Edited Volume by Julie K Wesp
This volume brings together the latest approaches in bioarchaeology in the study of sex and gende... more This volume brings together the latest approaches in bioarchaeology in the study of sex and gender. Archaeologists have long used skeletal remains to identify gender. Contemporary bioarchaeologists, however, have begun to challenge the theoretical and methodological basis for sex assignment from the skeleton. Simultaneously, they have started to consider the cultural construction of the gendered body and gender roles, recognizing the body as uniquely fashioned from the interaction of biological, social, and environmental factors. As the contributors to this volume reveal, combining skeletal data with contextual information can provide a richer understanding of life in the past.
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This volume brings together the latest approaches in bioarchaeology in the study of sex and gende... more This volume brings together the latest approaches in bioarchaeology in the study of sex and gender. Archaeologists have long used skeletal remains to identify gender. Contemporary bioarchaeologists, however, have begun to challenge the theoretical and methodological basis for sex assignment from the skeleton. Simultaneously, they have started to consider the cultural construction of the gendered body and gender roles, recognizing the body as uniquely fashioned from the interaction of biological, social, and environmental factors. As the contributors to this volume reveal, combining skeletal data with contextual information can provide a richer understanding of life in the past.
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Articles by Julie K Wesp
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2022
Wesp, J. K. and P. E. Hernández López (2022). "Cortical bone maintenance and loss in Colonial Mex... more Wesp, J. K. and P. E. Hernández López (2022). "Cortical bone maintenance and loss in Colonial Mexico City: Analysis of sex- and age-related differences." International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
Previous research has demonstrated significant age and sex-related differences in bone loss in European populations. This study utilizes metacarpal radiogrammetry to analyze cortical bone thickness and bone loss for a sample of Indigenous individuals (n=120) from the Hospital Real San José de los Naturales (HSJN) skeletal collection in Colonial Mexico City. The results indicate statistically significant differences between males and females in total length, total width, and cortical thickness, but no difference in the standardized cortical index measure. There are significant differences in age groups for all measures except total length and the population follows a similar pattern of decreased cortical index over the life course. When age and sex are considered together, females begin this bone loss from young to middle adulthood with continued loss in old adulthood; however, males do not see a decrease in cortical index until old adulthood. While these results are consistent with previously reported patterns of bone loss, the HSJN population has higher levels of peak cortical bone in young adulthood than any archaeological European populations. We suggest that this increased peak bone mass may reflect differences in diet that include higher levels of calcium and magnesium as a result of the traditional practice of softening corn by boiling it in limewater (nixtamalization). Similarly, a small sample of African descendant individuals (n=5) from the HSJN population were compared with the averages for Indigenous individuals in the collection and indicated a variation in bone size, though predominantly higher levels of cortical index that may also suggest important population differences that should be further explored. This research provides important comparative data on bone maintenance and loss that supports previous hypotheses that a higher nutrient diet in modern populations may be the key factor in increased peak bone mass compared to archaeological populations.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/oa.3111
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eLife, 2021
Guzmán-Solís, Axel A., Villa-Islas, Viridiana, Bravo-López, Miriam J., Sandoval-Velasco, Marcela,... more Guzmán-Solís, Axel A., Villa-Islas, Viridiana, Bravo-López, Miriam J., Sandoval-Velasco, Marcela, Wesp, Julie K., Gómez-Valdés, Jorge A., . . . Ávila Arcos, María C. (2021). Ancient viral genomes reveal introduction of human pathogenic viruses into Mexico during the transatlantic slave trade. eLife, 10, e68612. doi:10.7554/eLife.68612
After the European colonization of the Americas there was a dramatic population collapse of the Indigenous inhabitants caused in part by the introduction of new pathogens. Although there is much speculation on the etiology of the Colonial epidemics, direct evidence for the presence of specific viruses during the Colonial era is lacking. To uncover the diversity of viral pathogens during this period, we designed an enrichment assay targeting ancient DNA (aDNA) from viruses of clinical importance and applied it to DNA extracts from individuals found in a Colonial hospital and a Colonial chapel (16th c. - 18th c.) where records suggest victims of epidemics were buried during important outbreaks in Mexico City. This allowed us to reconstruct three ancient human parvovirus B19 genomes, and one ancient human hepatitis B virus genome from distinct individuals. The viral genomes are similar to African strains, consistent with the inferred morphological and genetic African ancestry of the hosts as well as with the isotopic analysis of the human remains, suggesting an origin on the African continent. This study provides direct molecular evidence of ancient viruses being transported to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade and their subsequent introduction to New Spain. Altogether, our observations enrich the discussion about the etiology of infectious diseases during the Colonial period in Mexico.
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Historical Archaeology, 2020
The shifting sociopolitical environment of colonial Mexico City (1521–1821) resulted in a reorgan... more The shifting sociopolitical environment of colonial Mexico City (1521–1821) resulted in a reorganization of labor obligations and opportunities for the city’s inhabitants. Bioarchaeological analysis of skeletal indicators of activity, in combination with historical documentary evidence, provide an avenue for understanding this change in daily-life activities. In particular, the intersection of different aspects of identity results in groups of individuals that shared similar kinds of biomechanical stress that may not have been identified using a traditional methodology of dividing data according to age and sex groups. Additionally, the kind of work a person performed may have had an impact on the social perception of identity in colonial life, which was based more on how a person lived than on physical appearance.
Historical Archaeology 54(1):92 - 109
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Wesp, J. K. and R. A. Joyce (2020). Archaeology and the Body. Oxford Bibliographies in Anthropolo... more Wesp, J. K. and R. A. Joyce (2020). Archaeology and the Body. Oxford Bibliographies in Anthropology. J. Jackson. New York, Oxford University Press.
The body has become a central focus of archaeological research as practitioners ask questions about the role of individual human beings, their engagement with things, and the effects of embodied actions in the past. The body can serve as a starting point for analyzing diversity in past populations in terms of sex, gender, status, ethnicity, ability, and other aspects of identity. Study of the human body allows practitioners to reconstruct how culture change affected portions of populations in different ways. Archaeologists draw on a wide range of social theories from allied disciplines that have explored gender, race, ability, and philosophical understandings of living in a body to explore how material remains of past populations can be used to provide temporal depth to questions about embodiment. Archaeologists employ a variety of materials to address embodiment, ranging from human skeletal remains, materials used as clothing and adornment, tools employed as extensions of the body, and objects and immobile features that structure embodied experiences. This diversity of materials facilitates examination of similarly diverse research questions, including phenomenological understandings of how the world is experienced through the body and the senses; how cultural practices modified bodies; how visual culture, including representations of bodies, create and change body ideologies; and how skeletal remains were shaped by daily life in the past. In recent years, archaeologists have begun to reflect on the ethical implications of archaeological research on human bodies and how this research can be conducted to include perspectives from descendant communities and the public regarding research questions and the presentation of results. Archaeologists also consider how their own experiences are shaped by working with human remains.
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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2020
Bravo-Lopez, Miriam, Villa-Islas, Viridiana, Rocha Arriaga, Carolina, Villaseñor-Altamirano, Ana ... more Bravo-Lopez, Miriam, Villa-Islas, Viridiana, Rocha Arriaga, Carolina, Villaseñor-Altamirano, Ana B., Guzmán-Solís, Axel, Sandoval-Velasco, Marcela, . . . Ávila-Arcos, María C. (2020). Paleogenomic insights into the red complex bacteria Tannerella forsythia in Pre-Hispanic and Colonial individuals from Mexico. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 375(1812), 20190580. doi:10.1098/rstb.2019.0580
The ‘red complex’ is an aggregate of three oral bacteria (Tannerella forsythia,
Porphyromonas gingivalis and Treponema denticola) responsible for severe clinical manifestation of periodontal disease. Here, we report the first direct evidence of ancient T. forsythia DNA in dentin and dental calculus samples from archaeological skeletal remains that span from the Pre-Hispanic to the Colonial period in Mexico. We recovered twelve partial ancient T. forsythia genomes and observed a distinct phylogenetic placement of samples, suggesting that the strains present in Pre-Hispanic individuals likely arrived with the first human migrations to the Americas and that new strains were introduced with the arrival of European and African populations in the sixteenth century. We also identified instances of the differential presence of genes between periods in the T. forsythia ancient genomes, with certain genes present in Pre-Hispanic individuals and absent in Colonial individuals, and vice versa. This study highlights the potential for studying ancient T. forsythia genomes to unveil past social interactions through analysis of disease transmission. Our results illustrate the long-standing relationship between this oral pathogen and its human host, while also unveiling key evidence to understand its evolutionary history in Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Mexico.
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This volume explores the analytical productivity of the convergence of two bodies of theory: mate... more This volume explores the analytical productivity of the convergence of two bodies of theory: materiality, defined here as the mutually constitutive relationships between people and the material world, and everyday life, conceived of as the ordinary practices that comprise most of human existence. An engagement with materiality and everyday life reveals three interventions critical to archaeological research. First, archaeological studies of the somewhat ethereal concept of materiality benefit from a grounding in the context of material engagements in everyday life. Second, the seemingly mundane and ordinary material practices of everyday life are of crucial significance for society in such varied arenas as politics, commerce, and cosmology. Third, the study of the materiality of everyday life necessarily implicates fruitful attention to multiple social and temporal scales.
DOI: 10.1111/apaa.12057
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The activities of everyday life influence not only the extrasomatic material world, but also the ... more The activities of everyday life influence not only the extrasomatic material world, but also the material properties of our own bodies. Living bone tissue is a dynamic material that responds to external and internal stimuli to alter its size, shape, and structure, and the repetitive actions from daily life performances leave traces that can be interpreted from archaeological skeletal remains. This chapter examines how the human body can be interpreted as a type of material object that both shapes and is shaped by our behavior. These changes are highlighted through the examination of a small skeletal population from the Postclassic site of Xaltocan in Central Mexico. Bioarchaeological analyses of these material changes add a unique perspective to the discussion of the materiality of everyday life in the past.
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In this work, we present a measuring methodology for long bones of the limbs (humerus, femur, and... more In this work, we present a measuring methodology for long bones of the limbs (humerus, femur, and tibia) of human corpses. Measurements of cadaveric height and long bone lengths were conducted on 72 corpses (20 females and 52 males) from the School of Medicine at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Additionally, these measurements were compared with those taken from dry bones of a subsample of individuals. Our results show marginal differences (TEM% = 0.59) between cadaveric and dry bone measurements, resulting from different osteometric technical procedures. This note outlines the measuring methodology, which will be subsequently used to create regression formulas for stature estimation.
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Recent investigations at the site of Xuenkal on the plains north of Chichén Itzá provide evidence... more Recent investigations at the site of Xuenkal on the plains north of Chichén Itzá provide evidence of the changing regional political environment during the Terminal Classic Period (800 - 1000 AD). This paper examines a collection of spindle whorls recovered during the 2005, 2006, and 2007 field seasons of the Proyecto Arqueológico Xuenkal (PAX) as evidence for intensification of craft production. Through this analysis and comparison with spindle whorl collections from other Lowland Maya sites, we suggest the inhabitants of Xuenkal rapidly adapted to changing economic demands by increasing the amount of cloth produced in their residential settings, perhaps in response to increased tribute demands that emanated from the dominant political power of the region. Spinning and weaving is associated with the female gender during the Classic Period in Mesoamerica. Thus, intensification of this gendered activity not only produced excess materials for the state, but also reinforced its gender ideology. Analysis of these artifacts adds to the knowledge of Maya cloth production and addresses the nature of Chichén Itzá’s influence on regional sites during the height of its influence in the Terminal Classic period.
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Book Chapters by Julie K Wesp
The Biocultural Consequences of Contact in Mexico: Five Centuries of Change, 2023
Wesp, Julie K. (2023). “Biocultural Impacts of Labor in Colonial Mexico City: the intersections o... more Wesp, Julie K. (2023). “Biocultural Impacts of Labor in Colonial Mexico City: the intersections of age, sex, and heritage” In The Biocultural Consequences of Contact in Mexico: Five Centuries of Change, edited by Heather J. H. Edgar and Cathy Willermet, pp. 84-108. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. doi: 10.2307/jj.1176852.10
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Coloniality in the Maya Lowlands: Archaeological Perspectives, 2022
Wesp, Julie K. (2022). “Excavating the Third Root: constructing archaeological narratives that in... more Wesp, Julie K. (2022). “Excavating the Third Root: constructing archaeological narratives that include Afro-Yucatecans.” In Coloniality in the Maya Lowlands: Archaeological Perspectives, edited by Kasey Diserens Morgan and Tiffany C. Fryer, pp. 58-80. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
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The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology, 2022
This chapter brings together bioarchaeological research for the colonial period in Mesoamerica to... more This chapter brings together bioarchaeological research for the colonial period in Mesoamerica to examine how sociopolitical changes impact demographics, health, diet, and labor. Analysis of biological affiliation highlights the diversity of populations in urban centers with Indigenous population replacement through migration and the arrival of Europeans and Africans and their descendants, whereas more rural communities, especially in the Maya area were more isolated from population mixing. Novel pathogens caused in higher rates of acute physiological stress and mass burials from infectious disease epidemics. The establishment of hospitals and other religious institutions provided care for the ill and skeletal collections associated with these places have a significantly higher prevalence of paleopathological indicators of diseases such as syphilis, tuberculosis, meningioma tumors, and osteomyelitis. Isotopic evidence largely suggests a continuity in diet, though nutritional stress indicators increase during the colonial period, possibly in conjunction with the changing disease environment. Labor organization appears to reorganize more in urban centers with diverse populations than in rural communities that still have a division of labor by gender. Additional regional studies and comparative interpretation are needed to further expand our understanding of the biocultural impacts of colonization.
Wesp, J. K. (2022). The Bioarchaeology of Colonial New Spain. The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology. V. Tiesler. New York, Routledge: 633 - 650.
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Wesp, J. K. (2021). Bioarchaeological Research on Daily Life in the Emerging Colonial Society. Me... more Wesp, J. K. (2021). Bioarchaeological Research on Daily Life in the Emerging Colonial Society. Mesoamerican Archaeology: Theory and Practice. J. A. Hendon, L. Overholtzer and R. A. Joyce. Malden, Blackwell: 374 - 397.
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In "Exploring Sex and Gender in Bioarchaeology" Sabrina C. Agarwal and Julie K. Wesp, eds. Pp. 99... more In "Exploring Sex and Gender in Bioarchaeology" Sabrina C. Agarwal and Julie K. Wesp, eds. Pp. 99 - 126, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 2017
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The emergence of care institutions in Europe and later in the Americas was linked with a broad Ch... more The emergence of care institutions in Europe and later in the Americas was linked with a broad Christian ideology of charity. In this chapter, I explore how methods for providing bodily care become entwined with other kinds of care-giving, such as spiritual or psychological care. This broad perspective on the topic of care may be especially useful when exploring how care was conceptualized and administered in the early period of Spanish colonial rule. This chapter analyses the emergence of institutional care in the Americas through an examination of the Hospital Real San José de los Naturales, the first royally sponsored hospital for the indigenous population in the capital of New Spain. Utilizing historical sources and skeletal remains recovered from the within the architectural remains of the hospital, I highlight how the motivation to provide care or seek care was influenced by specific historic time and place in which these institutions were founded.
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Centro de Estudios de Antropología de la Mujer
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Dissertation by Julie K Wesp
Utilizing skeletal remains from an urban, colonial hospital in Central Mexico, this dissertation ... more Utilizing skeletal remains from an urban, colonial hospital in Central Mexico, this dissertation strives to illustrate how an examination of the bodies from archaeological contexts can shed light on the activities of everyday life in the past. While other archaeological material can tell us about the tools used to perform activities, we do not always have accurate information about who was doing what, when, and for how long. If not careful, scholars can fall into the trap of preconceived notions of a gendered division of labor that may or may not accurately portray how daily life activities were organized in other times and spaces. This issue is complicated by historical documents from the Spanish Colonial Period in the Americas, which were often written by European men and with specific administrative agendas. Similarly, the examination of gendered objects within archaeological explorations of Colonial Mexico are fraught with cyclical reasoning that stem from methodological issues within the subfield of bioarchaeology. Skeletal remains provide an exceptional opportunity to examine the actual bodies of individuals that accomplished day-to-day tasks. Yet, rather than simply relying on binary sex categories derived from skeletal features to discern gendered patterns of labor, I instead examine groupings of individuals that are derived from similar kinds of biomechanical stress. Combining the social theories of embodiment and materiality with biological understandings of bone remodeling and biomechanics, the bioarchaeological analyses used in this research illustrate how the social and biological interact to create unique individual bodies that literally become chronicles of the amount and kind of activities performed during life. These changes better illustrate the organization of labor that actually occurred rather than arbitrarily creating groups of individuals based on modern conceptions of sex/gender that cannot always be ascertained from the skeleton and may not have even existed in societies in the past.
