The relationship between cribra orbitalia, zinc deficiency, and dietary habits in children from 17th-18th century Jēkabpils, Latvia

Summary

In this study we investigated 28 skeletons of children (age 0-18 years) from a 17 th-18th century cemetery in the city of Jēkabpils, Latvia. The cemetery is located in the city center, and was part of a salvage excavation effort in 2011 due to ongoing construction work. It is still unclear to which church and Christian denomination the cemetery belonged. Bioarchaeological evidence indicates high mortality for children: half of the burials were children under the age of 14, while a third were under the age of four. Life expectancy at birth is estimated to have been only 21.6 years. Seven of the 28 children (25%) showed evidence of cribra orbitalia lesions in the superior eye orbits, providing possible evidence for nutritional stress. To investigate the causes of this condition, stable isotope (C, N, O) and trace element analysis was carried out for all subadults. Individuals with cribra orbitalia displayed lower zinc levels in their bones than individuals without this pathological condition. Stable isotope data are further used to explore dietary variation between affected and non-affected individuals. These results allow us to identify a possible connection between cribra orbitalia, zinc deficiency, and food consumption patterns.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage