Non-metric traits, physiological stress indicators and paleopathological lesion on human skeletal remains from an early modern cemetery in Wyszyński Street, Wrocław, Poland (15th–18th centuries AD)

Authors

  • Agnieszka Tomaszewska Department of Anthropology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Poland
  • Barbara Kwiatkowska Department of Anthropology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Poland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/anre-2019-0015

Keywords:

discrete traits, enamel hypoplasia, dental caries, cribra orbitalia, pathological lesions, early modern Wrocław inhabitants

Abstract

The anthropological analysis and assessment of the living conditions of historical populations should be comprehensive. Due to the scarcity of the well-preserved skeletal remains of a population buried at the cemetery in Wyszyński Street, Wrocław, each piece of information is particularly important in providing the complementary information about living and health conditions of late medieval and early modern inhabitants of Wrocław. This study aims to assess the living conditions of the late medieval and early modern Wrocław inhabitants. This aim was reached by analyzing the frequency of non-metrical cranial and postcranial traits, physiological stress indicators, and pathological lesions. The importance of these traits for population studies is also discussed. For 98 skeletons (22.4% male and 37.8% female) from a cemetery located in Wyszyński Street, (15th –18th centuries AD), the frequencies (p) of the following traits were analyzed: 38 non-metric cranial and 9 post-cranial traits, the morphological indicators of physiological stress (i.e. cribra orbitalia and enamel hypoplasia), caries and pathological lesions on bones. Among the non-metric cranial traits, only nine (23.7%) were not observed. The most frequent (from p= 0.30 to p=0.65) were foramen parietale, incisura frontalis accesoria seu foramen frontale accesorius, foramen supraorbitale, M3 mandibulare, ossicula suturae lambdoideae, and foramen mastoideum extrasuturale. Only three non-metric post-cranial traits were observed, but with low frequency (p=0.01 and 0.02). Cribra orbitalia was present in 37.0% of the skeletons while enamel hypoplasia was present in only 2.6%. Susceptibility to caries occurred in 68% of the cases while carries lesions occurred in 31.2%. Among pathological changes, the most frequent were degenerative changes (21.6%) and injuries (19.6%). Owing to the poorly preserved remains, the complete assessment of the living conditions of the population was difficult. The number of the observed traits would have probably increased, had the number of complete and well-preserved skeletons been higher. The results of the study suggest that the living conditions of the studied population were poor. It is hypothesized that the cemetery was a burial place for prisoners and victims of various epidemics that affected the city. But since the historical sources of this cemetery are scarce, it is hard to unequivocally state its purpose with certainty.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Acsádi G, Nemeskéri J. 1970. History of Human Life Span and Mortality. Budapest: Akademiai Kiado.
View in Google Scholar

Anderson SM. 1989. A comparative study of the human skeletal material from late first and early second millennium sites in the north-east of England. Master’s Thesis, University of Durham, Department of Archaeology.
View in Google Scholar

Berry AC. 1975. Factors affecting the incidence of non-metric skeletal variants. J Anat 120 (3):519–35.
View in Google Scholar

Berry AC, Berry RJ. 1967. Epigenetic variation in the human cranium. J Anat 101(2):361–79.
View in Google Scholar

Borysewicz-Lewicka M, Chłapowska J. 2006. Próchnica zębów. In: Zarys pediatrii. Podręcznik dla studentów pielęgniarstwa. Warszawa: PZWL. pp. 140–42.
View in Google Scholar

Borysewicz M, Otocki P. 1975. Próchnica zębów u dawnej ludności ze Słaboszewa, Kołobrzegu i Chełmskiej Góry (XII–XVIII w.). Przegląd Antropologiczny 41:311–30.
View in Google Scholar

Brooks S, Suchey JM. 1990. Skeletal age determination based on the os pubis: a comparison of the Acsadi–Nemeskeri and Suchey–Brooks methods. Hum Evol 5:227–38.
View in Google Scholar

Cheverud JM, Buikstra JE. 1981a. Quantitative genetics of skeletal nonmetric traits in the Rhesus macaques on Cayo Santiago. I. Single trait heritabilities. Am J Phys Anthropol 54(1):43–49.
View in Google Scholar

Cheverud JM, Buikstra JE. 1981b. Quantitative genetics of skeletal nonmetric traits in the Rhesus macaques on Cayo Santiago. II. Phenotypic, genetic and environmental correlations between traits. Am J Phys Anthropol 54:51–58.
View in Google Scholar

Dąbrowski P, Gronkiewicz S. 1997. Próchnica zębów u średniowiecznych mieszkańców Wrocławia (XV—XVI w.). Acta Uniyersitatis Wratislaviensis 1916, Studia Antropologiczne IV:17–30.
View in Google Scholar

Einwag J, Naujoks R. 1994. Epidemiologia próchnicy. In: W Ketterl, editor. Stomatologia zachowawcza. Wroclaw: Urban i Partner.
View in Google Scholar

El-Najjar MY, De Santi MV, Ozebek L. 1978. Prevalence and possible etiology of dental enamel hypoplasia. Am J Phys Anthropol 48:185–92.
View in Google Scholar

Evteev AA, Movsesian AA. 2016. Testing the association between human mid-facial morphology and climate using autosomal, mitochondrial, Y chromosomal polymorphisms and cranial non-metrics. Am J Phys Anthropol 159:517–22.
View in Google Scholar

Finnegan M. 1978. Non-metric variation of the intracranial skeleton. J Anat 125(1):23–37
View in Google Scholar

