Cortical bone loss in the human skeletons recovered from the 21st century excavations of Cabeço da Amoreira shell midden

Summary

Bone loss has been extensively evaluated in archaeological samples, adding diachronic complexity to the biomedical knowledge about skeletal changes associated with gender, age, genetics, menopausal status or lifestyle. In this paper, the first results of Portuguese Mesolithic cortical bone loss are presented. Radiogrammetry of the second metacarpal was used to assess cortical parameters (diaphysis total width, medullary width and cortical index). The classical osteoporotic fractures (vertebral compressions, hip, distal radius and proximal humerus) were also assessed.

The final Mesolithic sample comprises 4 adult individuals recovered from the Cabeço da Amoreira site: a young female, with an age at death between 18 to 20 years and an adult male (recovered during the 2000 and 2001 excavations), and another young female with approximately 20 years old and a middle-aged to old individual. Results were compared with cortical bone parameters in two samples from Portuguese skeletal reference collections (Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection [N=196] and the 21st Century Identified Skeletal Collection [n=44]), aiming to detect diachronic variations in the overall patterns of cortical bone loss, and to identify the etiological factors of cortical bone loss during the Mesolithic.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Shell Midden Microarchaeology Unraveled

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