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The 9th Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology
University of Reading
September 2007
Conference Programme
Friday 14th September
11.30 – 13.10 Registration (and lunch from 12.30)
13.10 Welcome
Session 1. The Patter of Tiny Feet: the bioarchaeology of infants and children
Chair: Holger Schutkowski
13.15 A Life course perspective of growing up in medieval London
Walker, Don and Redfern, Rebecca (Spitalfields Project, MoLAS).
13.35 Changing childhoods: subadult health in Iron Age and Romano-British-Dorset.
Redfern, Rebecca (The British Museum, London)
13.55 Comparing development patterns from skeleton and dentition in a large Archaic-Classical assemblage from Astypalaia in the Dodecanese
Hillson, Simon (University College London).
14.15 Stress near the start of life: localised enamel hypoplasia of the primary canine in
late prehistoric mainland Southeast Asia.
Halcrow, Siân (University of Otago)
14.35-15.35 Coffee and poster session (odd numbers)
15.35 Childhood Oral Health: dental palaeopathology of Kellis 2, Dakhleh, Egypt
[1]Shkrum, Stephanie (University of Western Ontario).
15.55 Suffer the children: possibilities of child abuse in Early Medieval Ireland
Lalonde, Susan (Headland Archaeology Ltd.)
16.15 Abuse and Neglect? Analysis of the Romano-British children from Poundbury Camp, Dorset.
Lewis, Mary (University of Reading)
16.35 Preservation of skeletal and dental remains of infants from a late nineteenth and early twentieth century almshouse cemetery in the Midwest United States.
Sullivan, Norman (Marquette University), Milligan, Colleen (Michigan State University) and Zotcavage, Jessica (University of Colorado-Denver).
17.30 Wine reception in Archaeology Atrium
19.30 Dinner in Halls (Hall bar open from 20.30-23.00)
Saturday 15th September
Session 2. Open Session A
Chair: Margaret Judd
9.15 The 'ABC' of life: medieval monastic cemeteries in London
Bekvalac, Jelena (Museum of London)
9.35 Diet, disease and death at the Bowl Hole: an early medieval cemetery in Bamburgh, Northumberland.
Groves, Sarah and Roberts, Charlotte (University of Durham)
9.55 Disease, surgery and dissection: an introduction to the Bristol Royal Infirmary burial ground.
*Witkin, Annsofie (University of Bristol)
10.15 Gristhorpe Man – big, black and boiled in glue!
Montgomery, Janet (University of Bradford)
10.35-11.35 Coffee and Poster session (even numbers)
11.35 Schmorl's nodes 1927-2007: using clinical data to understand the past.
McNaught, Janet (University of Durham)
11.55 'White Plague' and 'Black Death' in the medieval cemetery of Hereford Cathedral, England.
Boylston, Anthea (University of Bradford), Weston, Darlene (Max Planck Institute), Ogden, Alan (University of Bradford), and Hurst, Derek (Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service).
12.15 Dental Microwear investigations of Mesolithic diet in the Muge Valley, Portugal.
*McLaughlin, Rowan (Queen's University Belfast)
12.35 – 13.35 Lunch
Session 3: Open Session B
Chair : Tim Thompson
13.35 Age estimation: a radiographic evaluation of arachnoid foveae in an extant population.
Conabree, Kathleen (Bournemouth University)
13.55 Human skeletal remains in the British Iron Age
*Tracey, Justine (University of Reading)
14.15 Can we estimate post-mortem interval from an individual body part? A field study using Sus scrofa.
*Franicevic, Branka (University of Central Lancashire) and Pastor, Robert (University of Oregon)
14.35 Exploring human variation in femoral curvature using 3D morphometrics.
*De Groote, Isabelle (University College London)
14.55-15.25 Coffee and Posters
15.25 Changing Diets, changing destinies: identifying first generation captive Africans in a slave population from Barbados, West Indies.
*Schroeder, Hannes (University of Oxford)
15.45 Of Nags and Knights: the origins of Crusaders and their horses.
Millard, Andrew (University of Durham) and Mitchell, Piers (Imperial College London)
16.05 Assessment of upper limb asymmetry and implications for the evolution of laterality and hand use.
*Cashmore, Lisa (University of Southampton)
16.25 Can finger length ratios (2D:4D) inform us about social systems in non-human anthropoid primates?
Nelson, Emma and Shultz, Susanne (University of Liverpool)
17.00 BABAO Annual Meeting
19.30 Conference Dinner
21.00-24.00 'Pub Quiz' Whiteknights Hall bar
Sunday 16th September
Session 4. Ethical, scientific and cultural issues in the repatriation of human
remains.
