Summary:
The reconstruction of dietary and activity patterns are fundamental research
issues in the fields of Biological Anthropology and Bioarchaeology, as they are
directly related to the way of living of ancient populations. In particular,
identifying potential differences in these patterns between the two sexes may
illuminate the social differences between them. The present thesis has as its
main objective to explore the possible existence of these differences in six
populations from the Geometric period up to the present, in Greece. These
criteria are: dental pathology, and specifically dental caries, dental wear and
antemortem tooth loss (AMTL), in order to explore the dietary habits of the six
Greek populations; also, osteoarthritis, facet remodelling (in the spine) and
Schmorl’s nodes, in order to reconstruct the activity patterns.
Six skeletal collections and a total of 292 individuals were studied: 1) 48
individuals from ancient Corinth (Geometric period-Classical era), 2) 32 people
from Corfu (Almyros) (7th-2nd century A.D.), 3) 22 people from the Roman Edessa
(2nd-4th century A.D.), 4) 16 people from Agia Triada Thebes (13th-14th century
A.D.), 5) 34 people from the Late Byzantine Athens collection (16th-17th
century A.D.), and 6) 140 individuals from the Modern Reference Skeletal
Collection of the Department of Animal & Human Physiology, Athens University,
(2nd half of 20th century). One of the main reasons, that these specific
collections were selected, is that they are mostly consisted of individual
burials. The existence of one individual in each grave facilitates the
identification of sex, as well as the evaluation of age, two very important
components in the paleopathological investigation. In addition, the long time
span covered by these collections, coupled with their geographic diversity, may
form a more representative picture of the dietary habits and the activity
patterns of populations in Greece.
Corinth, Corfu and Edessa present caries rates from 6.1% to 8.3%,
indicating a mixed type of diet, a diet equally consisted of both carbohydrates
and animal protein. Thebes and the Byzantine collection of Athens present
caries rates of 16.7% and 13.5% respectively, indicating a diet more dependent
on agricultural products and foods rich in carbohydrates. Finally, the Modern
collection displays a percentage of 42%, a typically high percentage for a
modern society with a diet consisted of soft and processed foods, rich in
sucrose. Moreover, all populations, in general, exhibit medium occlusal wear, a
result that agrees with the bibliographical sources for the Greek diet.
Nevertheless, the Byzantine collection of Athens, has the highest percentage of
intense dental wear (19.7%) indicating a diet consisted of hard-rough foods.
Moreover, it is very important to note that in all six collections, dental wear
presents a positive correlation with caries. Therefore, it is possible that
intense wear may led to increased caries rates, in the said skeletal
collections. Finally, with regard to both sexes, only in Corfu strong
indications of higher carbohydrate intake by women versus men was found,
however we can not attribute this difference solely to social factors. In
contrast, in Corinth and Thebes, it is men who exhibit a higher percentage of
caries, and the differences between sexes are statistically significant. Thus
the above results, are contrary to our expectations regarding the biological
predisposition favouring women, therefore they can clearly be attributed to
social differentiation between the sexes. In the remaining collections, both
sexes present nearly equal rates of caries, offering evidence for similar
access to food sources.
Osteoarthritis (OA), in the upper and lower limps, was observed only in
Corinth and the Modern Reference collection. The prevalence of OA in the lower
limps is more severe in women, whereas men present more intense OA in the upper
limps, offering data that agree with the bibliography. On the other hand, OA is
much more intense along the spine in all six skeletal collections. OA seems to
increase according to age in all populations. Between the sexes, statistically
significant differences are found only in Edessa, in favour of men, and in the
Modern collection, in favour of women. On the other hand, osteophytes are
mainly observed in men in Corfu, Corinth and Edessa, offering indications of
possible harder labour for them in these populations. In addition, the fact
that in several collections osteophytes appear quite severly from an early age
(20-35 years old), demonstrates their connection with physical activity, and
makes them a quite good activity-related indicator. Furthermore, facet
remodeling proved to be a very reliable activity-related indicator, as in
almost all the skeletal collections the highest percentages of remodeling were
observed in the younger age group of 20-35 years old. Finally, Schmorl's nodes
also seemed to associate with physical activity. All in all, the research data
present extremely important correlations among the activity-related indicators.
In four of the six collections, a positive and statistically significant
correlation was found between facet remodeling and Schmorl's nodes.
Furthermore, in two of our collections, remodeling presents the same
correlation with osteophytes. Therefore, the present thesis is the first study
that proposes the simultaneous presence of the above criteria as indicators of
severe activity in a population. Moreover, Edessa is the only collection where
males showed higher rates than females, in all of the above criteria,
indicating a greater involvement with tasks that required physical effort. On
the contrary, in all of the other skeletal collections, women presented
significant rates (in some cases even higher than men), of facet remodelling.
The Thebes skeletal collection constitutes a characteristic example of hard
labour for women. More specifically, females presented a very severe activity
pattern, agreeing thus with the historical sources which advocate that the
Thebes population in that period, was involved in various activities demanding
a great deal of physical effort, such as: agricultural and rural care, silk and
carpet production. It seems therefore, that particularly in rural populations,
women held an active part in labour outdoor activities, although they didn’t
share social or political equality with men.
In conclusion, studying these specific indicators of diet and occupation
clearly identified important social differences between the sexes. However,
although considerable social differences were found in the archaeological
collections, no such important differentiation was observed in the Modern
Skeletal collection. Therefore, these indicators of social status may be most
reliable in ancient populations.