Gilewska-Dubis J. 2000. Życie codzienne mieszczan wrocławskich w dobie średniowiecza. Wrocław.
View in Google Scholar

Gładykowska-Rzeczycka J. 1976. Zmiany w układzie kostnym ludności ze średniowiecznych cmentarzysk. In: Badania populacji ludzkich na materiałach współczesnych i historycznych. Seria Antropologia nr 4. Poznań: Wydawnictwo UAM. pp. 85–102.
View in Google Scholar

Goodman AH, Armegalos GJ, Rose JC. 1980. Enamel hypoplasias as indicators of stress in three prehistoric populations from Illinois. Hum Biol 52:512–28.
View in Google Scholar

Goodman AH, Rose JC. 1990. Assesment of systemic physiological perturbations from dental enamel hypoplasias and associated histological structures. Year Phys Anthr 33:59–100.
View in Google Scholar

Goodman AH. 1989. Dental enamel hypoplasias in prehistoric populations. Adv Dent Res 3: 265–71.
View in Google Scholar

Goodman AH. 1991. Stress, adaptation, and enamel development defects. In: Human paleopathology: Current synthesis and suture opinions. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. pp. 280–88.
View in Google Scholar

Hengen OP. 1971. Cribra orbitalia: pathogenesis and probable aetiology. Homo 22:57–76.
View in Google Scholar

Jańczuk Z. 1981. Zarys kliniczny stomatologii zachowawczej. Warszawa: PZWL.
View in Google Scholar

Kaur J, Choudhry R, Raheja S, Dhissa NC. 2012. Non metric traits of the skull and their role in anthropological studies. J Morphol Sci 29(4):189–94.
View in Google Scholar

Khudaverdyan AY. 2013. Non-metric dental analysis of a Bronze Age population from the Armenian Plateau. Anthropol Rev 76(1):63–82.
View in Google Scholar

Kwiatkowska B. 2005. Mieszkańcy średniowiecznego Wrocławia. Ocena warunków życia i stanu zdrowia w ujęciu antropologicznym. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego.
View in Google Scholar

Limisiewicz A, Roczek M, Wachowski K. 2003. Sprawozdanie z badań przeprowadzonych w 2003 r. na terenie budowy biblioteki głównej Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego (manuscript)
View in Google Scholar

Lovejoy CO, Meindl RS, Prysbeck TR, Mensforth P. 1985.Chronological metamorphosis of the auricular surface of the ilium: A new method for the determination of adult skeletal age at death. Am J Phys Anthropol 68:15–28.
View in Google Scholar

Markowska A. 2007. Analiza antropologiczna szczątków kostnych z nowożytnego cmentarza przy ulicy Wyszyńskiego we Wrocławiu. Master’s Thesis, Department of Human Biology, Wroclaw University, Poland.
View in Google Scholar

Reid DJ, Dean MC. 2006. Variation in modern human enamel formation times. J Hum Evol 50(3):329–46.
View in Google Scholar

Rightmire GP. 1972. Cranial measurements and discrete traits compared in distance studies of African Negro skulls. Hum Biol 44:263–76.
View in Google Scholar

Sjøvold T. 1984. A Report on the Heritability of Some Cranial Measurements and Nonmetric Traits. In: GN Van Vark, and WW Howells, editors. Multivariate statistical methods in physical anthropology. Boston: D. Reide. pp. 223–46.
View in Google Scholar

Steckel RH, Larsen CS, Sciulli PW, Walker PL. 2006. Data collection codebook. The global history of health. Available at http://global.sbs.ohio-state.edu/new_docs/Codebook_08_25_05.pdf
View in Google Scholar

Tomaszewska A, Żelaźniewicz A. 2014. Morphology and Morphometry of the Meningo-Orbital Foramen as a Result of Plastic Responses to the Ambient Temperature and Its Clinical Relevance. J Craniofac Surg 25:1033–37.
View in Google Scholar

Tomaszewska A, Kwiatkowska B, Jankauskas R. 2012. The localization of the supraorbital notch or foramen is crucial for headache and supraorbital neuralgia avoiding and treatment. Anat Rec (Hoboken) 295(9):1494–503.
View in Google Scholar

Tomczyk J. 2012. Odontologiczne wyznaczniki stresu a czynniki środowiskowe kształtujące populację z doliny środkowego Eufratu (Syria). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo UKSW.
View in Google Scholar

Vitek CL. 2012. A Critical Analysis of the Use of Non-Meric Traits for Ancesty Estimation among Two North American Population Saples. Master’s Thesis, University of Tennessee, available at http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/1218
View in Google Scholar

Wood- Jones F. 1931. The non–metrical morphological characters of the skull as criteria for racial diagnosis I, II, III. J Anat 65:179–195,368–378,438–45.
View in Google Scholar

Workshop of European Anthropologists. 1980. Recommendations for age and sex diagnoses of skeletons, J Hum Evol 9:517–49.
View in Google Scholar

Yamamoto M. 1988. Enamel hypoplasia of the permanent teeth in Japanese from the Jomon to the Modern Periods. J Anthr Soc Nippon 96(4):475–82.
View in Google Scholar

Downloads

Published

2019-06-30

How to Cite

Tomaszewska, A., & Kwiatkowska, B. (2019). Non-metric traits, physiological stress indicators and paleopathological lesion on human skeletal remains from an early modern cemetery in Wyszyński Street, Wrocław, Poland (15th–18th centuries AD). Anthropological Review, 82(2), 191–202. https://doi.org/10.2478/anre-2019-0015

Issue

Section

Articles

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 > >>