampling to increase the temporal resolution of stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic analysis. The commonly used sampling method for dentine collagen sections the root into 1mm increments to provide information about nutritional and physiological health; however, the temporal resolution averaged 9-12 months of isotopic data into one sample. The increased temporal resolution from the developed method in this research allowed for observing short-term changes to the δ13C and δ15N isotope values that indicate anabolic and catabolic states caused by nutritional and physiological stress.

The developed sampling method takes 0.35mm incremental sections at a 45° angle, longitudinally from crown to root apex of a 1.5mm thick section of dentine collagen, using a MicroMill™ instrument for sectioning. The method averaged three months of δ13C and δ15N isotopic data per increment, increasing the temporal resolution. The samples used in this research were from a 19th-century burial ground at New Bunhill Fields, Southwark, London. Ten individuals were sampled; six had observable anabolic or catabolic changes in the nitrogen isotopic values that cannot be seen using a 1mm incremental sampling method.

University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli"

The ancient city of Pompeii marks its ultimate significance in history as a living urban context that underwent a catastrophe and preserved the ancient city with its inhabitants in a time capsule. The ongoing research investigates a comparative and scientific study of human skeletal assemblages mainly on skulls and dental remains of ancient Pompeians. Newly excavated skeletons (after the 1960s) have their provenience while all other skeletons in warehouses are divided in anatomical distinct. Because of that, it is important to create a proper catalogue on a database for the osteological collection in Pompeii mainly on skulls and mandibles which will be the first-ever complete work on Pompeian skulls. While reordering the craniums, it could be able to newly detect specific health implications like leprosy, cibra cranii, tumors, and traumas. Specifically, the cranium with visible consequences of leprosy is the very first discovery in ancient Roman cities in Italy. An adult male individual was diagnosed with M.leprae bacteria with the destroyed and remodelled nasal bone, alveolar process, and the hard palate is recognized as the rhinomaxillary syndrome or facies leprosa. According to visible diagnostic features, the individual was suffering from the disease for a long time until it became this chronicle condition hence leprosy is a slowly progressive disease, it may take decades to have a small bony change. This circumstance may create a new perspective and discussion associated with health implications, social behaviours, and acceptance in an ancient Roman city.

Keywords: Leprosy, Ancient city of Pompeii, Social behaviours

Acknowledgements: Applied Research Laboratory in Pompeii.

Department of Archaeology, The University of Sheffield

Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA)

Burial Before Breath is an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded collaborative doctoral partnership between the University of Sheffield and Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) examining the social impact of foetal and maternal mortality during the industrialisation of England.

This presentation will introduce one aspect of the author’s research, to investigate changes to English society, community and family, specifically women and childbirth, by looking at the funerary rites and rituals, or lack thereof, associated with young infants, specifically foetal remains excavated from multiple archaeological sites across England dating to the Industrial period.

The burial of unbaptised infants, including stillborn and neonates dying shortly after birth, was prohibited within consecrated grounds. However, skeletal remains archaeologically excavated from burial sites across England suggest this rule was not always followed or was creatively stretched to allow their inclusion. Preliminary observations regarding how the burial of foetal remains within Christian burial grounds differed from older children and adults will be discussed as well as the impact this had on the Industrial English family, as demonstrated through written primary records and historical texts. This presentation will introduce how my project will delve into the alternatives to Christian burial available for families across England; including non-traditional burial forms and the sale of foetal remains to anatomy schools, with the aim of presenting a social and cultural understanding of foetal and perinatal death during the Industrialisation of England.

The University of Sheffield

From the latter half of the nineteenth and well into the twentieth century, Chile underwent a period of rapid industrialisation of its urban centres. Large numbers migrated from the countryside to the cities, particularly the capital Santiago, only to find their socioeconomic status (SES) damaged by this move. As rural migrants endured extremely poor living conditions in their new urban homes, they quickly became the most disadvantaged members of society, facing extreme material deprivation and poor health. Social and biological challenges increased the inequalities that the new santiaguinos faced, all while the political and social scenario shifted and adapted to the recently arrived.

The wretched physical condition of the Santiago’s working-class population has been well-documented by contemporary socio-political commentators, past and present government-led commissions, and modern historians. Biological evidence from this period has been primarily sourced from the public health and epidemiology fields.

By investigating a sample from the General Cemetery of Santiago (CGS) Osteological Collection, we offer a bioarchaeological perspective on the subject. Analysing paleopathological conditions, demographic trends and mortality profiles, this research will examine the health challenges and associated frailty this population experienced as a consequence of the urban poverty they faced as new city dwellers.

Keywords: urbanization, urban poverty, migration, paleopathology, health.

Funding bodies: BecasCHILE Doctoral Studentship, ANID Chile.

Acknowledgements: Department of Anthropology at the University of Chile, and Archive of the Cementerio General de Santiago.

University of Oxford

As one of the first tissues to decompose postmortem, brains are far more numerous than they should be in the archaeological record. >1700 preserved brains have been excavated worldwide by generations of baffled archaeologists in the last 400 years; yet to-date, less than 1% of this material has been investigated at the molecular level.

Today, the World Health Organisation recognises low socioeconomic status as a key risk factor for accelerated brain ageing and reduced health span; relatedly, deprivation is known to increase the likelihood of developing mental illness. One of the most infamous sites of urban impoverishment in the past is that hallmark of the long 19th C. in Industrial Europe: the Victorian workhouse. Within the Poor Law system, this formidable institution came to detain not just the penniless, but also the mentally-ill, the disabled and the elderly. However, objective methods for studying neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders in an archaeological context remain limited in number and scope.

Excavations at the burial ground of a former workhouse in south-west Britain have yielded the well-preserved brains of >300 past inmates, and pilot multi-omic analyses (proteins, lipids, metabolites) demonstrate that this material is an exceptionally rich reservoir of biomolecular information. What might the centuries-old brains of these individuals, society’s most vulnerable, reveal about the impact of the industrial welfare system on the sick, the disabled and the aged in the past? And how might this knowledge inform our understanding of modern concepts of health and illness in urban populations?

Funding bodies: This research was conducted at the GLOBE Institute (Section for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen) and at the Environmental Metabolomics Lab (Dept of Environmental Science, Aarhus University); and was generously supported by a Danish National Research Foundation grant.

School of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences, University of Bradford

This project seeks to reconstruct the early life history of the child in industrial London using carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope analysis of both adults (survivors) and children (non-survivors), to explore the physical effect that changing social and economic conditions had on their diet, health, and quality of life.

To investigate this, individuals were analysed from New Bunhill Fields, Southwark, a 19th century London burial ground in use between 1821-53 (n=514). Macroscopic and radiographic assessment of the skeletal remains identified a sample group of both survivors (adults, n=20) and non-survivors (non-adults, n=22) with and without skeletal evidence of childhood stress (linear enamel hypoplasia, vitamin D deficiency, rickets, residual rickets).

δ13C and δ15N incremental dentine analysis is underway on one 1st permanent molar from each individual. Preliminary results indicate that most who survived to adulthood had a largely terrestrial C3 diet in childhood. Fluctuations within individual profiles reveal evidence of weaning, discrete dietary changes, and/or periods of physiological stress. Further comparison of adult and non-adult data will allow for the observation of any potential differences in isotopic profiles between survivors and non-survivors, advancing our understanding of early childhood diet and health during British industrialisation.

Acknowledgements: AHRC Heritage Consortium.

