Treponemal disease in the middle Archaic to early Woodland periods of the western Tennessee River Valley

Betsinger

2013

Int. J. Osteoarchaeol.

Self Cite

After ca 1000 BC, coinciding with the transition to sedentism, tertiary stage treponemal disease apparently becomes osteologically pervasive in pre‐Columbian North America. However, varying interobserver treponemal disease diagnostic thresholds, sampling error and the possibly ecosensitive nature of the pre‐Columbian nonvenereal treponemal disease variants (i.e. yaws and treponarid) prevents subsistence‐settlement pattern from becoming a reliable predictor of treponemal disease prevalence. This is particularly true of later prehistory with the transition from horticulture to intensive, maize‐based agriculture. To address whether treponemal disease visibility does vary across this specific subsistence‐settlement threshold, subadults (4+ years of age) and adults from 11 late prehistoric sites (N = 997) from the same geographic area of East Tennessee were sampled for the presence of treponemal disease. Six sites (N = 279) primarily date to the Late Woodland period (AD 700–900) and culturally belong to what is referred to as the Hamilton mortuary complex. The sample is archaeologically characterised as horticulturalist with presumably a dispersed farmstead or hamlet settlement pattern. Six sites (N = 718) date to the Late Mississippian (AD 1300–1550, Dallas phase) and are maize‐intensive agriculturalists with a large, aggregate village settlement pattern. The sites were examined using three different levels of treponemal disease diagnostic confidence. Treponemal disease raw frequency does indeed differ across the levels of diagnostic confidence between the total Late Woodland horticulturalist sample (4.3–5.5%) and total Late Mississippian maize agriculturalist sample (5.4–6.5%). The meaning is complex as the Dallas phase sample may have a socially segregated elite; the mound‐interred (1.8%) relative to the village‐interred (6.1–7.4%) exhibited significantly fewer cases of treponemal disease. Tentatively, treponemal disease visibility does appear to co‐associate with sedentism and perhaps (if the mound‐interred Dallas individuals are elites) also aggregated settlement. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Subsistence and Settlement Correlates of Treponemal Disease: Temporal Patterns in Pre-Columbian East Tennessee

Betsinger

2013

Int. J. Osteoarchaeol.

Self Cite

“…The marked anterior bowing of the tibiae in the two subadults and in the adult male reflect subadult treponemal inoculation ('true bowing': see Ortner, 2003: 275), and the absence of any other pathological changes in these individuals suggests a contained and relatively dormant disease status. Palaeoepidemiologically, the fact that no other adult displays evidence of chronic treponemal infection, particularly cranial lesions, says much about the baseline community health of the Hampton village inhabitants (see Smith, 2006) and underscores the uniqueness of the apparent caries sicca of the mature adult female, Burial 21. To date, no contiguous lesions (serpigenous cavitation, nodular cavitation, caries sicca) have been observed in any of the crania with treponemal disease gleaned from a 25-site survey (n ¼ 1646) from the pre-Columbian southeast (Hutchinson & Richman, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Eccentric cases of scalp survival, or for that matter, any cases of open wound injury, may provide insights into the endemicity, epidemiology and/or pathogenesis of specific infectious diseases in various community health environments. For treponemal disease, these potential 'canaries in the coal mine' may have particular explanatory power if the disease is not otherwise evident or active in the adult or subadult cohorts (Smith, 2006) in epidemiologically relevant settlement contexts (e.g. sedentary agriculturalists in an aggregate versus a dispersed settlement system).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adding insult to injury: opportunistic treponemal disease in a scalping survivor

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

2008

Although the taking of scalps is arguably a perimortem trophy-taking behaviour, cases of scalping survival are occasionally reported in the historical documents of the American Colonial Period and the 19 th century westward expansion. Survival cases are also detected in pre-Columbian bioarchaeological contexts. Although scalp avulsion injuries can heal without complication, often the process is compromised by secondary osteomyelitis, usually attributable to environmentally ever-present Staphylococcal or Streptococcal bacteria. A scalping survivor case from the late prehistoric (AD 1200-1600) Hampton site (40RH41) of East Tennessee unusually displays infectious sequelae in the area denuded by scalp avulsion which are pathognomonic for treponemal disease (caries sicca, stellate scarring). This infection is probably a reflection of the easy opportunity afforded by the large size of the wound bed, poor post-trauma hygiene, and direct inoculation of the diploë by a ubiquitous Treponema.

“…Although preservation, interobserver error, sampling bias and ecological variables may temper the veracity of this temporal comparison (Cook and Powell, ), various other regional meta‐analyses have affirmed that sedentism is a valid paleoepidemiological variable (e.g. Cassidy, ; Powell, ; Hutchinson et al ., :107; Powell et al ., :157; Hutchinson and Richman, ; Smith, ; Smith et al ., ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Treponemal Disease, Tuberculosis and Subsistence‐settlement Pattern in the Late Woodland Period West‐central Illinois

Mosher

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

Albrecht

et al. 2013

In later pre‐Columbian prehistory (post AD 1000), the adaptation and intensification of maize agriculture and its correlate of aggregate village settlement (i.e. Mississippianization) is temporally and geographically variable. In the Midwest, consequential to the florescence of the major ceremonial centre of Cahokia (AD 1050–1300), the Mississippi River Valley alluvial plain in Illinois, known as the American Bottom, became a core area of this subsistence‐settlement change. Much archaeological research has traced aspects of this transition in the Lower and Middle Illinois River Valley, but little is known outside of these areas. A skeletal sample from the remote hinterland area of the Upper Mississippi River in west‐central Illinois was examined for arguable paleopathological correlates of sedentism (treponemal disease) and Mississippianization (tuberculosis). The Schroeder Mounds (AD 900–1100) adult skeletal sample (N = 53) exhibited a high frequency of treponemal disease (13.2–15.1%). This result is consistent with paleopathological literature linking a 9+ % pre‐Columbian North American prevalence with sedentism, challenging archaeologically based inferences that the hinterland was occupied by mobile forager‐horticulturalists. A hallmark of Mississippianization is the presence of diagnostic cases of tuberculosis. No cases were observed in the Schroeder sample, suggesting a pre‐Mississippian subsistence‐settlement pattern. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.