The specific historical focus of my research is on the urban colonial experience in Central Mexico. The skeletal collection utilized in this study was recovered from the remains of the Hospital Real San José de los Naturales (HSJN), established in 1553 as the first royally sponsored hospital to care for the indigenous population in the Spanish colonies. Three non-invasive bioarchaeological analyses are used to discern subtle material changes to the bone tissue. Macroscopic analysis of entheseal changes interprets the areas of insertion for muscles on long bones that change with biomechanical stress from repetitive movements commonly used in everyday life. Next, metacarpal radiogrammetry examines the amount of cortical bone of the second metacarpal bone of the hand and provides a rough estimation of the amount of bone remodeling that occurred throughout adulthood for each individual as well as the trends in the population as a whole. Finally, cross-sectional geometry utilizes computed tomography images of the transverse plane of long bones (humerus and femur) to analyze the amount of cortical bone as well as its distribution around the central axis of the long bone. This geometric analysis provides not only an understanding of the amount of bone, but its overall strength and rigidity in response to biomechanical stress. The combination of various bioarchaeological analyses provides a richer understanding of the numerous ways in which the stress of daily activity becomes literally incorporated into bone. Furthermore, none of these methodologies are intrinsically tied to the traditional methodology of sexing skeletons and therefore is free from many of the interpretive issues that result from simplistic categorizations of individuals.
Most bioarchaeological data analyzes these data separated according to age or sex groups, but this practice is based on the assumption that a difference should be present between these variable. In this study, differences in the amount of muscle usage is found when following this method of preliminary division by age and sex, but differences in the kind of muscle usage is less clear. This could be the result of a significant overlap in the kinds of biomechanical stress received over the life course and between males and females. Instead, I used an exploratory data analysis software program and statistical cluster analysis, to identify groups of individuals with similar kinds of bony changes. None of these cluster groups consisted of solely males or solely females, supporting the notion that a preliminary division may obscure other patterns of biomechanical stress.
The cluster analyses help to do two things overall – isolate small groups of individuals on the extremes with a lot of bone growth or very little bone growth so that other averages are not skewed; and isolate groups of individuals who experienced unique kinds of movement. Additionally, these analyses are able to isolate variation that exists in terms of movement within age or sex groups. Sharing a sex/gender identity does not automatically mean that you will have the same opportunities available to you. This is an especially important factor to remember for this skeletal population, since other identities such as geographical origin or migration status created drastic differences in activity.
For the lower limb, the ability to isolate unique kinds of movement proved to be the most useful aspect of this different interpretive approach. When examining the data by age or sex groups, all individuals showed signs of walking on two feet (leg extension, lower leg flexion and extension, and plantar flexion) with only slight differences in the amount of stress. One of the groups derived from the cluster analysis, however, indicated that in addition to the movements associated with walking they also had a higher amount of stress from leg adduction (moving the leg toward the midline of the body). During this time period, the Spanish introduced new techniques for creating pottery using a potter’s wheel with a lower kick wheel to create momentum. It is possible that this isolated group of individuals may have experienced this unique kind of biomechanical stress as a result of such a unique labor opportunity.
For the upper limb, the cluster analysis was useful for isolating groups of individuals with different kinds of movement, but also for showing variation in the amount of stress within sex groups. The data, when preliminarily divided according to age and sex, showed slight increases in the amount of stress across the life course and high average scores for males than females; however, differences in kind of biomechanical stress was less clear. The groups derived from cluster analysis for entheseal changes helped to separate groups of individuals with more whole arm movements (arm extension, shoulder rotation, and arm abduction) and a group of individuals with more precise forearm movements (forearm supination, forearm flexion, and hand/wrist control). The individuals in this last group are both males and females, which is why it may have been difficult to discern this difference with the data preliminarily divided. Another important distinction found was different levels of activity among individuals that performed these whole arm movements and that also caused an increase in the amount and distribution of the cortical bone among the males in the population. Only indigenous males were obligated to participate in the different tribute labor systems during this colonial time and it is possible that the cluster groups help to isolate this subset of the male population that performed more strenuous manual labor.
Interpretation from a perspective of embodied subjectivities acknowledges that many different aspects of identities controlled the kinds of labor opportunities available to individuals in urban New Spain. Individuals who performed similar kinds of work on a day-to-day basis will have similar kinds of responses to these biomechanical stresses and cluster analysis illustrates actual distinctions in the way individuals were using their bodies that then became incorporated into the skeleton. If the data are divided from the beginning of analysis then our interpretations are inventing differences that may or not actually exist. Rather, biological data related to categorical aspects of identity should be added into interpretations only after groups of individuals with similar kinds of bone changes have been identified, in order to avoid assumptions about labor organization based on modern conceptions, historical written documents, or other archaeological data. The complex intersection of gender, geographical origin, age, and migration status during the colonial period likely influenced the creation of these variable groups of individuals with unique biomechanical stress.
