Health and Stress of Neolithic Yangshao Culture Skeletal Population from Wanggou Site, Zhengzhou

Summary

The Wanggou site, located in the Lower Yellow River valley, is a large Yangshao culture cemetery, dating to 7000-5000 BP. Two hundred and eleven skeletons were examined for variations from normal morphology, including non-metric traits, to characterized pathology of the Neolithic Age residents of Central China. This paper examined skeletal evidence of bone disease, trauma and musculo-skeletal stress markers (MSM) of ancient residents. A prevalence of spina bifida, spondylolysis, lumbarization, sacralization and septal aperture have significant gender differences. The prevalence of cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis are high in infants (20%) and children (66.67%), and relatively low in adults (0.6%). The high frequency of lumbar joint disease (29.31%) may be related to long-term engagement in agricultural activities such as planting. The rate of overall skeletal trauma is 9.05%; and skull trauma is 14.29%. Females (38.55%) have higher MSM of the humerus than males (26.44%) for minimal changes, but in the higher levels of severity males have higher prevalence. Taken together these results allow us to begin to reconstruct Neolithic behavior, adaptation and life-ways in the Lower Yellow River valley during the Yangshao culture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bio-cultural Approach to the Osteoarchaeological Inquiries in China   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16756