Dental diseases of human skeletal remains from the early-modern period of Kumejima Island, Okinawa, Japan

Sawada

Hirata

2013

The purposes of this study are to conduct paleodemographic and paleopathological analyses of medieval human skeletons from Japan and to clarify their life and death situations. The materials used here were individuals from the Yuigahama-chusei-shudan-bochi site (Seika-ichiba location) (i.e. YCSB-SI), located along the Yuigahama seashore of the southern end of Kamakura City. Several new findings regarding the life and death situations of YCSB-SI were obtained: (1) YCSB-SI exhibited a younger age-at-death distribution than other skeletal series; (2) the frequency of caries lesions in YCSB-SI was 5%, females exhibited more caries lesions than males and this group exhibited the lowest caries prevalence rate among Japanese populations; (3) the frequencies of enamel hypoplasia were 67% in the upper central incisors and 73% in the lower canines, which were almost equal to those of non-medieval series; and (4) the presence of weapon-related traumas on the cranium and limb bones from YCSB-SI was demonstrated. It is inferred from the present and previously reported data that population concentration in Kamakura impacted negatively on the lives of the inhabitants, possibly by malnutrition, increase of infectious diseases, and occasionally death by violence, and that all the results can be consistently explained by assuming urbanization and severe living conditions in medieval Kamakura.

Section: Paleodemographymentioning

confidence: 88%

Demographic and pathological characteristics of the medieval Japanese: new evidence from human skeletons from Kamakura, Japan

Sawada

Hirata

2013

“…Degenerative changes in the elbow joints and lumbar vertebrae were found in early-modern samples on Ishigaki Island, in the southernmost island group of the Ryukyu Islands (Zukeran et al, 2002). As for the early-modern Kumejima samples, dental diseases were reported to have been found with a high rate of dental caries in adult females, suggesting differences in food preference may have led to this sex difference, as suggested by isotopic analysis (Irei et al, 2008). We have previously reported that the pattern of a high frequency of degenerative changes in the lumbar spine coincided with that of farming peoples, including the prehistoric northern Thailand people from the Ban Chiang site (Pietrusewsky and Douglas, 2002), which is due to lasting flexion posture during farming, and that the gender difference seen in the cervical spine may have been caused by labor specific to women, such as carrying items on the head (Moromizato et al, 2007).…”

Section: People From Okhotsk Culturementioning

confidence: 91%

“…Location of the three skeletal series of the Okhotsk culture sites in Hokkaido, the Yuigahama-minami site of medieval Kamakura in Kanto, and the Yacchi-no-Gama site of the early-modern Kumejima, Okinawa, Japan. (Fukumine et al, 2001(Fukumine et al, , 2006Irei et al, 2008). These caves had been used as a mortuary during the 17th-19th centuries AD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Degenerative changes of the spine in people from prehistoric Okhotsk culture and two ancient human groups from Kanto and Okinawa, Japan

Shimoda

Moromizato

et al. 2012

Self Cite

Degenerative changes of the spine in people of the Okhotsk culture were investigated in adult human skeletal remains from 38 males and 34 females. These findings were then compared with those in materials obtained from the medieval Kamakura period and early-modern peasants on Kumejima, Ryukyu Islands. The three samples clearly showed different patterns. In the Okhotsk series, the cervical spine of each sex had most osteophytes on the vertebral body, while the Kumejima samples had the highest frequency on the lumbar vertebrae. In the Kamakura series, males were most affected on the lower thoracic vertebrae. Moreover, severe osteophytes on the body of the lumbar vertebrae were more frequently seen in the Okhotsk males. Degenerative changes of the articular process of the Okhotsk series were most frequently seen in the lumbar vertebrae and least frequently seen in the cervical vertebrae. This is well contrasted with a high frequency of degenerative changes of cervical apophyseal joint in early-modern Kumejima peasants. The Kamakura series of each sex had generally low frequencies. Severe degenerative changes of apophyseal joint dominantly affected the Okhotsk series. It is inferred that different dynamic loads caused a high frequency of degenerative changes in the corresponding articular parts. For example, because the Okhotsk culture developed a considerable maritime infrastructure, the lifestyle required for sea-mammal hunting and fishing seems to have particularly affected the incidence of severe degenerative changes of the lumbar vertebrae.

“…Recent advances in medieval studies of thousands of human skeletal remains from Japan have encompassed bioarchaeology (Fukumine et al 2006;Hirata et al 2004;Irei et al 2008;Moromizato et al 2007;Nagaoka and Abe 2007;Shizushima 2007), paleodemography (Nagaoka et al 2006a;, and craniofacial and dental morphology Komesu et al 2008;Nagaoka et al 2006b;Nagaoka and Hirata 2006;Toma et al 2007). Since medieval studies of skeletal remains have flourished in the last ten years, new standards for sexing medieval skeletons are required.…”

Section: Purposes Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reliability of metric determination of sex based on long-bone circumferences: perspectives from Yuigahama-minami, Japan

Hirata

2009

Anat Sci Int

The purpose of this study is to develop new standards to determine the sex of fragmentary human skeletal remains from archaeological sites in Japan. In order to accomplish this, we measured the long-bone circumferences of Japanese skeletons from the medieval period and provided metric diagnosis of sex using discriminant function analysis. We discuss whether the osteometric approach provides the criterion for sex assessment of human skeletal remains. The materials comprised human skeletal remains from the Yuigahama-minami site, Kamakura, Japan. The sample size used in this study was 68 males and 62 females excavated from individual burial graves. The accuracy of sex classification is more than 80% for discriminant functions with only one variable and reaches 90% for those with a combination of multiple variables. The multivariate functions provide better results than the univariate functions. Another improvement in sex diagnosis which this study contributes to is that new standards enabling reliable diagnosis with small numbers of variables are developed from well-preserved parts of the skeletons. This paper provides new standards, focusing on the diaphysial circumferences of limb bones from a medieval population, and will contribute to the advancement of medieval studies of skeletal remains from archaeological sites in Japan.