Despite the unique historical moment that brings these varied populations together, bioarchaeological analyses of other times and places should also attempt to analyze the data from a perspective of embodied subjects. This means that patterns of organization should be discerned from the bone functional adaptation data first. The groups of individuals identified will then represent people who experienced similar kinds of biomechanical stress that later became materially incorporated into their bodies. Interpretation of these patterns should include other biological variables, like age and sex, but only after divisions by biomechanical stress. Preliminary divisions only test if our assumptions about how labor should be organized actually exist, rather then help to interpret actual patterns of difference.
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Edited Volume by Julie K Wesp
Articles by Julie K Wesp
Previous research has demonstrated significant age and sex-related differences in bone loss in European populations. This study utilizes metacarpal radiogrammetry to analyze cortical bone thickness and bone loss for a sample of Indigenous individuals (n=120) from the Hospital Real San José de los Naturales (HSJN) skeletal collection in Colonial Mexico City. The results indicate statistically significant differences between males and females in total length, total width, and cortical thickness, but no difference in the standardized cortical index measure. There are significant differences in age groups for all measures except total length and the population follows a similar pattern of decreased cortical index over the life course. When age and sex are considered together, females begin this bone loss from young to middle adulthood with continued loss in old adulthood; however, males do not see a decrease in cortical index until old adulthood. While these results are consistent with previously reported patterns of bone loss, the HSJN population has higher levels of peak cortical bone in young adulthood than any archaeological European populations. We suggest that this increased peak bone mass may reflect differences in diet that include higher levels of calcium and magnesium as a result of the traditional practice of softening corn by boiling it in limewater (nixtamalization). Similarly, a small sample of African descendant individuals (n=5) from the HSJN population were compared with the averages for Indigenous individuals in the collection and indicated a variation in bone size, though predominantly higher levels of cortical index that may also suggest important population differences that should be further explored. This research provides important comparative data on bone maintenance and loss that supports previous hypotheses that a higher nutrient diet in modern populations may be the key factor in increased peak bone mass compared to archaeological populations.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/oa.3111
After the European colonization of the Americas there was a dramatic population collapse of the Indigenous inhabitants caused in part by the introduction of new pathogens. Although there is much speculation on the etiology of the Colonial epidemics, direct evidence for the presence of specific viruses during the Colonial era is lacking. To uncover the diversity of viral pathogens during this period, we designed an enrichment assay targeting ancient DNA (aDNA) from viruses of clinical importance and applied it to DNA extracts from individuals found in a Colonial hospital and a Colonial chapel (16th c. - 18th c.) where records suggest victims of epidemics were buried during important outbreaks in Mexico City. This allowed us to reconstruct three ancient human parvovirus B19 genomes, and one ancient human hepatitis B virus genome from distinct individuals. The viral genomes are similar to African strains, consistent with the inferred morphological and genetic African ancestry of the hosts as well as with the isotopic analysis of the human remains, suggesting an origin on the African continent. This study provides direct molecular evidence of ancient viruses being transported to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade and their subsequent introduction to New Spain. Altogether, our observations enrich the discussion about the etiology of infectious diseases during the Colonial period in Mexico.
Historical Archaeology 54(1):92 - 109
The body has become a central focus of archaeological research as practitioners ask questions about the role of individual human beings, their engagement with things, and the effects of embodied actions in the past. The body can serve as a starting point for analyzing diversity in past populations in terms of sex, gender, status, ethnicity, ability, and other aspects of identity. Study of the human body allows practitioners to reconstruct how culture change affected portions of populations in different ways. Archaeologists draw on a wide range of social theories from allied disciplines that have explored gender, race, ability, and philosophical understandings of living in a body to explore how material remains of past populations can be used to provide temporal depth to questions about embodiment. Archaeologists employ a variety of materials to address embodiment, ranging from human skeletal remains, materials used as clothing and adornment, tools employed as extensions of the body, and objects and immobile features that structure embodied experiences. This diversity of materials facilitates examination of similarly diverse research questions, including phenomenological understandings of how the world is experienced through the body and the senses; how cultural practices modified bodies; how visual culture, including representations of bodies, create and change body ideologies; and how skeletal remains were shaped by daily life in the past. In recent years, archaeologists have begun to reflect on the ethical implications of archaeological research on human bodies and how this research can be conducted to include perspectives from descendant communities and the public regarding research questions and the presentation of results. Archaeologists also consider how their own experiences are shaped by working with human remains.
The ‘red complex’ is an aggregate of three oral bacteria (Tannerella forsythia,
Porphyromonas gingivalis and Treponema denticola) responsible for severe clinical manifestation of periodontal disease. Here, we report the first direct evidence of ancient T. forsythia DNA in dentin and dental calculus samples from archaeological skeletal remains that span from the Pre-Hispanic to the Colonial period in Mexico. We recovered twelve partial ancient T. forsythia genomes and observed a distinct phylogenetic placement of samples, suggesting that the strains present in Pre-Hispanic individuals likely arrived with the first human migrations to the Americas and that new strains were introduced with the arrival of European and African populations in the sixteenth century. We also identified instances of the differential presence of genes between periods in the T. forsythia ancient genomes, with certain genes present in Pre-Hispanic individuals and absent in Colonial individuals, and vice versa. This study highlights the potential for studying ancient T. forsythia genomes to unveil past social interactions through analysis of disease transmission. Our results illustrate the long-standing relationship between this oral pathogen and its human host, while also unveiling key evidence to understand its evolutionary history in Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Mexico.
