Papers by Dennis Van Gerven
Chapter 4: The Femoral Head-Neck Junction and the Evolution of Hominin Locomotion……..36 Introduct... more Chapter 4: The Femoral Head-Neck Junction and the Evolution of Hominin Locomotion……..36 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………36 Methods…………………………………………………………………………………..37 Results……………………………………………………………………………………39 Discussion………………………………………………………………………………..46 Chapter 5: Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………51 References………………………………………………………………………………………..55 the morphology of the femoral head-neck junction and how it can inform the way we study the past.
Nubia has been a corridor for the movement of goods, culture, and people between sub-Saharan Afri... more Nubia has been a corridor for the movement of goods, culture, and people between sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt, and West Eurasia since prehistory, but little is known about the genetic landscape of the region prior to the influence of the Islamic migrations that began in the late 1st millennium CE. We report genome-wide data for 66 individuals from the site of Kulubnarti (∼650–1000 CE), increasing the number of ancient individuals with genome-level data from the Nile Valley from three to 69. Our results shed light on the genetic ancestry of a Christian Period group and help to address a long-standing question about the relationships among people buried in two neighboring cemeteries who show skeletal evidence of differences in morbidity and mortality that are broadly suggestive of differences in social status. We find that the Kulubnarti Nubians were admixed with ∼43% Nilotic-related ancestry on average (individual proportions varied between ∼36-54%) and the remaining ancestry reflecting...
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
ABSTRACTDNA recovery from ancient human remains has revolutionized our ability to reconstruct the... more ABSTRACTDNA recovery from ancient human remains has revolutionized our ability to reconstruct the genetic landscape of the past. Ancient DNA research has benefited from the identification of skeletal elements, such as the cochlear part of the osseous inner ear, that provide optimal contexts for DNA preservation; however, the rich genetic information obtained from the cochlea must be counterbalanced against the loss of valuable morphological information caused by its sampling. Motivated by similarities in developmental processes and histological properties between the cochlea and auditory ossicles, we evaluated the efficacy of ossicles as an alternative source of ancient DNA. We demonstrate that ossicles perform comparably to the cochlea in terms of DNA recovery, finding no substantial reduction in data quality, quantity, or authenticity across a range of preservation conditions. Ossicles can be sampled from intact skulls or disarticulated petrous bones without damage to surrounding ...
DNA recovery from ancient human remains has revolutionized our ability to reconstruct the genetic... more DNA recovery from ancient human remains has revolutionized our ability to reconstruct the genetic landscape of the past. Ancient DNA research has benefited from the identification of skeletal elements, such as the cochlear part of the osseous inner ear, that provide optimal contexts for DNA preservation; however, the rich genetic information obtained from the cochlea must be counterbalanced against the loss of valuable morphological information caused by its sampling. Motivated by similarities in developmental processes and histological properties between the cochlea and auditory ossicles, we evaluated the efficacy of ossicles as an alternative source of ancient DNA. We demonstrate that ossicles perform comparably to the cochlea in terms of DNA recovery, finding no substantial reduction in data quality, quantity, or authenticity across a range of preservation conditions. Ossicles can be sampled from intact skulls or disarticulated petrous bones without damage to surrounding bone, and we argue that, when available, they should be selected over the cochlea to reduce damage to skeletal integrity. These results identify a second optimal skeletal element for ancient DNA analysis and add to a growing toolkit of sampling methods that help to better preserve skeletal remains for future research while maximizing the likelihood that ancient DNA analysis will produce useable results.
Plains Anthropologist
Questions concerning the origin and antiquity of Plains culture continue to be of interest to ant... more Questions concerning the origin and antiquity of Plains culture continue to be of interest to anthropologists. The suggestion that tmly violent waifare practices involving mutilation, scalping, and...
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
Past bioarchaeological analyses of human remains from the Early Christian Period site of Kulubnar... more Past bioarchaeological analyses of human remains from the Early Christian Period site of Kulubnarti, Nubia (550-800 CE), have revealed differences in patterns of stress between two contemporaneous cemeteries (mainland [21-R-2] and island [21-S-46]) that are thought to represent separate socioeconomic groups. However, to this point, differences in activity between cemetery groups and sexes at Kulubnarti have been poorly understood. In this study, we compare patterns of two non-metric traits (Poirier’s facets and plaque) that occur on the proximal femur and have been linked to activity and femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) to better understand activity patterns at Kulubnarti. The remains of 134 adult individuals (252 femora) from two cemeteries at Kulubnarti were analyzed for the presence of Poirier’s facet, plaque, and FAI. Frequencies of Poirier’s facet and plaque were significantly different between cemeteries and sexes, and Poirier’s facet was found only in males. Morphology consistent with FAI was significantly more common in males and patterns of FAI morphology were different between cemeteries. Patterns in the frequencies of Poirier’s facet, plaque, and FAI may indicate a difference in activity between sexes and cemeteries (socioeconomic groups), possibly related to the intensity of agricultural activity. Poirier’s facet and plaque may arise via similar processes to FAI in modern athletes or may be different forms of FAI. New work should be undertaken to clarify the etiologies of Poirier’s facets and plaque and to better understand their relationship to FAI.
New Directions in Biocultural Anthropology, 2016
Human Biology, 1983
One hundred sixty-eight hair samples recovered from two Christian era Nubian cemeteries (550-1450... more One hundred sixty-eight hair samples recovered from two Christian era Nubian cemeteries (550-1450) were subjected to analysis of major and trace elements. Concentrations of magnesium, calcium, strontium, iron, zinc, copper, and manganese were determined using inductively coupled plasma spectrometry. Mean levels of each element determined from the Nubian hair compare closely to those documented for modern samples and likely reflect a number of important environmental and biological factors affecting the population. Specifically, the present results provide a quantitative method for assessing the nutritional and disease factors contributing to cribra orbitalia (porotic hyperostosis), a frequent pathology in Nubian remains attributed to iron deficiency anemia. A comparison of iron levels between infants and children with and without cribra orbitalia demonstrates a significantly lower iron level for the affected group. In addition, concentrations of magnesium are also significantly lower for the Nubian subadults with cribra orbitalia. This new finding is consistent with clinical observations in which anemia has been produced in magnesium deficient animals, including humans. A reduction in magnesium lends further support to the hypothesis that age-specific stress stemming from weaning practices, parasitic infection, and inadequate diet contributed to cribra orbitalia and its associated anemia in ancient Nubia. -- AATA
Since the advent of the Darwinian revolution, it has become axiomatic that the fundamental measur... more Since the advent of the Darwinian revolution, it has become axiomatic that the fundamental measures of natural selection are differential mortality and fertility. It is consequently not surprising that the analysis of biocultural adaptation in ancient populations proceeds from a paleodemographic perspective. Its importance notwithstanding, the validity of paleodemography has become the subject of considerable discussion and debate. Howell (1982) critically addressed the problems of paleodemography by as sessing Lovejoy's analysis of human re mains from the Libben site in Ohio (Love-joy et al. 1977). She argued that the popula tion structure recreated from Lovejoy's life table analysis would have been both dys f u n c t i o n a l a n d v i r t u a l l y w i t h o u t ethnographic precedent. By fitting Lovejoy's life table to the "Model West I Life Table" (Coale and Dem-eny 1966) and through a computer simula tion routine, Howell (1982) found that the Libben popu...
The osteological analyses conducted on the inhumations from Pueblo Grande illustrate the rich pot... more The osteological analyses conducted on the inhumations from Pueblo Grande illustrate the rich potential for combining modern analytical techniques with an integrative concern for the changing pat terns of adaptation and biological well being of a prehistoric community. The degree to which our efforts have succeeded was constrained by the inevitable circum stances of preservation and, sadly, by the limited timeframe imposed upon us. Never theless, taken together, there is a continu ity of result crosscutting each of the sepa rate investigations. By the early Classic period, the people of Pueblo Grande were living on the edge of survival. Their rate of mortality, particular ly infant mortality, was enormous. Among the young survivors, the first decade of life was one of chronic nutritional stress and repeated episodes of disease. Over time, the burden imposed on working adults to main tain even that level of subadult survival increased and could not have been sus tained without the in...
Thirty years ago, Jarcho (1964) suggest ed that ancient human populations were unlikely to experi... more Thirty years ago, Jarcho (1964) suggest ed that ancient human populations were unlikely to experience osteopenia (then referred to as osteoporosis). Few statements in the annals of physical an thropology have proved to be as incorrect and yet as useful for the stimulation of research. Beginning with Dewey, Armela gos, and Bartley's (1969) initial study of cortical thickness in adult males and fe males from three ancient Nubian popula tions, a great deal of research has demon strated a broadly universal pattern of bone loss with aging in ancient times generally consistent with patterns observed for mod ern adults (Van Gerven, Armelagos, and Bartley 1969; Perzigian 1973; Martin and Armelagos 1979; Martin, Magennis, and Rose 1987; Chapter 9, this volume^ Al though ancient females tended to lose bone sooner and few survived to experience the consequences of clinical osteoporosis, then as now females lost significant amounts of bone with advancing age while men showed less-advanced a...
The present research focuses on craniofacial variation in Nubia over approximately 10,000 years. ... more The present research focuses on craniofacial variation in Nubia over approximately 10,000 years. Samples were grouped according to their temporal location and subsistence pattern, and represent a transition from a hunting-gathering adaptation (Mesolithic) to a transitional hunting-gathering-agricultural adaptation (A-C Group) and finally to a fully agricultural adaptation (Meroitic/X-Group/Christian). The purposes were: (1) to compare the Mesolithic sample with the later Nubian populations; and (2) to evaluate further the hypothesis that change in Nubian craniofacial morphology was due to changing functional demands associated with the progressive change in subsistence adaptation and associated behavior. The results tend to support recent views that the Nubian Mesolithic population is probably ancestral to later Nubian groups, and that the masticatory-functional hypothesis can best account for craniofacial change among the Nubians since 12,000 B.P. According to this hypothesis syste...
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
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Papers by Dennis Van Gerven