Chair: Margaret Clegg
9.15 Lessions learned after after 15 years on the other side of the pond: repatriation at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Ousley, Steve (Mercyhurst College, Erie PA with the Repatriation Unit at NMNH)
9.45 Authority and decision-making over British human remains: issues and challenges.
Bienkowski, Piotr and Chapman, Malcolm (Manchester Museum)
10.15 Repatriation of Human Remains in Alberta, Canada.
Lovell, Nancy (University of Alberta)
10.45 Repatriation, a view from the receiving end: New Zealand.
Tayles, Nancy (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand)
11.15-11.45 Coffee
11.45 The problems of provenance: inaccuracies, changes and misconceptions.
Clegg, Margaret (Natural History Museum, London)
12.05 Returning Remains: a Curator's View.
Carroll, Quinton (Cambridgeshire Archaeology)
12.25 Native American Human Remains: Who Do You Consult?
Giesen, Myra (Newcastle University)
12.45 Discussion forum
14.00 Lunch and Depart
Poster Sessions
Authors of the odd numbered posters will be present for questions at the poster session on Friday afternoon. Authors of the even numbered posters will be present during the Saturday morning session.
1. The unquiet grave: a case of murder and infanticide in Roman Britain?
*Masters, Jane (Cardiff University)
2. Sexual Dimorphism in the superior mandibular ramus.
Scott, Ian and Schutkowski, Holger (University of Bradford)
3. Without a Trace? The preservation of infant and child skeletal remains.
*Manifold, Bernadette (University of Reading)
4. Timelines in Teeth
[*]Beaumont, Julia and Montgomery, Janet (University of Bradford)
5. A case of early medieval infantile scurvy from Black Gate cemetery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
*Swales, Diana (University of Sheffield)
6. Palaeopathology in popular media
Park, Tori
7. Lytic lesions in the skull: problems of diagnosis in fetal and infantile remains.
Kausmally, Tania (Museum of London) and Ives, Rachel (University of Birmingham)
8. Social stratification in a Christian cemetery? An assessment of stress indicators and social status at Anglo-Saxon Raunds.
Craig, Elizabeth and Buckberry, Jo (University of Bradford)
9. An overview of mortality and pathology in non-adult burials from the Milwaukee County Almshouse cemetery.
Mcpherson, Daphne (Marquette University) et al. (please see abstract for multiple authors and affiliations).
10. The effects of environment on respiratory health in early medieval northeast England.
*Bernofsky, Karen (University of Durham)
11. The Hereford Cathedral Close cemetery: the palaeodemography of the Black Death.
Weston, Darlene (Max Planck Institute) et al. (please see abstract for multiple authors and affiliations)
12. St Mary Spital and other cemeteries in the London region
Connell, Brian (MoLAS)
13. Global perspectives on mass fatalities in medieval London.
Walker, Don and Gray Jones, Amy (MoLAS)
14. An example of ankylosing spondylitis from later Anglo-Saxon England.
Buckberry, Jo (University of Bradford)
15. Congenital disease in the medieval population from Hereford Cathedral
Boylson, Anthea (University of Bradford) et al. (please see abstract for multiple authors and affiliations)
16. Tight-laced in the late 18th century: altered rib morphology due to the wearing of stays.
*Witkin, Annsofie (University of Bristol)
17. A Question of Height: methodological approaches to the stature of a Hungarian Neolithic population
Masson, Murial
18. Oldowan hominin activities and paleoecology at the late Pliocene site of Kanjera South, Western Kenya.
Bishop, Laura (Liverpool John Moores University) et al. (please see abstract for multiple authors and affiliations)
19. Migration in Roman Britain: a craniometric approach
*Lyons, Nikchola (Birkbeck University)
20. A Long Way from Home – Diaspora Communities in Roman Britain
Leach, Stephany (University of Reading) et al. (please see abstract for multiple authors and affiliations)
21. Unexpected findings during the building of the University of Rome, Tor Vergata: the Necropolis of Boccone del Povero.
Arcudi Giovanni, Rustici Michela and Guerra Giovanni (University of Rome)
22. Klingal, David.
Paper Abstracts (in running order)
A life course perspective of growing up in medieval London
Rebecca Redfern and Don Walker
Spitalfields Project
Museum of London Archaeology Service
Our knowledge of medieval children is derived from medical, religious, legal and social texts, but these documents are written by adults and therefore differed from children’s experience and world-view. Importantly, because medieval society acknowledged that childhood was a separate stage of life with its own qualities and characteristics, we are able to employ a life course approach to the analysis of ‘growing up’ in medieval London. This approach recognises that an individual’s health, gender, status and location influences how they ‘grow up’.
London was unique within medieval Britain in terms of population movement and social complexity, and primary texts have demonstrated that these factors influenced children’s life-ways. The relationship between growing up in the city and subadult health has been explored by the bioarchaeological analysis of 1027 subadults from St Mary Spital; a hospital whose charter specified that it cared for children under the age of 7 years old and pregnant women. The results of this analysis demonstrated that the age-related increase in trauma and specific metabolic and infectious diseases, growth patterns and mortality risk could be correlated to key stages in the life course, such as weaning in infancy and employment during childhood and adolescence.