DOI: 10.1111/apaa.12057
Book Chapters by Julie K Wesp
Wesp, J. K. (2022). The Bioarchaeology of Colonial New Spain. The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology. V. Tiesler. New York, Routledge: 633 - 650.
Dissertation by Julie K Wesp
The specific historical focus of my research is on the urban colonial experience in Central Mexico. The skeletal collection utilized in this study was recovered from the remains of the Hospital Real San José de los Naturales (HSJN), established in 1553 as the first royally sponsored hospital to care for the indigenous population in the Spanish colonies. Three non-invasive bioarchaeological analyses are used to discern subtle material changes to the bone tissue. Macroscopic analysis of entheseal changes interprets the areas of insertion for muscles on long bones that change with biomechanical stress from repetitive movements commonly used in everyday life. Next, metacarpal radiogrammetry examines the amount of cortical bone of the second metacarpal bone of the hand and provides a rough estimation of the amount of bone remodeling that occurred throughout adulthood for each individual as well as the trends in the population as a whole. Finally, cross-sectional geometry utilizes computed tomography images of the transverse plane of long bones (humerus and femur) to analyze the amount of cortical bone as well as its distribution around the central axis of the long bone. This geometric analysis provides not only an understanding of the amount of bone, but its overall strength and rigidity in response to biomechanical stress. The combination of various bioarchaeological analyses provides a richer understanding of the numerous ways in which the stress of daily activity becomes literally incorporated into bone. Furthermore, none of these methodologies are intrinsically tied to the traditional methodology of sexing skeletons and therefore is free from many of the interpretive issues that result from simplistic categorizations of individuals.
Most bioarchaeological data analyzes these data separated according to age or sex groups, but this practice is based on the assumption that a difference should be present between these variable. In this study, differences in the amount of muscle usage is found when following this method of preliminary division by age and sex, but differences in the kind of muscle usage is less clear. This could be the result of a significant overlap in the kinds of biomechanical stress received over the life course and between males and females. Instead, I used an exploratory data analysis software program and statistical cluster analysis, to identify groups of individuals with similar kinds of bony changes. None of these cluster groups consisted of solely males or solely females, supporting the notion that a preliminary division may obscure other patterns of biomechanical stress.
The cluster analyses help to do two things overall – isolate small groups of individuals on the extremes with a lot of bone growth or very little bone growth so that other averages are not skewed; and isolate groups of individuals who experienced unique kinds of movement. Additionally, these analyses are able to isolate variation that exists in terms of movement within age or sex groups. Sharing a sex/gender identity does not automatically mean that you will have the same opportunities available to you. This is an especially important factor to remember for this skeletal population, since other identities such as geographical origin or migration status created drastic differences in activity.
For the lower limb, the ability to isolate unique kinds of movement proved to be the most useful aspect of this different interpretive approach. When examining the data by age or sex groups, all individuals showed signs of walking on two feet (leg extension, lower leg flexion and extension, and plantar flexion) with only slight differences in the amount of stress. One of the groups derived from the cluster analysis, however, indicated that in addition to the movements associated with walking they also had a higher amount of stress from leg adduction (moving the leg toward the midline of the body). During this time period, the Spanish introduced new techniques for creating pottery using a potter’s wheel with a lower kick wheel to create momentum. It is possible that this isolated group of individuals may have experienced this unique kind of biomechanical stress as a result of such a unique labor opportunity.
For the upper limb, the cluster analysis was useful for isolating groups of individuals with different kinds of movement, but also for showing variation in the amount of stress within sex groups. The data, when preliminarily divided according to age and sex, showed slight increases in the amount of stress across the life course and high average scores for males than females; however, differences in kind of biomechanical stress was less clear. The groups derived from cluster analysis for entheseal changes helped to separate groups of individuals with more whole arm movements (arm extension, shoulder rotation, and arm abduction) and a group of individuals with more precise forearm movements (forearm supination, forearm flexion, and hand/wrist control). The individuals in this last group are both males and females, which is why it may have been difficult to discern this difference with the data preliminarily divided. Another important distinction found was different levels of activity among individuals that performed these whole arm movements and that also caused an increase in the amount and distribution of the cortical bone among the males in the population. Only indigenous males were obligated to participate in the different tribute labor systems during this colonial time and it is possible that the cluster groups help to isolate this subset of the male population that performed more strenuous manual labor.
Interpretation from a perspective of embodied subjectivities acknowledges that many different aspects of identities controlled the kinds of labor opportunities available to individuals in urban New Spain. Individuals who performed similar kinds of work on a day-to-day basis will have similar kinds of responses to these biomechanical stresses and cluster analysis illustrates actual distinctions in the way individuals were using their bodies that then became incorporated into the skeleton. If the data are divided from the beginning of analysis then our interpretations are inventing differences that may or not actually exist. Rather, biological data related to categorical aspects of identity should be added into interpretations only after groups of individuals with similar kinds of bone changes have been identified, in order to avoid assumptions about labor organization based on modern conceptions, historical written documents, or other archaeological data. The complex intersection of gender, geographical origin, age, and migration status during the colonial period likely influenced the creation of these variable groups of individuals with unique biomechanical stress.
Despite the unique historical moment that brings these varied populations together, bioarchaeological analyses of other times and places should also attempt to analyze the data from a perspective of embodied subjects. This means that patterns of organization should be discerned from the bone functional adaptation data first. The groups of individuals identified will then represent people who experienced similar kinds of biomechanical stress that later became materially incorporated into their bodies. Interpretation of these patterns should include other biological variables, like age and sex, but only after divisions by biomechanical stress. Preliminary divisions only test if our assumptions about how labor should be organized actually exist, rather then help to interpret actual patterns of difference.
Previous research has demonstrated significant age and sex-related differences in bone loss in European populations. This study utilizes metacarpal radiogrammetry to analyze cortical bone thickness and bone loss for a sample of Indigenous individuals (n=120) from the Hospital Real San José de los Naturales (HSJN) skeletal collection in Colonial Mexico City. The results indicate statistically significant differences between males and females in total length, total width, and cortical thickness, but no difference in the standardized cortical index measure. There are significant differences in age groups for all measures except total length and the population follows a similar pattern of decreased cortical index over the life course. When age and sex are considered together, females begin this bone loss from young to middle adulthood with continued loss in old adulthood; however, males do not see a decrease in cortical index until old adulthood. While these results are consistent with previously reported patterns of bone loss, the HSJN population has higher levels of peak cortical bone in young adulthood than any archaeological European populations. We suggest that this increased peak bone mass may reflect differences in diet that include higher levels of calcium and magnesium as a result of the traditional practice of softening corn by boiling it in limewater (nixtamalization). Similarly, a small sample of African descendant individuals (n=5) from the HSJN population were compared with the averages for Indigenous individuals in the collection and indicated a variation in bone size, though predominantly higher levels of cortical index that may also suggest important population differences that should be further explored. This research provides important comparative data on bone maintenance and loss that supports previous hypotheses that a higher nutrient diet in modern populations may be the key factor in increased peak bone mass compared to archaeological populations.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/oa.3111
After the European colonization of the Americas there was a dramatic population collapse of the Indigenous inhabitants caused in part by the introduction of new pathogens. Although there is much speculation on the etiology of the Colonial epidemics, direct evidence for the presence of specific viruses during the Colonial era is lacking. To uncover the diversity of viral pathogens during this period, we designed an enrichment assay targeting ancient DNA (aDNA) from viruses of clinical importance and applied it to DNA extracts from individuals found in a Colonial hospital and a Colonial chapel (16th c. - 18th c.) where records suggest victims of epidemics were buried during important outbreaks in Mexico City. This allowed us to reconstruct three ancient human parvovirus B19 genomes, and one ancient human hepatitis B virus genome from distinct individuals. The viral genomes are similar to African strains, consistent with the inferred morphological and genetic African ancestry of the hosts as well as with the isotopic analysis of the human remains, suggesting an origin on the African continent. This study provides direct molecular evidence of ancient viruses being transported to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade and their subsequent introduction to New Spain. Altogether, our observations enrich the discussion about the etiology of infectious diseases during the Colonial period in Mexico.
Historical Archaeology 54(1):92 - 109
The body has become a central focus of archaeological research as practitioners ask questions about the role of individual human beings, their engagement with things, and the effects of embodied actions in the past. The body can serve as a starting point for analyzing diversity in past populations in terms of sex, gender, status, ethnicity, ability, and other aspects of identity. Study of the human body allows practitioners to reconstruct how culture change affected portions of populations in different ways. Archaeologists draw on a wide range of social theories from allied disciplines that have explored gender, race, ability, and philosophical understandings of living in a body to explore how material remains of past populations can be used to provide temporal depth to questions about embodiment. Archaeologists employ a variety of materials to address embodiment, ranging from human skeletal remains, materials used as clothing and adornment, tools employed as extensions of the body, and objects and immobile features that structure embodied experiences. This diversity of materials facilitates examination of similarly diverse research questions, including phenomenological understandings of how the world is experienced through the body and the senses; how cultural practices modified bodies; how visual culture, including representations of bodies, create and change body ideologies; and how skeletal remains were shaped by daily life in the past. In recent years, archaeologists have begun to reflect on the ethical implications of archaeological research on human bodies and how this research can be conducted to include perspectives from descendant communities and the public regarding research questions and the presentation of results. Archaeologists also consider how their own experiences are shaped by working with human remains.
The ‘red complex’ is an aggregate of three oral bacteria (Tannerella forsythia,
Porphyromonas gingivalis and Treponema denticola) responsible for severe clinical manifestation of periodontal disease. Here, we report the first direct evidence of ancient T. forsythia DNA in dentin and dental calculus samples from archaeological skeletal remains that span from the Pre-Hispanic to the Colonial period in Mexico. We recovered twelve partial ancient T. forsythia genomes and observed a distinct phylogenetic placement of samples, suggesting that the strains present in Pre-Hispanic individuals likely arrived with the first human migrations to the Americas and that new strains were introduced with the arrival of European and African populations in the sixteenth century. We also identified instances of the differential presence of genes between periods in the T. forsythia ancient genomes, with certain genes present in Pre-Hispanic individuals and absent in Colonial individuals, and vice versa. This study highlights the potential for studying ancient T. forsythia genomes to unveil past social interactions through analysis of disease transmission. Our results illustrate the long-standing relationship between this oral pathogen and its human host, while also unveiling key evidence to understand its evolutionary history in Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Mexico.
DOI: 10.1111/apaa.12057
Wesp, J. K. (2022). The Bioarchaeology of Colonial New Spain. The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology. V. Tiesler. New York, Routledge: 633 - 650.
