Animal palaeopathology: Possibilities and problems

A brief account of the range of pathological disorders affecting the skeleton and certain other tissues of animals (mainly mammals) is given to indicate a broad picture of the sort of lesions which might be encountered in archaeological contexts.Though palaeopathological bone specimens have been described since the 18th century, it is only recently that an interest in archaeozoological material has encouraged the tentative interpretation of such specimens. Despite the pessimism of some workers in the field, it has been shown that this material does persist in archaeological samples, and that while diagnosis is not always clear cut, some of the spectrum of bone changes induced by disease processes has been documented.As early as 4000 years ago an awareness of some of these diseases was recorded, with several early societies adopting preventive and therapeutic measures to deal with them. As advanced human communities came into more intimate contact with animals, transmission of infectious diseases was facilitated. Husbandry practices, too, are seen to be directly related to the incidence of certain conditions, the occurrence of which in archaeological material can yield an insight into animal keeping.Diverse data of archaeological significance is, in fact, retrievable not only from osteological remains, but from organic material which may be preserved under certain conditions. The impact of animal disease is far-reaching, with important implications not only for the economy but also for human health.     

The direction of migration: a dynamic general equilibrium model

A two-sector dynamic general equilibrium model is developed "to investigate the direction of migration in response to differing demographic and consumption demand behavior, as well as variations in production conditions." The model, which involves a rural sector and an urban sector, incorporates "returns to scale and the natural rate of sectoral population growth as important determinants of the direction of migration, in addition to price and income elasticities, and the sectoral technical change rate with which...previous studies dealt."     

Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction from Faunal Remains: Ecological Basics and Analytical Assumptions

Paleozoologists have long used taxa represented by ancient faunal remains to reconstruct paleoenvironments. Those ancient environments were the selective contexts in which hominin biological and cultural evolution took place. Knowing about those particularistic selective environments and how organisms responded to them is increasingly seen as critically important to identifying both how biota will respond to future (to some degree anthropogenically driven) environmental change, and biological conservation and management applications that will ensure sustainability of ecological resources and services. Reconstructing paleoenvironments requires knowledge of species’ ecological tolerances, geographic ranges, habitats, environments, and niches. It also requires assumptions that extant species had the same ecological tolerances in the past as they do today and that changes in taxonomic composition or abundances reflect environmental change rather than sampling or taphonomic factors. Greater knowledge of ecological processes as well as increased analytical sophistication in paleozoology is providing increasingly rigorous and detailed insights to paleoenvironments.