The University of Sheffield

During the 7^th century CE, Anglo-Saxon farming methods transitioned from grazing to intensive cereal cultivation (Hamerow et al. 2019). This transition coincided with the growth of towns and a period of prosperity in the kingdom of Northumbria. A millennium later, the Industrial Revolution brought with it the mechanization of labour and a boom in urbanization and the manufacturing sector (Western and Bekvalac 2020). Both these revolutions increased individual exposure to natural, artificial, and social risk factors for respiratory-related disease. To better understand the epidemiology of respiratory-related disease and its relationship with environmental risk factors, two skeletal populations from England’s North-East were analysed for bony evidence of mastoiditis, maxillary sinusitis (MS), and lower respiratory infection (LRI): Black Gate, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (7^th – 12^th centuries CE) and Coronation Street, South Shields (c. 1750–1855). It was found that although both populations were confronted with similar risk factors for respiratory-related disease, the intensity and near-ubiquity of risk factors in South Shields likely caused the Coronation Street population to present with more evidence of MS (especially active MS) and LRI than the Black Gate population. Similarly, in both populations, residual childhood mastoiditis and MS were more common amongst females than males, while LRI were more common amongst males than females. This difference was more pronounced in the Coronation Street population and may reflect gendered differences in occupation and recreation. Growing inequality amongst the socio-economic classes and the sexes likely caused certain groups of people within the Coronation Street population to be frailer than their contemporaries and, therefore, more at risk of infection and death. While some inequality and gendered differences appeared to have been present in the Black Gate population, these seemed to have less of an impact on individual health than those noted in the Coronation Street population.

Keywords: respiratory-related disease, sinusitis, mastoiditis, lower respiratory infection, urbanization, pollution, classism, industrial, Georgian, Victorian, Anglo-Saxon, Saxo-Norman

Masaryk University

The impact of Roman practices, lifestyles and settlement structures on living conditions and health has received much attention. Some research has emphasized improvements in water supplies and sanitation during the period of Roman occupation, alongside increased economic activity, food diversity and trade networks, as factors positively impacting health status. Other work has argued that Roman urbanization, high population density and disease loads negatively affected health. The present study explores growth and health in Roman (1st-3rd centuries CE) and Post-Roman (4th-7th centuries CE) Gaul to better understand the influence of Roman practices on health. The skeletal remains of 844 individuals were analyzed for non-specific signs of physiological stress, including growth disruption (diaphyseal and adult maximum femur length), dental enamel hypoplastic defects (DEH), cribra orbitalia (CO), periosteal reaction of the tibiae (Tibia PR). The Gallo-Roman South sample demonstrated shorter femoral lengths, and higher rates of DEH and Tibia PR. Post-Roman groups demonstrated longer femoral lengths and higher rates of CO. Gallo-Roman individuals may have been more regularly exposed to infectious pathogens throughout childhood, inhibiting opportunities for catch-up growth, resulting in high rates of DEH and shorter femoral lengths (‘intermittent stress of low lethality’). This could be the result of overcrowding and insalubrious urban environments. The intertwined and often synergistic relationships between early life environment, nutrition and settlement structure is highlighted, helping to further understandings of life experiences during the Roman and Post-Roman periods.

Funding bodies: Durham Doctoral Studentship, Postdoc2MUNI: European Union European Structural and Investment Funds Operational Programme Research, Development and Education and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.

TW: Discussions of domestic abuse.

Violence between intimate partners is seen in a huge range of contexts across cultures and across time. This study aims to discuss intimate partner violence (IPV) within the context of Roman Britain. Osteological reports on 3757 Romano-British individuals, including 1324 who were osteologically female, were read and analysed for skeletal indicators of intimate partner violence. Results showed that females from urban contexts, where the Roman way of life was thought to have had the greatest impact, were more likely to show injuries typical of intimate partner violence, raising implications regarding the role of colonialism in violence against women. Romano-British women have been historically overlooked and literary sources on their lives are scarce - bioarchaeology may be the key to a greater understanding of life for women in Roman Britain.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank my supervisor, Malin Holst, for her support in producing this research and for giving me access to several osteological reports featured. I would also like to thank Rebecca Redfern of Museum of London Archaeology for her support and for providing data from the Centre of Human Bioarchaeology, as well as Shannon Novak of Syracuse University.

Newcastle University

The study of human remains is a powerful tool to understand the health, diets and other aspects of individuals and populations in the past, but as with all archaeological methods, there are limitations. Coprolite analysis is another tool that can provide unique insights into the diets and health of individuals, albeit at a very different scale, which can overcome some of the limitations of looking at human remains. One key example is the ability to study of gastro-intestinal health, and the ability to look at specific consumed items in combination, rather than broader lifetime dietary signals that we get from skeletal isotopes. This paper presents a number of case studies using human coprolite analysis, and asks how can we bring these two types of analysis together to provide more nuanced narratives about people in the past? In an era where destructive analysis of human skeletal remains is becomingly increasingly recognised as ethically problematic, can coprolite analysis provide an alternative source of data, or should we treat these more unusual human remains with the same care we afford to skeletal remains?

The University of Sheffield

Viewing urban contexts as entirely detrimental to living likely over-simplifies the complex relationship between biological and social buffering systems. By taking a life-course approach, the impact of environmental factors in relation to critical periods of development and the mother-child nexus can be studied to understand stress experience more fully. These themes were investigated through contemporary medieval skeletal remains from urban York and rural Warwickshire. To explore the period associated with maternal dependence, first permanent molar fluctuating asymmetry was quantified with geometric morphometric methods. Later-life stress and outcomes were inferred through dental and skeletal observations. Significant differences were found between sites in early-life and childhood stress as well as life-course trajectories. The Warwick sample appears to have experienced more developmental stress, increased susceptibility to infection, and elevated subadult mortality. At York, although there was more evidence of chronic pathology, there were fewer indications of early-life stress and adult stature was greater. At both sites, inferred stress episodes increase in frequency after the time of direct maternal support. Evidence therefore suggests a connection between early-life stress, growth, frailty and survival. York was probably more stable than Warwickshire due to the economic networks centred on the city, meaning the population was consequently better buffered. Moreover, while it appears stress was transmitted from mother to child, maternal buffering likely protected dependent offspring. These findings challenge the perception of urbanisation as wholly deleterious to health and suggest that the interaction between environments and biosocial buffering systems during critical developmental periods are key to understanding life-courses.

Keywords: Fluctuating asymmetry; geometric morphometrics; life-course

Acknowledgments: Research was supported by a doctoral studentship from the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities. Access to skeletal assemblages and imaging equipment was provided by the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield.

Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy

Vertebral degenerative changes are one of the most common pathologies observed on historical human material. They arise naturally with age, activity-related stress, illness, or any combination of these factors.

The human remains analyzed were discovered during the archaeological excavation of the former cemeteries at the ruins of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Jarocin, dated to the 15th-19th centuries. The examined material included 441 individuals. However, the vertebral pathologies analysis was only possible for 188 individuals and 2706 vertebrae (763 cervical, 1323 thoracic, 620 lumbar). The macroscopic observation included analysis of frequency of Schmorl's nodes (SN), osteophytosis of the vertebral bodies (VO), osteoarthritis of the articular facets (OA), ossification ligamentum flavum (OLF), and osteochondrosis of the vertebral bodies (Intervertebral osteochondrosis - IO) and frontal rim of the body (Vertebral epiphysitis–VE).

The most frequently observed vertebral degenerative changes were the ossification of the ligamentum flavum (OLF) (46.8% of the individuals) and the Schmorl's nodes (SN) (42% of the individuals). Along with the osteophytes (VO), these changes affected the largest number of vertebrae (17%, 12.7% and 12.9%, respectively). The limitation of the study is the broad dating of the remains, resulting from an inability to separate burials related to the former hospital cemetery from early modern burials from the parish cemetery, both situated in the same area. This makes it impossible to consider these two populations separately, which is an obligatory condition in order to draw reliable conclusions based on material from several centuries.