The specific historical focus of my research is on the urban colonial experience in Central Mexico. The skeletal collection utilized in this study was recovered from the remains of the Hospital Real San José de los Naturales (HSJN), established in 1553 as the first royally sponsored hospital to care for the indigenous population in the Spanish colonies. Three non-invasive bioarchaeological analyses are used to discern subtle material changes to the bone tissue. Macroscopic analysis of entheseal changes interprets the areas of insertion for muscles on long bones that change with biomechanical stress from repetitive movements commonly used in everyday life. Next, metacarpal radiogrammetry examines the amount of cortical bone of the second metacarpal bone of the hand and provides a rough estimation of the amount of bone remodeling that occurred throughout adulthood for each individual as well as the trends in the population as a whole. Finally, cross-sectional geometry utilizes computed tomography images of the transverse plane of long bones (humerus and femur) to analyze the amount of cortical bone as well as its distribution around the central axis of the long bone. This geometric analysis provides not only an understanding of the amount of bone, but its overall strength and rigidity in response to biomechanical stress. The combination of various bioarchaeological analyses provides a richer understanding of the numerous ways in which the stress of daily activity becomes literally incorporated into bone. Furthermore, none of these methodologies are intrinsically tied to the traditional methodology of sexing skeletons and therefore is free from many of the interpretive issues that result from simplistic categorizations of individuals.
Most bioarchaeological data analyzes these data separated according to age or sex groups, but this practice is based on the assumption that a difference should be present between these variable. In this study, differences in the amount of muscle usage is found when following this method of preliminary division by age and sex, but differences in the kind of muscle usage is less clear. This could be the result of a significant overlap in the kinds of biomechanical stress received over the life course and between males and females. Instead, I used an exploratory data analysis software program and statistical cluster analysis, to identify groups of individuals with similar kinds of bony changes. None of these cluster groups consisted of solely males or solely females, supporting the notion that a preliminary division may obscure other patterns of biomechanical stress.
The cluster analyses help to do two things overall – isolate small groups of individuals on the extremes with a lot of bone growth or very little bone growth so that other averages are not skewed; and isolate groups of individuals who experienced unique kinds of movement. Additionally, these analyses are able to isolate variation that exists in terms of movement within age or sex groups. Sharing a sex/gender identity does not automatically mean that you will have the same opportunities available to you. This is an especially important factor to remember for this skeletal population, since other identities such as geographical origin or migration status created drastic differences in activity.
For the lower limb, the ability to isolate unique kinds of movement proved to be the most useful aspect of this different interpretive approach. When examining the data by age or sex groups, all individuals showed signs of walking on two feet (leg extension, lower leg flexion and extension, and plantar flexion) with only slight differences in the amount of stress. One of the groups derived from the cluster analysis, however, indicated that in addition to the movements associated with walking they also had a higher amount of stress from leg adduction (moving the leg toward the midline of the body). During this time period, the Spanish introduced new techniques for creating pottery using a potter’s wheel with a lower kick wheel to create momentum. It is possible that this isolated group of individuals may have experienced this unique kind of biomechanical stress as a result of such a unique labor opportunity.
For the upper limb, the cluster analysis was useful for isolating groups of individuals with different kinds of movement, but also for showing variation in the amount of stress within sex groups. The data, when preliminarily divided according to age and sex, showed slight increases in the amount of stress across the life course and high average scores for males than females; however, differences in kind of biomechanical stress was less clear. The groups derived from cluster analysis for entheseal changes helped to separate groups of individuals with more whole arm movements (arm extension, shoulder rotation, and arm abduction) and a group of individuals with more precise forearm movements (forearm supination, forearm flexion, and hand/wrist control). The individuals in this last group are both males and females, which is why it may have been difficult to discern this difference with the data preliminarily divided. Another important distinction found was different levels of activity among individuals that performed these whole arm movements and that also caused an increase in the amount and distribution of the cortical bone among the males in the population. Only indigenous males were obligated to participate in the different tribute labor systems during this colonial time and it is possible that the cluster groups help to isolate this subset of the male population that performed more strenuous manual labor.
Interpretation from a perspective of embodied subjectivities acknowledges that many different aspects of identities controlled the kinds of labor opportunities available to individuals in urban New Spain. Individuals who performed similar kinds of work on a day-to-day basis will have similar kinds of responses to these biomechanical stresses and cluster analysis illustrates actual distinctions in the way individuals were using their bodies that then became incorporated into the skeleton. If the data are divided from the beginning of analysis then our interpretations are inventing differences that may or not actually exist. Rather, biological data related to categorical aspects of identity should be added into interpretations only after groups of individuals with similar kinds of bone changes have been identified, in order to avoid assumptions about labor organization based on modern conceptions, historical written documents, or other archaeological data. The complex intersection of gender, geographical origin, age, and migration status during the colonial period likely influenced the creation of these variable groups of individuals with unique biomechanical stress.
Despite the unique historical moment that brings these varied populations together, bioarchaeological analyses of other times and places should also attempt to analyze the data from a perspective of embodied subjects. This means that patterns of organization should be discerned from the bone functional adaptation data first. The groups of individuals identified will then represent people who experienced similar kinds of biomechanical stress that later became materially incorporated into their bodies. Interpretation of these patterns should include other biological variables, like age and sex, but only after divisions by biomechanical stress. Preliminary divisions only test if our assumptions about how labor should be organized actually exist, rather then help to interpret actual patterns of difference.
https://womeninarchaeology.com/2018/10/17/interview-with-julie/?fbclid=IwAR3OMqm1Oynyu7VwO6q05YKBtFHxDdwGMfIM7Gqigv_9PRuKMsljnwv0P-I