Health and Disease

We present our studies of the adults at Wadi Halfa and Kulubnarti from the perspective of three common pathologies: tooth wear (dental caries and abscess), age-related bone loss (osteopenia), and trauma (bone fractures). The comparison of wear, caries, and abscess at Wadi Halfa revealed a greater degree of dental pathology during X-Group times compared with the Meroitic period. This is consistent with a shift toward a more agrarian lifestyle and the consumption of less highly processed food. The studies of age-related bone loss at Wadi Halfa were among the first to demonstrate a significant loss of bone among females as compared with males – this is a pattern consistent with male-female bone loss differences today. The osteopenia research was also among the first to demonstrate a pattern of pre-menopausal bone loss consistent with the dietary stresses faced by women during their reproductive years. The studies of bone fractures at Kulubnarti showed a high frequency of forearm (ulna) fractures compared with bone fractures in other populations, both prehistoric and modern. This is consistent with the constant danger of falls while moving through the rocky and boulder-strewn terrain in a region described in Arabic as Batn el Hajar (belly of the rock).

Growth and Development

This chapter presents our studies of growth and development in Nubian infants and children. The study of growth in the Wadi Halfa children was one of the first of its kind, and it helped to establish the potential for growth studies using prehistoric remains. Our later studies include comparisons of growth patterns between both the Kulubnarti communities and the Wadi Halfa and Kulubnarti. Once again, our results demonstrated the health consequences of politics, social advantage, and economic opportunity. The chapter concludes with our investigations into the obstetric consequences of diminished growth on birthing and neonatal survival.

A Bioethnography

We argue in chapter 1 that ethnography is the foundation on which anthropology stands. This chapter discusses what, if anything, we have learned from our research—beyond the empirical data gathered about the material remains—that might approach some degree of ethnographic insight. We look most closely to our case studies in chapter 6 as a means of addressing the question. In the case of our hydrocephalic, we consider the impact of such a devastating and protracted condition on the caregivers who must have sustained her. We also consider the evidence for personal and emotional behaviors, such as the braiding of a child’s hair and the burial of premature neonates in pottery urns. We conclude that we have learned a great deal beyond the material we set out to investigate.

Case Studies

Chapter 6 presents case studies of diseases that afflict individuals rather than their communities at large. The conditions are presented in these categories: neoplastic diseases (cancers), congenital defects, infectious diseases, and diseases of unknown etiology. A differential diagnosis is made for each disease using a combination of the skeletal and medical evidence. The diseases are then discussed in terms of their likely impact on the lives of the afflicted individual.

Health and Disease

In this chapter, we will present our research on the patterns of physiological stress and disease among the infants and children in our three Nubian communities. The discussion will begin with the methods employed in the estimation of demographic variables, such as sex, age at death, and life expectancy. These variables will provide the context for our subsequent investigations of stress and mortality as a result of the nutritional and infectious disease challenges faced by infants and children at both Wadi Halfa and Kulubnarti. Conditions such as cribra orbitalia, enamel hypoplasia, and enamel microdefects will be the focus of the analyses. Comparisons of the conditions within and between these populations has provided us with important insight into the impact of gender, social status, and economic opportunity on the health and wellbeing of communities at large.

Afterword

The future depends on what you do today. Mahatma Gandhi When David Greene, Bill Adams, and I proposed the Kulubnarti project to the National Science Foundation (NSF) back in 1978, we requested funds to bring the remains back to Colorado rather than leave the skeletons behind after conducting our analysis there. Our rationale was to create a collection that would support future research employing technologies yet to be invented....

Skulls, Races, and Evolution

In this chapter, we present our studies of functional cranial morphology and evolution from Mesolithic through Christian times. The chapter includes an overview of the univariate and multivariate statistical techniques we used. By using these techniques, we were able to demonstrate patterns of facial reduction—most particularly reductions in the chewing apparatus—that is consistent with the dietary shift from the course, abrasive diet associated with Mesolithic populations to the higher-carbohydrate, more-processed diet associated with Neolithic food production. This transition from gathering to food-producing technologies, seen in the correlation between facial reduction and food production, is consistent in other populations beyond the Nile Valley.

Life and Death on the Nile

Physical anthropology in Nubia has contributed to three intellectual movements, each of which was a result of archaeological surveys associated with the construction of successively higher dams at Aswan in Egypt. The analysis of human remains excavated by the first survey was guided by the then strongly held belief that the capacity for cultural achievement was determined by the racial attributes of Nubian populations. The role of the physical anthropologist was to establish the racial types associated with the rise and fall of Nubian civilizations. The second survey resulted in a critical reaction to racial determinism in which racial attributes were viewed as independent of cultural achievement. The third produced the third intellectual shift and informs the theoretical basis of this volume. Known as the biocultural perspective, the focus is on the interaction between the biology of human populations and the cultural and natural environments in which they exist.