Testing Differential Frailty in a Nubian Sample

Summary

Periosteal lesions are often used as non-specific indicators of overall levels of stress and health in the past. Using medieval London samples, Sharon DeWitte (2014) demonstrated that distinguishing between active and healed periosteal lesions can significantly improve our understanding of stress and differential frailty. She found that healed lesions correlated with higher levels of survivorship when compared to active or no lesions. This study examines whether such a pattern may be observable in highly different populations and samples. We collected data on periosteal lesions, focusing on active versus healed status, from a sample of individuals from the Semna South collection housed at Arizona State University. Excavated from a cemetery near the fort at Semna South in modern Sudan, the remains date to the Meroitic (350 BCE to 350 CE), X-Group (350 to 550 CE), and Christian (550 to 1400 CE) periods. This study tests the repeatability of DeWitte’s findings on a dissimilar population. Results of the analysis are presented and compared to those of DeWitte, and implications for future research are discussed.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage