The Relationship between Isotopic Evidence of Childhood Diet and Childhood Rickets in a Nineteenth-Century Jordanian Bedouin Population

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The site of Tell Hisban offers a unique perspective on the history of metabolic disease among nineteenth-century Middle Eastern Bedouin populations. Compared to regional samples from the same period, Hisban has a high rate of childhood metabolic disease, including rickets. Many infants at the site died with active rickets, and analysis of interglobular dentin (IGD) in adult dentition identified adult survivors of childhood rickets. Vitamin D deficiency is typically linked to insufficient UVB radiation, while cultural or other biological risk factors can play important roles, particularly in an environment with adequate levels of sunlight. Here, we use stable isotope analysis (δ13C and δ15N) of incremental dentin samples from three adults with evidence of childhood rickets and three without to identify a relationship between childhood diet and weaning patterns and vitamin D deficiency. The isotopic evidence suggests any variation in diet and weaning practices was not linked to rickets. Understanding the weaning history and early childhood diet of adults who survived rickets in infancy can illuminate potential risk factors and provide comparative material for eventual isotopic analysis of individuals who did not survive rickets in infancy.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39017.0