Acknowledgments: I would like to thank my coworker, Beata Drupka who was working with me on the material.

Bioarcheological Service, Museo delle Civiltà – Roma

During the Roman Imperial times, urban environments might have had a huge impact on city dwellers, who experienced harsh living conditions due to a process of increasing urbanization, population density, social inequalities as well as poor hygienic conditions. These issues have not been investigated adequately in the Italian Peninsula despite the fact that the plurality and diversity of urban centres across the peninsula could provide diverse insights into what living in a city might have entailed during those times. Specifically, these environmental conditions might have influenced the growth and health status of non-adults, who were the most vulnerable component of the society.

This study compares the health status of infants, children, and adolescents from two Italian port towns: Portus Romae and Velia. Although seemingly similar, these towns differ in their geographical locations, population sizes, intensity of port activities, and immigration rates. A total of 313 individuals from Portus Romae (Isola Sacra necropolis) and 189 individuals from Velia (Porta Marina necropolis) were investigated for the presence and severity of linear enamel hypoplasia, caries, scurvy, rickets, cribra cranii, and cribra orbitalia, periostitis, endocranial lesions, force traumas, and tuberculosis. The results indicate a generally poor health status in both samples, with Isola Sacra displaying more frequent cases of metabolic diseases (rickets and scurvy), periostitis, and traumatic lesions. The more complex urban environment of Portus Romae had a greater impact on the well-being of non-adults, as can be confirmed on the basis of the osteological record.

Keywords: town, children, Roman Imperial age.

In order to know the effects of industrialization in the Chilean child and adolescent population, macroscopic bone indicators associated with skeletal and oral pathologies were compared between two osteological samples. The first corresponds to a rural historical sample from the 19th century (Colección Cementerio Rinconada de Maipú), and the other, an urban sample from Santiago from the 20th century (Colección Subactual de Santiago). The negative effects of industrialization on child and adolescent health were directly evidenced in the urban sample of Santiago, with a high presence of some non-specific stress markers, for example, cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis. Also an increase in the presence of infectious (34,8% v/s 44,9%), metabolic and deficit diseases (78,3% v/s 82%), as well as the appearance of congenital diseases (24%) compared to the rural historical sample. And finally, there is a greater presence of bone traumas. These differences could be associated with historical processes such as country-city migration and centralization of productive activities in a defined geographical area that occurred as a result of industrialization processes in Santiago de Chile in the first half of the 20th century.

Keywords: Bioarchaeology of childhood, Industralization and Health

Acknowledgments: Fondecyt 1160511, Universidad de Chile, and Museo Nacional de Historia Natural.

University of Bradford

Sheffield (South Yorkshire), known as the ‘Steel City’, was a pioneering city in the industrial revolution (18th-19th century) due to the steel manufacturing industry. The population rose from 46,000 to 135,000 in the first half of the 19th century alone. The drastic shift in the economy, environment and social organisation associated with industrialisation and the impact on health is well studied within London but little discussed elsewhere. This study aims to discuss the health of industrial era Sheffield through the study of two cemetery sites; Carver Street and Sheffield Cathedral. Osteological data was collected from the Sheffield Cathedral and Carver Street cemetery populations. This data was placed into comparative datasheets and interpreted collectively and individually. The comparable number of individuals excavated from both sites aids interpretation. Historical data regarding migration into the city and the socio-economic status of the areas in which the cemeteries are located will be used to provide context to the interpretation. Preliminary results suggest that differences in recording methods used between the two sites will impact which diseases can be accurately interpreted, mainly regarding dental disease. However, interpretations may be made regarding the comparison of infectious disease, stress markers and trauma. This research is ongoing. The interpretation of osteological data from Sheffield will provide an understanding of health in a city which is less discussed within osteological literature.

Acknowledgements: Data access, University of Sheffield.