Nespecifický stres ve středověké populaci z Dolních Věstonic Vysoké Zahrady

JAROŠOVÁ, Ivana. Nespecifický stres ve středověké populaci z Dolních Věstonic Vysoké Zahrady (Non-specific stress in the medieval population at Dolní Věstonice Vysoká Zahrada, CZ). In Ve službách archeologie. VII. Brno: Muzejní a vlastivědná společnost v Brně, Geodrill Brno, Archeologický ústav AV SR Nitra, 2006, p. 302-312. ISBN 80-7275-066-6.

Basic information

• Original name: Nespecifický stres ve středověké populaci z Dolních Věstonic Vysoké Zahrady
• Name (in English): Non-specific stress in the medieval population at Dolní Věstonice Vysoká Zahrada, CZ
• Authors: JAROŠOVÁ, Ivana.
• Edition: VII. Brno, Ve službách archeologie, p. 302-312, 11 pp. 2006.
• Publisher: Muzejní a vlastivědná společnost v Brně, Geodrill Brno, Archeologický ústav AV SR Nitra

Other information

• Original language: Czech
• Type of outcome: Proceedings paper
• Field of Study: Archaeology, anthropology, ethnology
• Country of publisher: Czech Republic
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Organization unit: Faculty of Science
• ISBN: 80-7275-066-6
• Keywords in English: environmental stress; dental enamel hypoplasia; timing of LEH; mediaeval population; Dolni Vestonice; Vysoka Zahrada
• Tags: dental enamel hypoplasia, Dolní Věstonice, environmental stress, mediaeval population, timing of LEH, Vysoka Zahrada

Abstract (in English)

Several paleopathological indicators examined in human skeletal remains are caused by stress during childhood remain visible in adults (Harris lines, hypoplasia, cribra orbitalia, etc.). Among them enamel hypoplasia is considered to be an indicator of metabolic and nutritional disruption that could also assess age of individual at the time of this event. Because of a wide variety of insults that may it cause, it is considered to be a marker of non-specific stress (Lukacs 1992, Goodman 1993). In this study dental enamel hypoplasia (DEH) on permanent anterior teeth on macroscopic level was recordered from medieval burial ground Dolni Vestonice (Czech Republic) in order to find out extent of this non-specific stressors in this population from 11th-12th century. The Dolni Vestonice - Vysoka Zahrada (The High Garden) site presents fortified settlement with one-apsis-church inside. The examined skeletal series consists of 145 Slavic individuals recovered from 70 graves around church in 1951 and 1952. The sample is comprised of 49 (33.8%) juveniles (0-19-year-old), 52 (35.9%) adult males, 38 (26.2%) adult females, and of 6 (4.1%) adults of undetermined sex (Jarošová / Hrnčířová 2005). From this population sixty-three dentitions [32 (50.8%) adult males, 26 (41.3%) adult females, and of 5 (7.9%) ambiguous adults] were scored for the prevalence, type and timing of DEH. The classification of defects utilized followed the recommendation of the Fédaration Dentaire Internationale (FDI 1982), thus altogether three types of defects were recorded: 1. linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) (L) or hypoplastic horizontal grooves (G) (FDI type 4); 2. hypoplastic pits (Ps) or pitting hypoplasias (Pl) (FDI type 3); and 3. pit patches or continuous chronic enamel hypoplasia (Pp, Ch). Timing of linear hypoplasias was scored by tenth percentile of total tooth high based on the time of mineralization in each anterior tooth (Reid / Dean 2000). The permanent dental sample 55 (35.1%) of 157 examined teeth and 25 (39.7%) of 63 examined individuals (with complete or partial dentition) displayed one or more hypoplastic defects. More than one-third (39.7 %) of the individuals with preserved permanent anterior teeth showed enamel hypoplasia. Approximately the same percentage of males and females had at least one hypoplastic defect, 40.6% and 46.2% respectively. No significant differences in the occurrence of the enamel lesions were found between males and females and among age categories. The later finding was probably caused by decreased number of subadults (0-19 years old; n=5) that were submited for examination of DEH prevalence. Both acute and chronic types of enamel defects were present in the sample. Generally more hypoplastic defects were of acute character (60.0% in individuals and 70.7% in all teeth); however, no significance has been proved. Among teeth, the greatest frequency of the enamel lesions was found each one of presented mandibular canine (40.7%), next on maxillar canine (16.7%), and lateral and central incisors (16.7% and 11.1%, respectively). The age at development of hypoplasias was estimated for 67 cases by recording zones of the defect for each of 41 examined teeth. The hypoplastic defects appeared most frequently between 3.5 and 4.0 years (23.9%) (between 3.0 and 4.0 years in 44.8% respectively). The enamel lesions between individuals stressed with acute and chronic hypoplasias differ in accordance with their impact on the life expectancy (ex). It has been proved by reconstructing the composite paleodemographic life tables (Acsadi / Nemeskeri 1970) that those individuals with chronic dental defects have reduced ability to cope with later insults of non-specific stressors. High prevalence of enamel hypoplasia has led to the assumption that the Dolni Vestonice - Vysoka Zahrada population lived a considerably long period under conditions of high environmental pathogen load, and probably also suffered from some nutritional deficiencies.