This paper will provide an over-view of results, focusing upon three themes - diet, migration and the heterogeneous nature of urban health. These will be addressed within a life course perspective using, demography, growth, trauma, specific metabolic and infectious disease, and dental data.
Changing Childhoods: subadult health in Iron Age and Romano-British Dorset.
Rebecca Redfern
The British Museum
‘Childhood’ and ageing are growing areas of research in Romano-British studies, with many researchers focusing on epigraphic sources or funerary evidence, influenced by the growing body of archaeological theory and research, and by social commentary on our own society. Human remains are often excluded from this discourse, their data being considered suited to support rather than to initiate interpretations. This study focused upon a regional sample of individuals (pre-term to 20 years old), dating from the 5th c. B.C. to the end of the 4th c. A.D. from the county of Dorset in southern England (N=190). By comparing the skeletal evidence for health and disease between the two periods, the lived experience of growing and ageing in two socio-cultural environments can be compared.
In order to consider temporal changes, and the interaction between the individual, socio-cultural frameworks and environment, the following data were analysed within a bioarchaeological framework: age-at-death, trauma, surgical and medical practice, developmental defects/congenital anomalies, metabolic diseases, growth, and indicators of stress. The study concluded that younger age groups were more likely to be affected by cultural and environment changes, because they were reliant upon others for care; that ‘Romanization’ did impact upon physical well-being and health; and the existence of inter-regional differences in health, supporting epigraphy which shows that age identities and transitions were heterogeneous within the Roman empire.
Research funded by the University of Birmingham and Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society
Comparing development patterns from skeleton and dentition in a large Archaic-Classical assemblage of children’s skeletons from Astypalaia in the Dodecanese
Simon Hillson
Institute of Archaeology
University College London
Astypalaia is a small, isolated island on the western edge of Dodecanese archipelago in Greece. Since 2001, the 22nd Ephorate of Prehistoric & Classical Antiquities has been excavating a large children’s cemetery there. It includes 2000 inhumation burials in pots dating from Archaic, Classical and Roman times. A team from UCL has been recovering, recording and conserving the remains and, so far, 800 of the burials have been processed, with 642 of these yielding measurable elements – already the largest assemblage of its type anywhere. Preservation is good, allowing developing teeth and small centres of ossification to be recovered as well as larger elements. Development of the skeletons centres on the state expected at birth in modern children, but encompasses a wide range of variation from very premature to two years or more post-natal. This provides a large group in which the development of different parts of the skeleton, and the dentition, can be compared. Standard measurements of the bones and the teeth are taken as part of the basic recording and make it possible to examine relationships between different parts of the skeleton and between the skeleton and dentition. The latest development of the project is a histological study using counts of circadian incremental structures in the teeth to calibrate development relative to the point of birth.
This is a collaboration between the Institute of Archaeology at UCL, the 22nd Ephorate of Prehistoric & Classical Antiquities and the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University, Canada.
Research funded by: British Academy, Arts & Humanities Research Board, Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council Canada, Institute of Archaeology and Graduate School UCL, Institute of Classical Studies, University of London.
Stress near the start of life: localised enamel hypoplasia of the primary canine in late prehistoric mainland Southeast Asia.
Siân Halcrow
Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology
University of Otago, New Zealand
Localised hypoplasia of the primary canine (LHPC) is characterised by roughly circular defective areas of thinned or missing enamel on the labial surface. This defect is rarely reported in bioarchaeological research. Using samples from late prehistoric mainland Southeast Asia, this paper documents the prevalence of LHPC to provide baseline data for this defect. The samples are from Thailand and collectively span from c. 4000-1500 BP, a time when there were changes occurring in the cultural milieu, including agricultural intensification and an increase in social complexity and population density. In the combined Thai samples, 32/79 (40.5 percent) of individuals and 47/199 (23.6 percent) of teeth had LHPC. The prevalence of LHPC was also compared among the sites by tooth and individual count to assess whether there were any differences reflecting cultural changes. This was not the case. The sites with a high prevalence of LHPC had high rates of pathology, tentatively supporting the usefulness of this enamel defect as an indicator of perinatal health.
Childhood Oral Health: dental palaeopathology of Kellis 2, Dakhleh, Egypt
Stephanie Anne Shkrum
Department of Anthropology
The University of Western Ontario
Recently, bioarchaeological research has witnessed an emerging trend, namely reconstructing the role of infants and children in antiquity. A neglected aspect of this trend is the systematic study of deciduous teeth relative to age. This is concomitant of the assumption that non-adult dentitions are invariably healthy and of little consequence to their adaptability, an assumption that is primarily based on the limited time for dietary agents to effect change in tooth structure. This paper tests this hypothesis by examining the oral health of infants and children in an agriculturally based population sample from the Kellis 2 cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt.