Biological History of the lower Río Verde Valley, Oaxaca, Mexico: An Investigation into Infectious Disease During the Classic-Post Classic Transition at Río Viejo

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Classic-Postclassic Transition in Oaxaca" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This research investigates population health and infectious disease at the site of Río Viejo during the Classic-Post Classic transition; testing the hypothesis that treponema was endemic in Oaxaca, specifically the lower Río Verde Valley along the Pacific coast, and identifiable in a congenital New World form through dental stigmata, as well as the adult form through focused periostitis. Dental stigmata due to a congenital form of endemic treponemal infection, has been documented at early and late Formative period sites in the lower Río Verde Valley (Barber et al. 2013, Mayes et al. 2009, Mayes et al. 2014, Mayes and Joyce 2017). Ongoing debates within bioarchaeology make this identification an important avenue to pursue in the history of the disease in New World populations. Anthropogenic changes to the landscape affect local ecology. These alterations to the environment, including flora, fauna, and vectors, should also be reflected in the rate of infectious disease or lack thereof. It would follow that the frequencies of boney changes indicative of infectious disease would also vary.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• The Classic-Postclassic Transition in Oaxaca

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50911