Status, health, and lifestyle in Middle Iron Age Britain: A bioarcheological study of elites and non-elites from East Yorkshire, Northern England.

The development of socially-ranked societies has been associated with disparities in human health in a variety of settings. The unique context of the Arras culture of East Yorkshire, Northern England, provides an excellent opportunity to explore how health and well-being may have varied in relation to social factors in Iron Age Britain. Bioarcheological data were collected from two Middle Iron Age (400-100BC) cemeteries, Rudston (N=164) and Burton Fleming (N=56), from the East Yorkshire region of Britain. Social status was inferred from orientational cosmology, animal symbolism, and grave goods. Results indicate a significant difference in hypoplastic lesions, with a higher frequency observed in non-elite individuals, whereas the prevalence of cribra orbitalia and periostitis do not differ between the groups. The similar degree of dental wear as well as the similar frequency of carious lesions and dental abscesses suggests a common dietary pattern, despite a significantly higher prevalence of antemortem tooth loss among the elite. The prevalence of degenerative joint disease and trauma indicate non-elites may have participated more frequently in labor-intensive and hazardous farming activities. These data suggest that although social ranking may not have been marked, inequalities were likely present, resulting in disparities in health.

The effects of total hip arthroplasty on the structural and biomechanical properties of adult bone.

The responsiveness of bone to mechanical stimuli changes throughout life, with adaptive potential generally declining after skeletal maturity is reached. This has led some to question the importance of bone functional adaptation in the determination of the structural and material properties of the adult skeleton. A better understanding of age-specific differences in bone response to mechanical loads is essential to interpretations of long bone adaptation. The purpose of this study is to examine how the altered mechanical loading environment and cortical bone loss associated with total hip arthroplasty affects the structural and biomechanical properties of adult bone at the mid-shaft femur. Femoral cross sections from seven individuals who had undergone unilateral total hip arthroplasty were analyzed, with intact, contralateral femora serving as an approximate internal control. A comparative sample of individuals without hip prostheses was also included in the analysis. Results showed a decrease in cortical area in femora with prostheses, primarily through bone loss at the endosteal envelope; however, an increase in total cross-sectional area and maintenance of the parameters of bone strength, I(x), I(y), and J, were observed. No detectable differences were found between femora of individuals without prostheses. We interpret these findings as an adaptive response to increased strains caused by loading a bone previously diminished in mass due to insertion of femoral prosthesis. These results suggest that bone accrued through periosteal apposition may serve as an important means by which adult bone can functional adapt to changes in mechanical loading despite limitations associated with senescence.

Intraskeletal variability in bone mass.

For methodological or other reasons, a variety of skeletal elements are analyzed and subsequently used as a basis for describing general bone loss and mass. However, bone loss and mass may not be uniform within and among skeletal elements of the same individual because of biomechanical factors. We test the hypothesis that a homogeneity in bone mass exists among skeletal elements of the same individual. Measures indicative of bone mass were calculated from the midshafts of six skeletal elements from the same individuals (N = 41). The extent of intraskeletal variability in bone mass (relative cortical area) was then examined for the entire sample, according to age, sex, and pathological status. The results of the analysis showed that all measures reflect a heterogeneity in bone mass (P