Biological Responses to Change in Prehistoric Viet Nam

Abstract

A bioarchaeological analysis of human remains from Con Co Ngua, a Da But culture period cemetery site in northern Viet Nam (n = 96), and an aggregated sample from 11 sites, mostly from the Red River delta region (n = 96) representing the emerging Metal period in the same region, is carried out. This study focuses on a range of skeletal and dental signatures of both health and behavior, including carious lesions, antemortem tooth loss, alveolar defects of pulpal origin, dental task wear facets, cribra orbitalia, linear enamel hypoplasia, trauma, and chronic infectious disease. The findings of reasonably good oral health may be reflective of a lack of agricultural products in the diet and/or the low cariogenicity of rice. The physiological health of the samples was found to be compromised, with an elevated mortality among younger individuals that expressed evidence of physiological disturbance as measured by cribra orbitalia and/or linear enamel hypoplasia. The nature and frequency of trauma in both periods was not necessarily indicative of specific behaviors, with general misadventure and interpersonal violence as competing causes. The evidence for chronic infectious disease is apparent only in the Metal period and may be related to a range of factors, some of which include the effects of migration, changes to land use patterns, and/or the evolution of increased pathogen virulence.

Porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia: the erythropoietic response to iron-deficiency anaemia

“…Oxenham, 2006;Oxenham and Matsumura, 2007). It seems clear that inherited haemoglobinopathies, such as sickle-cell anaemia and thalassaemia, are associated with a broad suite of skeletal changes in subadults (Tunaci et al, 1999;Almeida and Roberts, 2005;Tyler et al, 2006).…”

The Large Vertebrate Remains From Binjai Tamieng (Sumatra, Indonesia)

“…Several shell middens from Southern China and Vietnam have also given evidence that this type of sites often had a significance beyond the purely economic. Sites such as Ding Si Shan (Li et al 2013), Con co Ngua (Oxenham 2006) and Da But (Bui 1991, Bellwood 2017) have large numbers of intentional burials associated with shell middens. In the light of these analogies and given the presence of red ochre on some of the bones it is tempting to explain the butchered human remains from Binjai Tamieng as the result of an elaborate funerary ritual.…”

The Đa Bút Period in Northern Vietnam: Current Knowledge and Future Directions

“…The females have more evidence for tooth decay than males, but overall better oral health and less frequent dental or osseous pathology when compared to aggregate Metal Age populations (Oxenham 2000(Oxenham , 2006Oxenham et al 2008). Incisors and canines show less severe tooth decay, while the larger molars show greater frequency of caries, calculus, and periodontal disease.…”