Final Report Summary - MB OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY (Osteoarchaeology of the Dutch Middenbeemster Post-Medieval Cemetery: Lifeways of a Colonizing Farming Community during the Little Ice Age)
Work Carried Out
The overarching aim of the Middenbbemster Osteoarchaelogy (MB Osteoarchaeology) project was to assess the lifeways, particularly health and diet, of the inhabitants of a post-Medieval rural Dutch village buried in the cemetery of Middenbeemster. Human osteoarchaeology is the scientific study of human remains, primarily skeletal and dental tissues, for information related to identity (i.e. sex, age-at-death, stature and body size), health (i.e. specific diseases and non-specific markers of physiological stress), diet (i.e. dental wear patterns and stable isotope analysis) and activity patterns (i.e. occupational markers, habitual behaviours). Excavated in 2011, the Middenbeemster cemetery unearthed the generally well-preserved skeletal remains of approximately 450 individuals, interred from the 17th to 19th centuries. The majority of individuals were buried from AD 1829 to 1866.
The project objectives for the preceding 24-month period were:
1. Inventory of bones and teeth and osteobiographical analysis of all reasonably well-preserved and complete adult (18+ years) and subadult (<18 years) skeletons for preservation, completeness, age-at-death, stature and body size (i.e. metrics), non-metric traits, dental diseases, and skeletal anomalies and pathologies. Estimation of sex was performed for the adults.
2. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of a representative portion of the total sample in order to reconstruct dietary practices.
3. Data entry of all data into a database software program (i.e. Microsoft Access).
4. Statistical analysis of data for assessment of differences in health or diet related to age, sex, and/or socioeconomic status.
5. Synthesis of all health and diet data into a comprehensive overview of lifeways of the Middenbeemster inhabitants, and comparison of patterns to roughly contemporaneous urban and rural populations from other areas of The Netherlands and other areas of Western Europe.
Overview of Results
Some of the main osteobiographical results of this research are summarized here. 1) Skeletal preservation ranges from good to very good, and the majority of skeletons have partial to nearly full completeness. 2) The age and sex distribution (demographic patterning) of the individuals corresponds to a natural mortality population, with a high proportion of subadult (<18 years) mortality (~45%), a peak in female mortality in early young adulthood (18-25 years) corresponding to parturition, and a nearly equal sex distribution. 3) An average stature of males (171 centimetres) and females (161 centimetres) that roughly corresponds to contemporaneous populations from the country suggesting a comparable growth rate not differentially affected by inadequate nutrition or chronic disease. 4) Poor dental health, including high rates of caries (i.e. cavities), calculus, periodontal disease, and abscesses beginning in childhood and spanning adulthood, leading to high rates of antemortem tooth loss by middle adulthood (>35 years). 5) Pipe notches, indicating inhalation of tobacco via a ceramic pipe, are very common in adult males (>80% affected with the earliest affected individual being 16-18 years of age) suggesting a gender-specific population-wide practice adopted at a young age that would have had marked implications for health and disease 6) Rates of non-specific stress markers such as enamel hypoplasia (affecting ~60% of the population) that indicate children commonly experienced episodes of physiological stress, possibly caused by malnutrition or disease. 7) High rates of osteoarthritis, evident by a rather young age (i.e. young to middle adulthood), in both men and women although affecting different parts of the body, indicating lifeways that often included strenuous, manual labour. This conclusion is supported by other skeletal parameters that reflect activity patterns and levels (i.e. musculoskeletal stress markers; cross-sectional long bone morphology). 8) Various types of specific diseases that indicate certain ailments were commonly encountered in the population, including vitamin D deficiency (rickets) and tuberculosis. A rare case of disproportionate dwarfism, either achondroplasia or hypochodroplasia, was also encountered (occurrence of around 1 in 20,000). One particular research stream has been to look at the effect of the 1845-1847 potato blight and other crop failures on the inhabitants of Middenbeemster. Result show reduced stature and formation of enamel defects in individuals growing during these three years.
Small bone samples from one hundred and fifty of the best preserved skeletons, spanning all ages and both sexes, were chosen for chemical analysis via stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes to reconstruct their diets. In the infants these analyses also permit reconstruction of breastfeeding and weaning patterns. Results are as follows. 1) The population consumed a diet of C3 plants, and animals fed such plants, with no evidence of the C4 grain, millet, being used as animal fodder or human food. 2) The intake of animal protein, or animal by-products such as milk, cheese and eggs, was high, a result that is not surprising given that the common occupation of Middenbeemster was cattle farming. 3) There is little evidence of marine food consumption, although it might have been an occasional part of the diet. It is also possible people were consuming freshwater foods that are not detectable given their overlapping stable isotope values. 4) Weaning commenced after the first year of life, being completed in most infants by around the age of two years although a few infants have evidence of prolonged breastfeeding into the third year. Infants were weaned with foods of indistinguishable stable isotope values to those composing the adult diet.
Conclusions
Such research is important for improving our understanding of our recent past, reconstructing, for example, demographic variables, common diseases, and dietary resources not even 200 years ago, during a particularly tumultuous period in history wherein the industrial revolution and increased urbanization changed the way of life for a large part of the country and continent. The post-Medieval Middenbeemster inhabitants lived a physically demanding life, with many tasks, of both men and women, involving manual labour. They ate a diet relatively high in animal protein, either from meat itself or byproducts such as cheese and eggs, with little to no marine fish or mammals and an as of yet uncertain amount of freshwater fish. Most infants were breastfed until around the age of two years, and weaned on the same food as the adults were eating. Diseases that commonly plagued the inhabitants include osteoarthritis, rickets (a vitamin D deficiency in subadults), tuberculosis, and a host of dental diseases. Episodes of food shortage appear to have occurred, particularly during the 1845-1847 potato blight, stunting growth and causing generalized physiological stress. Yet, these episodes did not cause a marked increase in mortality suggesting the community had just enough resources to survive. Indeed, the height of the adults, a sensitive indicator of the adequacy of the diet and chronicity and severity of disease episodes during growth, is on par with surrounding contemporaneous communities. Thus, while the community faced many hardships, they were no more affected or worse off than other populations, and may have had access to a more reliable and better quality diet.
Socioeconomic Impacts of the Project
The health and diet data from the Middenbeemster cemetery are filling a lacunae in our knowledge about the lifeways of rural inhabitants of Western Europe during the 19th century. Historical accounts often focus on life in the cities, and on the practices of the upper class, particularly the men. Less is known about the lives of the average village dweller, especially those of the women. With the Middenbeemster osteoarchaeology research we have made considerable progress in reconstructing, in particular, markers of health and disease and dietary patterns, enabling an enhanced understanding of lifeways during a very tumultuous period wherein industrialization and urbanization were permanently changing the way people lived and died.
The overarching aim of the Middenbbemster Osteoarchaelogy (MB Osteoarchaeology) project was to assess the lifeways, particularly health and diet, of the inhabitants of a post-Medieval rural Dutch village buried in the cemetery of Middenbeemster. Human osteoarchaeology is the scientific study of human remains, primarily skeletal and dental tissues, for information related to identity (i.e. sex, age-at-death, stature and body size), health (i.e. specific diseases and non-specific markers of physiological stress), diet (i.e. dental wear patterns and stable isotope analysis) and activity patterns (i.e. occupational markers, habitual behaviours). Excavated in 2011, the Middenbeemster cemetery unearthed the generally well-preserved skeletal remains of approximately 450 individuals, interred from the 17th to 19th centuries. The majority of individuals were buried from AD 1829 to 1866.
The project objectives for the preceding 24-month period were:
1. Inventory of bones and teeth and osteobiographical analysis of all reasonably well-preserved and complete adult (18+ years) and subadult (<18 years) skeletons for preservation, completeness, age-at-death, stature and body size (i.e. metrics), non-metric traits, dental diseases, and skeletal anomalies and pathologies. Estimation of sex was performed for the adults.
2. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of a representative portion of the total sample in order to reconstruct dietary practices.
3. Data entry of all data into a database software program (i.e. Microsoft Access).
4. Statistical analysis of data for assessment of differences in health or diet related to age, sex, and/or socioeconomic status.
5. Synthesis of all health and diet data into a comprehensive overview of lifeways of the Middenbeemster inhabitants, and comparison of patterns to roughly contemporaneous urban and rural populations from other areas of The Netherlands and other areas of Western Europe.
Overview of Results
Some of the main osteobiographical results of this research are summarized here. 1) Skeletal preservation ranges from good to very good, and the majority of skeletons have partial to nearly full completeness. 2) The age and sex distribution (demographic patterning) of the individuals corresponds to a natural mortality population, with a high proportion of subadult (<18 years) mortality (~45%), a peak in female mortality in early young adulthood (18-25 years) corresponding to parturition, and a nearly equal sex distribution. 3) An average stature of males (171 centimetres) and females (161 centimetres) that roughly corresponds to contemporaneous populations from the country suggesting a comparable growth rate not differentially affected by inadequate nutrition or chronic disease. 4) Poor dental health, including high rates of caries (i.e. cavities), calculus, periodontal disease, and abscesses beginning in childhood and spanning adulthood, leading to high rates of antemortem tooth loss by middle adulthood (>35 years). 5) Pipe notches, indicating inhalation of tobacco via a ceramic pipe, are very common in adult males (>80% affected with the earliest affected individual being 16-18 years of age) suggesting a gender-specific population-wide practice adopted at a young age that would have had marked implications for health and disease 6) Rates of non-specific stress markers such as enamel hypoplasia (affecting ~60% of the population) that indicate children commonly experienced episodes of physiological stress, possibly caused by malnutrition or disease. 7) High rates of osteoarthritis, evident by a rather young age (i.e. young to middle adulthood), in both men and women although affecting different parts of the body, indicating lifeways that often included strenuous, manual labour. This conclusion is supported by other skeletal parameters that reflect activity patterns and levels (i.e. musculoskeletal stress markers; cross-sectional long bone morphology). 8) Various types of specific diseases that indicate certain ailments were commonly encountered in the population, including vitamin D deficiency (rickets) and tuberculosis. A rare case of disproportionate dwarfism, either achondroplasia or hypochodroplasia, was also encountered (occurrence of around 1 in 20,000). One particular research stream has been to look at the effect of the 1845-1847 potato blight and other crop failures on the inhabitants of Middenbeemster. Result show reduced stature and formation of enamel defects in individuals growing during these three years.
Small bone samples from one hundred and fifty of the best preserved skeletons, spanning all ages and both sexes, were chosen for chemical analysis via stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes to reconstruct their diets. In the infants these analyses also permit reconstruction of breastfeeding and weaning patterns. Results are as follows. 1) The population consumed a diet of C3 plants, and animals fed such plants, with no evidence of the C4 grain, millet, being used as animal fodder or human food. 2) The intake of animal protein, or animal by-products such as milk, cheese and eggs, was high, a result that is not surprising given that the common occupation of Middenbeemster was cattle farming. 3) There is little evidence of marine food consumption, although it might have been an occasional part of the diet. It is also possible people were consuming freshwater foods that are not detectable given their overlapping stable isotope values. 4) Weaning commenced after the first year of life, being completed in most infants by around the age of two years although a few infants have evidence of prolonged breastfeeding into the third year. Infants were weaned with foods of indistinguishable stable isotope values to those composing the adult diet.
Conclusions
Such research is important for improving our understanding of our recent past, reconstructing, for example, demographic variables, common diseases, and dietary resources not even 200 years ago, during a particularly tumultuous period in history wherein the industrial revolution and increased urbanization changed the way of life for a large part of the country and continent. The post-Medieval Middenbeemster inhabitants lived a physically demanding life, with many tasks, of both men and women, involving manual labour. They ate a diet relatively high in animal protein, either from meat itself or byproducts such as cheese and eggs, with little to no marine fish or mammals and an as of yet uncertain amount of freshwater fish. Most infants were breastfed until around the age of two years, and weaned on the same food as the adults were eating. Diseases that commonly plagued the inhabitants include osteoarthritis, rickets (a vitamin D deficiency in subadults), tuberculosis, and a host of dental diseases. Episodes of food shortage appear to have occurred, particularly during the 1845-1847 potato blight, stunting growth and causing generalized physiological stress. Yet, these episodes did not cause a marked increase in mortality suggesting the community had just enough resources to survive. Indeed, the height of the adults, a sensitive indicator of the adequacy of the diet and chronicity and severity of disease episodes during growth, is on par with surrounding contemporaneous communities. Thus, while the community faced many hardships, they were no more affected or worse off than other populations, and may have had access to a more reliable and better quality diet.
Socioeconomic Impacts of the Project
The health and diet data from the Middenbeemster cemetery are filling a lacunae in our knowledge about the lifeways of rural inhabitants of Western Europe during the 19th century. Historical accounts often focus on life in the cities, and on the practices of the upper class, particularly the men. Less is known about the lives of the average village dweller, especially those of the women. With the Middenbeemster osteoarchaeology research we have made considerable progress in reconstructing, in particular, markers of health and disease and dietary patterns, enabling an enhanced understanding of lifeways during a very tumultuous period wherein industrialization and urbanization were permanently changing the way people lived and died.