Research Avenues
Bioarchaeology is an inter- and transdisciplinary field per definition. Consequently, to answer some of our questions, researchers of other Institutions carry out specific analyses. The research avenues we carry out in our laboratory are twofold:
PALAEOPATHOLOGY aims at understanding which nutritional, infectious or metabolic diseases afflicted humans, how their growth patterns differed from that of other peoples, how much they engaged in intrapersonal violent conflicts or ruined their bodies through strenuous workloads or due to accidents. All these aspects of life can be inferred from the meticulous analyses of shape, size and constitution of bones. Differences between sex, age and other criteria allow furthermore to better comprehend details on the structure and functioning of societies in the past.
1 Violent traumatism in the arm. 2 Porosity in the orbits possibly caused by anemia. 3 Tibiae from an Amerindian adult with a syphilis-like disease who lived about 2000 y BC. 4 The size of the femur indicates age at death mainly in juveniles.
The field of PALAEODIET allows understanding the subsistence pattern, past diets and also the way ancient populations stored and prepared their food. To get a more generalist view of diet in the past we analyze caries number, localization and depth, antemortem tooth loss, periodontal disease and dental wear, among many other oral pathologies found in osteological collections. To get a much more detailed picture on ancient diets and recipes we study the microremains trapped in dental calculus (tartar). This also sheds light on material used by ancient peoples to produce ropes, baskets and other artifacts, and if they used their teeth as a third hand to aid. We also can isolate plant species eventually used for medicinal or ritual purposes.
1 Teeth with dental calculus. 2 Extraction of dental calculus from an isolated tooth. 3 Dental calculus treated chemically and mechanically to liberate microremains. 4 Microscopic analysis for the identification of microremains. 5 Starch grain under polarized light microscope. 6 Fresh tubercle whose starch grains match that found in picture 5 retrieved from the teeth seen in picture 1.