Biofilm growth in human skeletal material from ancient Mesopotamia

Investigators have long recognised the effects of microbial activity on archaeological bone. These investigators, however, have focused on single or groups of microbes rather than on complex microbial aggregates such as biofilms, a focus that has affected our understanding of archaeological bone biodeterioration. In this paper, we report on the investigation of a biofilm in archaeological human bone from the site of Tell Leilan, Syria (2900–1900 BCE). Scanning electron microscopy indicated that the biofilm is characterised by single cells and microcolonies of bacteria and fungi, as well as calcite crystals that were all embedded within extracellular polymeric substances. Using culture techniques and DNA sequencing, we isolated and identified several microbes from the biofilm including Amycolatopsis sp., Penicillium chrysogenum, Aspergillus sp., Chaetomium sp., and Cladosporium sp. Having characterised the Leilan biofilm, we are now closer to understanding the complex process of bone biodeterioration in archaeological bone collections.     

The diagnosis of pituitary disease from human skeletal remains

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the radiological criteria once widely used when investigating pituitary disease in the living can be applied to early man. The material examined forms part of the assemblage of skulls in the Duckworth Collection in Cambridge. It proved possible to measure the sella turcica from the radiographs of 88 of 155 predynastic adult Egyptian skulls with an intact base. These were compared with the measurements from 41 of 76 adult Burmese skulls of more recent origin and those of a randomly selected sample of living Caucasian adults. There was a wide range of sellar volumes in all three groups. The results were subjected to statistical analysis. Opportunities to apply the results of this study have been limited to the assessment of sellar erosion in a predynastic Badarian, review of the diagnosis of acromegaly in a, presumed, early Egyptian and the investigation of a hydrocephalic skull. The radiological examination of human skeletal remains thought to show evidence of pituitary disease or hydrocephalus can make palaeopathological diagnoses more secure.     

The ethics of displaying human remains from British archaeological sites

Abstract

The 1998 exhibition London Bodies at the Museum of London provided an opportunity to review the ethical issues relating to the excavation, study and display of human remains in modern Britain. It is suggested that for most Britons the display of human skeletal material is not considered a problem, but that archaeologists would do well to ensure that their practices are in line with the views and beliefs of the society in which they work.     

Radiocarbon reservoir effects in human bone collagen from northern Iceland

Human bone collagen from a series of Icelandic human pagan graves was radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dated to aid understanding of early settlement (landnám) chronologies in northern Iceland. These individuals potentially consumed marine protein. The ¹⁴C age of samples containing marine carbon requires a correction for the marine ¹⁴C reservoir effect. The proportion of non-terrestrial sample carbon was quantified via measurement of carbon stable isotopes (δ¹³C) using a simple mixing model, based on δ¹³C measurements of archaeofaunal samples. Non-terrestrial carbon was also quantified in six pig bones from the archaeofaunal dataset. Assuming all non-terrestrial carbon in human and pig bone collagen was marine-derived, calibrated age ranges calculated using a mixed IntCal09/Marine09 calibration curve were consistent with an early settlement date close to landnám, but several samples returned pre-landnám age ranges. Measurements of nitrogen stable isotopes (δ¹⁵N) strongly suggest that many of the human bone collagen samples contain freshwater diet-derived carbon. Icelandic freshwater systems frequently display large freshwater ¹⁴C reservoir effects, of the order of 10,000 ¹⁴C years, and we suggest that the presence of freshwater carbon is responsible for the anomalously early ages within our dataset. In pig samples, the majority of non-terrestrial carbon is freshwater in origin, but in human samples the proportion of freshwater carbon is within the error of the marine component (±10%). This presents a major obstacle to assessing temporal patterns in the ages of human remains from sampled graves, although the majority of grave ages are within the same, broad, calibrated range.     

Differentiating human from non-human bone fragments through histomorphological assessment of remains from Camposanto cemetery,Italy

When bones are found within archaeological contexts it is important for site interpretation that they are identified by species, or at the very least as human or non-human. However, key landmarks and characteristics typically used for such an assessment are often destroyed when bones are highly fragmented; thus methods including DNA or histology are amongst the few remaining options. Histological analysis of cortical tissue can be performed to discriminate human from non-human origin. A set of 40 bone fragments recovered during excavation of the Camposanto cemetery on the island of Lazzaretto Nuovo (Venice, Italy), used to accommodate mass plague deaths from 1468 ce , were histologically determined to be of non-human origin. Histomorphometric analysis of secondary osteons and Haversian canals, and non-metric assessment of plexiform, osteonal and non-plexiform fibrolamellar tissue, were applied to determine the most probable species origin. Discriminant function analysis established by Martiniaková and co-workers in 2006, was applied, resulting in 36 samples classified as pig and four as cattle. This is consistent with the island’s use as a quarantine station during this period when imported cattle were housed to avoid the spread of disease. These results further enhance the understanding of the Lazzaretto Nuovo site.     

Sex identification from the auricular surface of the adult human ilium

The sacro-iliac joint has largely been excluded in studies of sex identification from the adult human skeleton. Yet this is a joint involved in the transmission of body weight and as such would be expected to exhibit sexual dimorphism. In addition, the auricular surface of the ilium tends to persist even in fragmented remains by virtue of its close proximity to the acetabulo-cristal buttress. The aim of this investigation was to assess the accuracy with which sex could be predicted from dimensions of the auricular surface of the ilium. Significant sex differences were found in the size and shape of the auricular surface. However, these differences were of insufficient magnitude to permit discrimination between the sexes with any acceptable degree of accuracy. Therefore, the auricular surface of the ilium is not recommended for the purpose of sex identification.     

Information obtained from the microscopic examination of cultural striations in human dentition

The surfaces of teeth from some fossil remains and archaeological samples have been examined by SEM, in order to study different types of cultural striations and to determine the archaeological information that these striations can provide. Different patterns of cultural striations are present in human samples from different sites and periods. Similar cultural striations can be interpreted in different ways, depending on the tooth in which they are present, their location in the tooth and their direction, regularity, number and width. The study of cultural striations can yield valuable information about different aspects of feeding behaviour, oral hygiene, patterns of cultural diffusion and manipulative work with teeth of past human groups. A close integration with other anthropological and archaeological data is needed and specific interpretations should be made in each case.     

Recovery and analysis of human genetic material from mummified tissue and bone

Using sensitive techniques of molecular biology, we have been able to demonstrate the presence of genomic material of human origin in samples of mummified human tissue and bone from selected archaeological sites in Greenland. This result has far-reaching consequences for both evolutionary and archaeological studies of past human populations.     

State of preservation of polymorphic plasma proteins recovered from ancient human bones

Protected by the mineral matrix, bone proteins are capable of surviving inhumation periods of several hundreds or thousands of years in soil. While the preservation of the bone matrix protein, collagen I, is the prerequisite for a variety of archaeometric approaches, such as radiocarbon dating and the reconstruction of palaeodiet by stable isotope analysis, little is known about both the rate and state of preservation of non‐collagenous proteins. We succeeded in the isolation, electrophoretic separation (SDS‐PAGE, IEF) and immunological detection (radial immunodiffusion, IEF immunoblotting and ELISA) of plasma proteins preserved in archaeological human bones. However, sample preparation and electrophoretic methods had to be adapted to the specific demands of these aged proteins, since they are not only degraded and fragmented but also cross‐linked to other organic components, either indigenous to the bone or to contaminants from the burial environment. Complex decomposition phenomena are responsible for the altered mode of migration of aged proteins through a gel. After isoelectric focusing, the ancient proteins mainly concentrate below pH 4.45 in the pH‐gradient. Thus, highly negatively charged protein components have a better chance of preservation in bone after death. Isoelectric focusing with subsequent immunoblotting of ancient protein samples revealed protein patterns which showed marked charge‐modifications in comparison with those of modern human plasma proteins due to protein degradation (e.g. α₂‐HS‐glycoprotein and α₁‐antitrypsin). Nevertheless, in combination with different immunological analyses, previous results concerning the selective enrichment of α₂‐HS‐glycoprotein in bone compared with other plasma glycoproteins could be confirmed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of suspected human coprolites from Terra Amata, Nice, France

Dietary analyses were conducted on 400,000 yr old specimens recovered during the excavation of the Terra Amata Palaeolithic site in Nice, France and initially identified as coprolites. The results of our analyses demonstrate that the identification of these specimens as coprolites is difficult to confirm due to the age of the samples. Consequently, they provide no new data pertaining to the suspected dietary habits of prehistoric man.     

The oldest human remains from the Beagle Channel region,Tierra del Fuego

The biohistory of the human peopling of the Fuegian Archipelago and the processes of biocultural adaptation and microdifferentiation of the ethnohistorical ‘canoe’ (‘sea nomad’) and ‘foot’ natives are poorly known. Here we report the oldest human remains of a ‘sea nomad’ native discovered so far in the Beagle Channel region. The specimen consists of a deciduous molar from the site of Imiwaia I, dated to 5870 ± 145 years BP. The microwear pattern indicates the consumption of hard food processed by long chewing cycles. The histomorphometric analysis shows the presence of at least three episodes of stress between 8 and 10.5 months after birth, and an unusually thin neonatal line, suggesting a mechanically non‐stressing birth event. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exceptional preservation of a prehistoric human brain from Heslington,Yorkshire, UK

Archaeological work in advance of construction at a site on the edge of York, UK, yielded human remains of prehistoric to Romano-British date. Amongst these was a mandible and cranium, the intra-cranial space of which contained shrunken but macroscopically recognizable remains of a brain. Although the distinctive surface morphology of the organ is preserved, little recognizable brain histology survives. Though rare, the survival of brain tissue in otherwise skeletalised human remains from wet burial environments is not unique. A survey of the literature shows that similar brain masses have been previously reported in diverse circumstances. We argue for a greater awareness of these brain masses and for more attention to be paid to their detection and identification in order to improve the reporting rate and to allow a more comprehensive study of this rare archaeological survival.     

Ancient bacterial DNA (aDNA) in dental calculus from archaeological human remains

The purpose of this study was to identify reactive bacterial aDNA in archaeological human dental calculus. Dental calculus was collected from a middle/late Neolithic human skull from Hulbjerg passage grave, Langeland, Denmark and prepared for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) or gold-labeled antibody TEM. TEM showed calcified, as well as non-calcified bacteria. Immunogold labeling occurred over the cytoplasmic portions of the sectioned bacteria. The result demonstrated that it is possible to identify aDNA sequences from bacteria in archaeological material of considerable age by this technique.     

Scanning electron microscope study of normal vertebrae and ribs from early medieval human skeletons

A method is described for the preparation of vertebral body and rib sections of archaeological context, for scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The specimens included in the present paper are macroscopically normal and are male and female in juvenile and adult age brackets. The changing directionality of trabeculae and the changing ratio of trabecular bone to cancellous space are noted in relation to the age at death.     

Unique marine taphonomy in human skeletal material recovered from the medieval warship Mary Rose

The effect of skeletal exposure in a marine environment is an area of taphonomy that has been little investigated at the microscopic level. Understanding the peri‐mortem and subsequent post mortem history of deposition and/or redeposition is extremely important for event reconstruction and to identify deliberate or accidental redeposition. The material used for this study comes primarily from the Mary Rose shipwreck (a marine mass fatality dated AD 1545), and forensic material recovered from marine, lacustrine and terrestrial contexts is retrospectively referenced. Work presented here outlines a definitive type of marine exposure seen in temperate shallow off‐shore and intertidal marine contexts, and illustrates how it may be differentially identified from terrestrial deposition and exposure. Furthermore, the effects of rapid deposition on skeletal remains have been documented, and results indicate that marine organism fouling activity can be fully inhibited by rapid deposition of sediment. The responsible organism itself remains unidentified, but produces tunnels which are peripheral in their distribution and maintain fixed dimensions and morphology and are here associated with marine exposure. This type of microstructural change is unique and is not found in terrestrial or freshwater contexts. The study demonstrates a taphonomic microstructural change to bone and teeth which may be identified microscopically and interpreted as evidence of marine exposure. Secondarily, the history of depositional exposure between the two main Tudor layers has provided a new level of detail concerning exposure and site formation processes. The earliest Tudor layer formed rapidly over a period of months and contained no evidence of microstructural tunnelling, whereas microstructural tunnelling was seen exclusively in the second Tudor layer, formed over a period of decades, a period during which the ship's hull collapsed and a more open marine environment dominated. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The second generation of human security: lessons from the UN and EU experience

The concept of human security, while much contested in both academic and policy debates, and highly fragmented across different meanings and forms of implementation, offers a potential locus around which global security discourse might converge, particularly in light of current shifts in US security thinking. However, key pioneers of human security, such as the United Nations and Canada, appear to be losing their enthusiasm for the concept, just at the moment when others such as the European Union, are advancing a human security agenda. This article examines the divergence of human security narratives between the UN and the EU. It argues that the UN's use of the concept ran aground owing to a triple problematic of lack of clarity, confusion between previously distinct policy streams on human rights and human development and conceptual overstretch. After assessing the EU experience with the concept to date, the article argues that future use of human security will require greater focus on how it deepens ideas of individual security, rather than treating it as an agenda for broadening security. As well as a need to project clarity on the conceptual definition of human security, there is also a need to associate human security with greater clarity of intent. If successful, this would contribute to establishing second generation human security as a new policy paradigm.     

Bone preservation,decay and its related conditions in ancient human bones from Kuwait

By means of scanning electron microscopy, four out of a series of twelve inhumations from the Hellenistic Period were examined for traces of the decay process. The changes represented the result of erosion and biological decomposition of human bones on a small island in the northern part of the Persian Gulf over a period of ca. 2200 years. Special emphasis was given to bone preservation and blood cell survival, and to bone changes due to physicochemical erosion and fungus, bacterium, insect and plant-root activity. Related soil and climatic conditions were taken into consideration. The observations should be evaluated to understand the unusual state of preservation of the bones and to avoid possible misinterpretation of pseudo-pathological bone changes as ante-mortem pathology.     

Bone changes in the human skull probably resulting from scurvy in infancy and childhood

Scurvy in children is poorly known in the palaeopathological literature despite biomedical references indicating that bone changes do occur in some cases and should be observable in human skeletal remains. Research on infants' and children's skulls in museum and anatomical collections in the USA and Europe reveals a complex of features on the external surface of the greater wing of the sphenoid and adjacent bone tissue that may be caused by scurvy. The lesions are bilateral and are characterized by porosity and, in some cases, hypertrophic bone formation. These abnormal bone changes are probably the result of a reaction to chronic haemorrhage in the deep vasculature associated with temporalis muscle function. While these lesions resemble those seen in anaemia and infection, their distinctive anatomical location and association with chewing should differentiate them, in most cases, from other disease conditions. These features are also associated with porous, hypertrophic lesions of the orbital roof and provide additional evidence that caution is needed in attributing porous lesions of the orbital roof solely to anaemia. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.