Paleodemography

Представлены результаты экспертизы антропологических материалов из могильника античного времени Сувлу-Кая в Юго-Западном Крыму. Обсуждаются демографические и краниологические особенности двух хронологических групп из подбойных могил III–IV вв. и из склепов IV–V вв. н.э. Захоронения в подбоях, по-видимому, оставлены кратковременным, преимущественно мужским коллективом, для которого характерны высокий травматизм, традиция искусственной деформации головы и краниометрические признаки, свойственные носителям позднесарматской культуры низовьев Волги и Дона. Выборка из склепов близка демографическим параметрам нормальной и сравнительно благополучной человеческой популяции; морфология единичных черепов позволяет предположить участие в формировании этой группы потомков местного догреческого населения Крыма.

All current standardized methods of age determination using the os pubis were tested by blind assessment of a skeletal sample with documented ages (from the Todd collection; N = 96). No demographic data (sex, age, race, age composition) were known to the assessors prior to completion of the test. Results showed the Todd method to be more reliable than more recent component techniques and that all systems tended to underage. Therefore, modifications were made of the Todd system to eliminate this and other deficiencies, and a second test using a new sample was conducted (N = 109). The age distribution determined by the revised Todd method did not significantly differ from the actual age distribution of the second sample. Error due to race was nonsignificant. Biological stages of pubic metamorphosis are described and possible evolutionary specializations of the hominid symphysis are discussed. Revised standards for age determination are presented.

The goal of this presentation is discuss degenerative skeletal aging as a function of biological homeostasis, and the potential effect of disruptions to the normal aging process caused by drug and alcohol use.
This presentation will impact the forensic community by demonstrating that no significant differences in biological age were found between individuals suspected of using drugs and alcohol and those without evidence for drug or alcohol usage.
Age at death is routinely estimated as part of the biological profile in order to facilitate the identification of an unknown decedent. The estimation of adult degenerative age is typically conducted using a few, relatively well documented areas of the human skeleton. The most common are the pubic symphysis and sternal rib ends (1). While there are a number of publications discussing age related changes in the pubic symphyseal face and the sternal ends of the fourth rib, the underlying causes of these age related processes are not well understood; however, neither is degenerative aging in general (2).
Much of the degenerative aging process occurs as a function of maintaining bodily homeostasis and disruptions in homeostasis can produce significant tissue pathophysiology (3). Disruptions caused by drug and alcohol abuse have been documented as resulting in pathological conditions such as osteosclerosis as a function of a stressed neuroendocrine system (e.g. 4,5).  However, while the potential skeletal effects of drug and alcohol usage have been documented in single case study contexts, this has yet to be demonstrated on a large population.
To examine the effects of drug and alcohol use on biological markers of age, a sample of 579 documented individuals, processed through Maricopa County Forensic Science Center (FSC) in Phoenix, AZ were examined (data from 6). Data on the pubic symphysis and the sternal rib ends were collected for individuals with ages ranging from 18-99 years. Drug or alcohol use for individuals was established through the presence of drug or alcohol related items at the location the decedent was recovered from, or from witness accounts. The available documentation was not detailed enough to establish chronic drug or alcohol abuse, but only to infer usage in general. In order to examine the potential effects of drug or alcohol usage on the degenerative aging process, correlations for each age indicator and combined indicators were examined. Based on the available individuals, samples were divided into drug/alcohol usage (n=94) and non-usage (n=483) and further sub-divided into Younger Adults (aged 18-39 years) and Older Adults (aged 40+ years).
While all age marker correlations decreased with advancing age and all standard errors increased with age, results indicate that drug/alcohol use in the present sample, as suggested via witness statements or the presence of drugs or alcohol, did not affect the ability to estimate age. Correlations were very similar between the two samples; however, the standard errors were comparatively low for drug/alcohol users aged 40+ years; this could be an effect of sample size.
Further research using a similar approach on a sample with more detailed background information on drug and alcohol use is necessary and may be able to differentiate individuals suffering from chronic abuse which may significantly affect bodily homeostasis and aging.


References:
1. Garvin HM, Passalacqua NV. Current practices by forensic anthropologists in adult skeletal age estimation. J Forensic Sci 2012;57(2):427-43
2. Hamerman D. Aging and the musculoskeletal system. Ann Rheum Dis 1997;56:578-585.
3. McEwen BS. Sex, stress and the hippocampus: allostasis, allostatic load and the aging process. Neurobiol Aging 2002:23:921–939.
4. Whyte MP, Teitelbaum SL, Reinus WR. J Bone Miner Res 1996;11(4):554-558.
5. Bab I, Zimmer A, Melamed E. Cannabinoids and the skeleton: From marijuana to reversal of bone loss. Ann Med 2009;41:560-567.
6. Hartnett KM. A re-evaluation and revision of pubic symphysis and fourth rib aging techniques [dissertation]. Phoenix (AZ): Arizona State University, 2007.

Keywords: homeostasis, drug use, age at death.

These excerpts from the book relate to the provenience and analysis of human skeletons from the Late Postclassic/Contact-period highland Maya site of Iximche, including paleodemography, paleopathology, and stable isotopes. The headings of some tables in Chapter 10 have been corrected from the versions in the book. The book is currently out of print.

Книга посвящена опыту биоархеологического изучения палеоантропологических материалов, отражающих историю населения крупнейшего города Азиатского Боспора – Фанагории. Античный город в окружении местного населения – один из наиболее ярких исторических «опытов» создания культурно-сложных обществ.  Палеодемографическое исследование, реконструкция традиций питания, мобильности с использованием данных об изотопном составе кости помогают воссоздать особенности образа жизни жителей античной Фанагории | The initial results of our work are presented in
this book. The first part dedicated to general methodological and historiographic discussion. The second one includes results of bioarcheological study of human skeletal materials, as the mirror the history of the
population of the largest city of the Asian Bosporus —
Phanagoria. The population of the antique city surrounded by the local groups is one of the brightest historical “cases” of societies with the complex cultures. In the future, we plan to continue of the bioarchaeological studies of some culturally complex societies on the base of the Medieval “cases”.

Why and how exactly social complexity develops through time from small-scale groups to the level of large and complex institutions is an essential social science question. Through studying the Late Bronze Age Sintashta-Petrovka chiefdoms of the southern Urals (cal. 2050–1750 BC), this research aims to contribute to an understanding of variation in the organization of local communities in chiefdoms. It set out to document a segment of the Sintashta-Petrovka population not previously recognized in the archaeological record and learn about how this segment of the population related to the rest of the society. The Sintashta-Petrovka development provides a comparative case study of a pastoral society divided into sedentary and mobile segments.
Subsurface testing on the peripheries of three Sintashta-Petrovka communities suggests that a group of mobile herders lived outside the walls of the nucleated villages on a seasonal basis. During the summer, this group moved away from the village to pasture livestock farther off in the valley, and during the winter returned to shelter adjacent to the settlement. This finding illuminates the functioning of the year-round settlements as centers of production during the summer so as to provide for herd maintenance and breeding and winter shelter against harsh environmental conditions.
The question of why individuals chose in this context to form mutually dependent relationships with other families and thus give up some of their independence can be answered with a combination of two necessities: to remain a community in a newly settled ecological niche and to protect animals from environmental risk and theft. Those who were skillful at managing communal construction of walled villages and protecting people from military threats became the most prominent members of the society. These people formed the core of the chiefdoms but were not able to accumulate much wealth and other possessions. Instead, they acquired high social prestige that could even be transferred to their children. However, this set of relationships did not last longer than 300 years. Once occupation of the region was well established the need for functions served by elites disappeared, and centralized chiefly communities disintegrated into smaller unfortified
villages.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Provence region was hit by several severe epidemics whose causes are still not clearly understood. To draw up epidemic profiles and to identify the pathogenic agents concerned, we constituted a large onomastic database and built a geographic information system for Martigues, a medium-sized community in the south of France. The cross-linking of epidemiological, spatial and demographical data allows us to propose a new diagnosis for the epidemic which reached Martigues in the autumn of 1705.

The tradition of burial has come from the Homo neanderthalensis, a member of the Hominidae family, in which the human being is present, as well.Human skeletal remains studied in biological anthropological research are usually found in the necropolis areas of historic and prehistoric societies.The first step in the palaeodemographic studies on the remains of these areas is sex and age determination. In skeletons, two main methods are used for sex determination.One of these methods is the morphological features of the skeletal remains and the other is the metric measurements.The parts that best reflect sex criteria in body skeletons are hip bone and skull bones. Variations (asymmetric changes) related to vital activities may be seen in the hip bone and other skeletal remains, while developmental differences are specific to the sides in the skull.Macroscopic and statistical methods and techniques are used for age determination in skeleton studies.Criteria used in age determination methods are calculated using different methods depending on the changes in growth and development process.In addition to sex-specific differences in age prediction, living conditions, habits, and occupational activities play an important role in the emergence of individual differences.Considering the differences in age and gender of skeletal residues due to methodological problems and variations between populations, as well as differences due to sexual dimorphism and asymmetric changes due to body integrity of the individual, may increase the reliability and validity of the analyzes. 
Key words: Paleodemography, age, sex, asymmetry.

In this thesis diet and health of people who lived in southern Sweden 2300-1100 BCE is studied. The study is based on bioarchaeological analyses of human remains from 46 localities in the areas of Uppland, Närke, Östergötland, Västergötland, and Scania. The studies are based on skeletal remains from a minimum number of 310 individuals that have been analysed both osteologically and biochemically. The thesis constitutes five papers and a synthesis, in which diet and health, related to agro-pastoral intensification and increased social stratification, is explored and discussed.

The author acknowledges a biocultural approach, i.e. human biology and culture are intertwined and affect each other. A variety of cultural expressions and actions form human biology, which can be studied as skeletal adaptation or stress. This relationship makes it possible to study past cultural behaviour through analyses of human skeletal remains. The results of the papers have been discussed in relation to bioarcheological theories and methodologies as well as current regional archaeological understandings.

The period around 2300-1100 BCE is considered by archaeologists as a period of agro-pastoral intensification, population increase, and increased social stratification. Agro-pastoral intensification allows for increased access to nutrition, and further, a resource surplus. This development would plausibly also result in population increase and increased socio-economic differences. Through investigations of diet, oral health, stature, paleopathology and care, mobility, and demography insight in the biological consequences of this development have been gained.

The results from the papers show that there is a higher reliance on cereals and cattle in the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age than in previous periods, which is visible both in stable isotope results and the frequency of dental caries. The health of the population seems to have been generally good with high stature, low prevalence of pathological lesions related to nutritional stress, possibility of gaining care if injured, many surviving into old ages, and low child mortality, which is indicative of low risk of infections due to low population density. However, an elevated risk of dying as young adults and decreasing female stature in the Early Bronze Age might reflect increased levels of stress in parts of the population.

El estudio de la antigua ciudad de Teotihuacan, constituye un reto, derivado principalmente de lo variado de la información que se ha obtenido a lo largo de más de cien años de estudios arqueológicos. El tratar de comprender la movilidad poblacional de un sitio de “gente foránea”, nos ha llevado a entender un poco más la dinámica de la población eotihuacana.
El presente estudio versa sobre la comparación de tres series
esqueléticas contemporáneas de la antigua ciudad de Teotihuacan, lo anterior con el fin de establecer si existió o no movilidad poblacional en el área conocida como Tlailotlacan, habitada según las investigaciones por personas
de procedencia foránea.

It is estimated that over 60% of skeletal holdings in English museums are stored behind a certain level of obscurity. Excellent protocols for assessing the condition and completeness of specimens exist, systems which can accurately collect information on age, sex, and disorders. The problem is that these excellent protocols are time-consuming and require workers with a level of expertise to collect the data in an accurate, meaningful way. However, without some basic level of information about what a storage box contains (fragments, complete skeleton, a fairly complete skull but fragments of other elements), remains languish in obscurity, with boxes pulled at random; research visit time is squandered searching for appropriate specimens; and other, perhaps scientifically important remains boxed and unnoticed. The aim of the project outlined here is to serve as a way to amass information from skeletal remains in a tested, standardised manner, using novice workers, in order to create a data set of information. This data can range from the most basic to the capture of more nuanced observations that can inform on possible sex, age and some common disorders. The project, a doctoral investigation is discussed from genesis through development and into its current form. Included is an overview of extant protocols, their benefits and shortcomings. As this is both rationale and overview of a ‘rapid assessment system’ (RAS), the emphasis is on its design, with testing, results and analysis of the testing discussed elsewhere.

Key words: Skeletal analysis, Museums, Data collection, Assessment protocol

This paper deals with Population estimates for 8th c. Central Asia. It makes use of a whole range of sources, from Chinese 8th c. census to depictions of 10th c. Arabic geographers, archaeological maps of the distribution of sites, and to Russian 19th c. census. It aims not at being precise, but to provide very rough estimates and a sens of the global equilibrium between East Turkestan, West Turkestan, and the steppe.

Why and how exactly social complexity develops through time from small-scale groups to the level of large and complex institutions is an essential social science question. Through studying the Late Bronze Age Sintashta-Petrovka chiefdoms of the southern Urals (cal. 2050–1750 BC), this research aims to contribute to an understanding of variation in the organization of local communities in chiefdoms. It set out to document a segment of the Sintashta-Petrovka population not previously recognized in the archaeological record and learn about how this segment of the population related to the rest of the society. The Sintashta-Petrovka development provides a comparative case study of a pastoral society divided into sedentary and mobile segments. Subsurface testing on the peripheries of three Sintashta-Petrovka communities suggests that a group of mobile herders lived outside the walls of the nucleated villages on a seasonal basis. During the summer, this group moved away from the village t...

Проводится коннексия результатов естественно-научного изучения костных человеческих останков из некрополя XVIII — начала XVII в. до н.э. Реконструируемая демографическая ситуация типична для популяций эпохи бронзы, некоторые ее особенности предполагают начальный период адаптации группы. Краниологическая специфика некоторых погребенных соответствует керамическим импортам из урало-тобольского региона алакульской культуры. Индивиды из наиболее ранних погребений по соотношению изотопов углерода и азота сходны с группами степного Притоболья, остальные соответствуют местным центрально-казахстанским образцам. Палеогенетические и краниологические данные свидетельствуют об исходно волго-уральском происхождении населения. Женщины с отличающимся от остальных индивидов генетическим профилем погребены в оградах отдельной планиграфической группы.
A correlation of the results of the study of the paleoanthropological materials from the necropolis of Maitan by different scientific methods has been carried out in order to establish chronological and spatial differentiation of the burial ground and origins of the group. The complex approach allows the analysis of the problems of absolute and relative chronologies of the necropolis, demographic dynamics of the group in the context of the natural environment, and anthropological and genetic structure of the Bronze Age populations of the Eurasian steppes. The paleodemographic context reconstructed for the Maitan group is typical for the populations of the Bronze Age; some of its features may indicate an early period of adaptation, possibly related to migration of the group into the new territory. The intergroup statistical analysis of craniological materials suggests primarily western origins of the people. Particular craniological characteristics of some interred of the necropolis correspond with the recorded on the Maitan ware long-distance imports from the Urals-Tobol region of the Alakul Culture. For the first time on the materials of a numerically representative series of samples of humans and terrestrial herbivores of the Bronze Age Central Kazakhstan, Upper Tobol River region, and Trans-Urals steppes, the regional isotopic background has been established. Some individuals from the earliest burials of Maitan, according to the radiocarbon dating, are similar in isotopic ratios of carbon and nitrogen to the groups from further western regions of the Upper Tobol River steppes, whereas the other interred correspond in the isotopic values with local Central Kazakhstan samples. It is possible that at the later stages of the spatial organization of the necropolis, women featuring a genetic profile different from other individuals and buried within the fences of the western planigraphic group took part in the formation of its remaining collective. In general, according to the series of calibrated radiocarbon dates, Maitan burial ground dates to the 18th — early 17th century BC.

Adult age-at-death is presented in a number of different ways by anthropologists. Ordinal categories predominate in osteoarchaeology, but do not reflect individual variation in ageing, with too many adults being classified as "middle adults". In addition, mean ages (derived from reference samples) are overly-relied upon when developing and testing methods. In both cases, "age mimicry" is not adequately accounted for. To highlight the many inherent biases created when developing, testing and applying age-estimation methods without fully considering the impact of "age mimicry" and individual variation. The paper draws on previously published research (Web of Science, Pub Med, Google Scholar) on age estimation methods and their use in anthropology. There is a lack of consistency in the methods used to estimate age and for the mode of combining them. Ordinal categories are frequently used in osteoarchaeology, whereas forensic anthropologists are more likely...

From the 6th century onwards, plague caused recurring mortality crises in the Western world. Such epidemics had profound biological, cultural, economic and political impacts on European societies. Some aspects of the history of plague epidemics are currently well known, but many questions remain unanswered, such as the precise epidemiological pattern of the disease in ancient times. It is unclear whether plague killed people indiscriminately or whether this disease was selective with respect to age, sex and health. This research contributes to this debate. It consists of an anthropological and paleopathological study of skeletal remains of 1090 individuals, including plague victims from four medieval and post-medieval burial grounds, and individuals from two parochial cemeteries in use during periods of normal mortality. Results from the four plague-related assemblages reveal a peculiar demographic signature. Age and sex distribution differs clearly from what is expected in non-epidemic periods, when it is shown to correspond closely to the demographic structure of the living population. Moreover, the study of various non-specific skeletal stress markers shows that plague victims were in a better health before they passed away than people who died in non-epidemic periods. The results demonstrate that individuals who suffered stress and disease had a reduced chance of survival in non-epidemic periods, whereas they were not at a higher risk to die during plague epidemics. This study provides evidence that plague was not selective, and that it killed regardless of sex, age, and preexisting health.

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Génératrice depuis le VIe siècle de notre ère de crises épidémiques récurrentes en Occident, la peste a profondément marqué l’histoire des sociétés européennes, tant sur le plan biologique que culturel, économique et politique. Si l’histoire des épidémies qu’elle a engendrées est aujourd’hui relativement bien connue, un certain nombre de questions sur ses caractéristiques épidémiologiques passées demeurent pour partie irrésolues. En particulier, le caractère sélectif ou non de la mortalité par peste à l’égard de l’âge, du sexe et de l’état de santé préexistant des individus fait actuellement débat. À partir d’une approche anthropobiologique, le présent travail se propose de contribuer à cette discussion. Il livre les résultats de l’étude d’un corpus de 1090 squelettes provenant, d’une part, de quatre sites d’inhumation de pestiférés de la fin du Moyen Âge et du début de l’époque moderne et, d’autre part, de deux cimetières paroissiaux médiévaux utilisés hors contexte épidémique. Cette étude révèle en premier lieu l’existence d’une signature démographique commune aux séries en lien avec la peste. Leur composition par âge et par sexe, distincte de celle caractérisant la mortalité naturelle, est au contraire en adéquation avec la structure théorique d’une population vivante préindustrielle. L’examen de divers indicateurs de stress suggère par ailleurs que les victimes de la peste jouissaient, à la veille de leur décès, d’un meilleur état de santé que les individus morts en temps normal. Les résultats obtenus concourent à démontrer que les facteurs causals de ces lésions squelettiques, d’accoutumé responsables d’une diminution des chances de survie, n’eurent au contraire qu’une influence mineure, si ce n’est nulle, sur le risque de mourir de l’infection à Yersinia pestis. Ce travail livre in fine un faisceau d’arguments convergents qui tendent à prouver que les épidémies de peste anciennes furent à l’origine d’une mortalité non sélective, la maladie frappant indistinctement les individus des deux sexes, de tous âges et de toutes conditions sanitaires.

The narrative of events in this paper connects Trinidadian “pre-history” to present discourses on multiculturalism. This narrative form is chosen to help conceptualise how social groupings are made textually, how people(s) become essentialised, named, represented and who has/had the power to do this. This descriptive method is chosen to aid understanding of the way historical work contributes to Western colonial stereotypes and erases alternative pictures of the past. The paper considers the question of whether multiculturalism is simply a term that comes into existence in the 1960s and 70s as a form of government policy in white settler nations such as Canada, the USA and Australia, or if indigenous, non-legislative forms of multiculturalism can be established in the pre-historical era of the Caribbean too.

Статья посвящена анализу демографических и краниологических особенностей двух не связанных друг с другом групп населения античного и нового времени, оставивших погребения в культурном слое Новоселовского городища (Краснодарский край). Группа I века до н.э. по демографическим показателям входит в число наименее благополучных для данного хронологического периода; несколько черепов хорошей сохранности обладают чертами, типичными для оседло-земледельческого населения Восточного Приазовья рубежа эр. Население Нового времени, вероятно, представляло собой одну из территориальных групп ногайцев. При этом женская ее часть имеет сбалансированную демографическую структуру, тогда как у мужчин отмечена повышенная смертность в возрасте 30-45 лет, причиной которой могли быть систематические вооруженные столкновения.

A comprehensive approach to certain structural problems and a wide array of scientific issues of both natural sciences and humanities should include methods of digital modelling of complex systems. Past human societies and their settlement structures represent in a certain point of view complex systems. Agent-based modelling (ABM) and simulation represents a methodological framework to construct digital models of studied contexts in order to test the viability of existing theoretical models in both qualitative and quantitative aspects. An explicitly formulated “artificial society” (e.g., Danielisová, Štekerová 2015) can be built on the basis of all available archaeological sources, proxy data, estimates and existing theoretical models in research of the Germanic society of the Middle Danube region (Moravia, W Slovakia – Záhorie region and Lower Austria to the north of the Danube). The main concern lies in the establishment of a digital model which would reflect the available archaeological knowledge and estimates about the Germanic settlement structure and possible demographic development from the 1st century AD up to the period of the Marcomannic wars. Similar attempts at archaeological demography certainly contain wide ranges of methodical issues, mostly due to the limited input data and known aspects of population dynamics from archaeological records, nevertheless, this attempt represents a pilot effort of the initial framework implementation phase designed to explore the basic demographic properties of the studied context.

The use of Niche Construction Theory in archaeological research demands that we establish empirically how human-constructed niches acted as legacies that shaped the selection pressures affecting past human populations. One potential approach is to examine whether human demography changed as a result of the continued use of landscapes enduringly transformed by past societies. This paper presents proxies for Amazonian population growth during the late Holocene and discusses their significance within the broader context of landscape legacies resulting from cumulative anthropic environmental alteration during pre-Columbian times.

This map has been drawn for a forthcoming paper on the Early Medieval Central Asian population estimates. It shows the distribution of the oasis wall, of the Archaeological sites, and the pre-Mongol pattern of the of the Balkhab and its channels.

This paper aims at reconstructing the population dynamics during the Neolithic and Bronze Age, c. 4500–500 cal. BC, in north-western Central Europe. The approach is based on the assumption that increased population density is positively linked with human activity and human impact on the environment, respectively. Therefore, we use archaeological 14C dates and palaeoenvironmental data from northern Germany and south-western Denmark to construct and compare independent proxies of human activity. The latter involves relative quantification of human impact based on pollen analysis and soil erosion history inferred from summarizing of dated colluvial layers. Concurring patterns of changes in human activity are frequently recorded on a multi-centennial scale. Whereas such multi-proxy patterns are interpreted to indicate relative population changes, divergent patterns are discussed in the context of proxy-related uncertainties and potential biases. Patterns of temporal distribution of incr...

Riassunto Gli scavi archeologici condotti tra il 2007 e il 2011 all’interno della Cattedrale di San Lorenzo (Alba, CN), hanno portato alla luce circa 350 sepolture. Sono stati rinvenuti diversi individui in deposizione primaria, facenti parte di una vasta area sepolcrale risalente ad un periodo compreso tra VIII e XVIII secolo. Le tipologie di inumazione comprendono sepolture in fossa terragna, cassa laterizia e camera lignea. Sulla base dei dati stratigrafici ed archeologici è stato possibile effettuare una buona contestualizzazione cronologica del materiale antropologico in relazione alle successive fasi di uso del cimitero. Nel presente lavoro è stato sottoposto all’analisi paleo demografica un sottocampione rappresentato da 99 soggetti risalenti al periodo VIII-XI secolo di cui 51 inumati all’interno della chiesa e 48 nell’area che all’epoca era adibita a cimitero esterno all’edificio religioso. L’indagine ha lo scopo di cercare di delineare le caratteristiche e quindi le similarità e le differenze del campione inumato nell’interno chiesa e nel cimitero esterno nei secoli compresi tra l’VIII e il IX. Abstract Archaeological excavations led between 2007 and 2011 in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo (Alba, CN ) have unearthed about 350 burials. Many graves are formed by primary deposition and are a part of a vast burial ground dating back to a period between the VIII and XVIII centuries. The types of burial include burial in earth graves, cash room brick and wood. Based on stratigraphic evidences and archaeological data it was possible to make a good chronological contextualization of anthropological material according to the different phases of use of the cemetery. In the present paper, a subsample, represented by 99 individuals dating back to the VIII to the XI century, out of which 51 are buried inside the church and 48 in the area at that time used as a cemetery outside the building religious, was submitted to the paleodemographic analysis. The survey aims to delineate the characteristics and thus the similarities and differences of the sample buried in the cemetery outside and inside the church over the centuries between the VIII and IX.

ABSTRACT: Analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes from soft or mineralized tissues is a direct and widely used
technique for modeling diets. In addition to its continued role in paleodiet analysis, stable isotope analysis is now
contributing to studies of physiology, disease, and nutrition in archaeological and living human populations. In humans
and other animals, dietary uptake and distribution of carbon and nitrogen among mineralized and soft tissue is carried
out with varying efficiency due to factors of internal biology. Human pathophysiologies may lead to pathology-influenced
isotopic fractionation that can be exploited to understand not just skeletal health and diet, but physiological
health and nutrition. This study reviews examples from human biology, non-human animal ecology, biomedicine, and
bioarchaeology demonstrating how stable isotope analyses are usefully applied to the study of physiological adaptation
and adaptability. Suggestions are made for future directions in applying stable isotope analysis to the study of nutritional
stress, disease, and growth and development in living and past human populations.

This article presents an overview of paleodemographic data obtained from six field seasons of osteological research at Viminacium – a provincial city on the Danubian frontier of the Roman Empire. Skeletal remains from 254 graves – representing 297 individuals – excavated from four cemeteries situated about the eastern perimeter of the ancient city were analyzed for the study. Results suggest that the skeletal sample examined may be considered generally representative of the ancient mortality profile from the population as a whole. Key demographic details emerging from the research include a persistent preponderance of males within the population of Viminacium throughout its existence, albeit accompanied by evidence for considerably greater survivorship among females at most ages. Some interesting mortuary findings also emerge from the study, such as a trend in declining use of wooden coffins in the last century of occupation and disproportionate investment in burial treatment for certain females.

The Northern Northwest Coast of North America has consistently
been an epicenter of hunter-gatherer research, but attention has
focused on the period after 5000 cal BP. Using data largely produced
within the past 12 years, we present the first synthesis and analysis
of this region’s 14C record between
11000 and 5000 cal BP. Our
analysis produced two primary findings (i) that the number of dated
sites does not increase or decrease significantly during this period
and (ii) there is an unexplained gap in dated sites across the entire
region between
9000 and 8300 cal BP. The existence of this gap
has critical implications regarding hypotheses of technological
change, migration, population continuity, and cultural evolution for
the region. However, available explanations for this gap are problematic.
Possible causes investigated include: demographic abandonment
of the region, distorting effects of the calibration curve, sealevel
change, taphonomy, and sampling error. All are found to
be inadequate.