Paleodiet: Introduction

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Osteoarchaeology: The Truth in Our Bones

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Universiteit Leiden

Osteoarchaeology: The Truth in Our Bones

268 notes

This course is about what we can learn from examining the human skeleton, and how we can use this knowledge to reconstruct the lives of people who lived in the past. In archaeology and anthropology, human skeletal remains can provide unique insights into the past and the present; insights that cannot be gained otherwise. These insights are explored in five main themes spread out over five weeks of learning. First, it is shown how age-at-death, sex and stature can be estimated by the close examination of (archaeological) skeletal remains. In subsequent modules it is shown how human bones can provide information about the diseases and injuries that people suffered from and what they ate. Also, it is shown how the human skeleton provides information about the kinds of activities that people engaged in and about how they migrated and moved around their landscapes. In this course, you will examine all aspects of the human skeleton that can provide us with information about these different facets of life. Together we will explore the scientific field that is known as human osteoarchaeology. - Human, because it is about us and our ancestors, - Osteo, because it is about our bones, - Archaeology, because we use this information to better understand the behaviors and events experienced by past people. During the course, you will decipher the clues left behind in the skeletons of past peoples with the methods and techniques that are presented. You may also discover some clues hidden in your own skeleton and what they reveal about the life that you are living. Want to know more? You can take a look at the course trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJi22TxzpRw

À partir de la leçon

Bones to Diet

Welcome to the third module! This week is all about diet in the past. What did people eat in the past and in what proportions? Did different groups of people eat different things, and did their diet change throughout time? This week we will show you how to answer such questions by studying the human skeleton. We will be focussing on the analysis of stable isotopes like Carbon and Nitrogen that can be found in human bones and teeth.

Paleodiet: Introduction5:53

Paleodiet: Principles of Stable Isotope Analysis12:47

Paleodiet: Stable Isotope Case Study Part 17:49

Paleodiet: Stable Isotopes Case Study Part 28:42

Paleodiet: Caries in the Maya7:31

Discusion: The "Paleodiet" Trend4:34

Rencontrer les enseignants

Andrea Waters-Rist
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Archaeology

Welcome to the third module where we delve into the field of paleodiet.

This term is not to be confused with some recent and current diet

fads taking the name paleo and claiming health benefits from eating a certain way.

Rather this term in the academic field of osteoarchaeology

means the reconstruction of the dietary practices of past peoples.

As you will come to see, past peoples ate a tremendous range of different foods.

We are, as a species, truly omnivorous.

A lot of the variation in what people ate in the past is based upon what was

available where they lived.

And it's only recently that we in more developed countries have access to what

is sometimes referred to as a global supermarket.

There's an online optional exercise that asks you to keep track of what you ate and

where that food came from.

Try to figure it out in so much as possible for a day or two.

For some fruits and vegetables, you may be eating a crop that was grown somewhat

locally but in fact, that plant may be a new domesticate to the region.

Meaning that 50, or even as far back as 500 years ago with the European

arrival and colonization of the Americas, that plant did not grow there.

But it does now and even if not, it can be bought here.

So when we think of what people ate in the past, we should keep this in mind.

On the one hand, they may have been less diversity in their diet compared to what

we can find today in grocery stores.

On the other hand, though, they probably made use of a wide variety of plants and

foods, things we don't commonly eat today,

thereby increasing their dietary diversity.

And perhaps more importantly,

there was the very real chance one could run out of food and starve.

There was no grocery store to go to.

There was only what was available in nature, plants and animals, and

what could be stored.

And stored without the advent of modern technologies.

In the past, people were very clever in ways to store food,

some of which are depicted here.

But nonetheless, there were limits to this and

the threat of food shortages was a reality for many people living in the past.

But how do we know what people ate?

Well, of course we think about what was available to them,

given the climate, the region, and the species that existed.

Then we can look at the remains of the foods that they ate.

So for example, animal bones and plant seeds.

And we can look at the residue inside of vessels used for cooking and oftentimes,

microscopically or chemically, identify the foods that were present.

We can look at their tools and infer what they were used for

in regards to hunting, gathering, and fishing.

And indeed each of these is a component of the major sub-disciplines of

zooarchaeology, paleobotany and material culture studies.

But in osteoarchaeology, as you've learned,

we focus on the evidence that is stored in our own teeth and bones.

What clues does your skeleton hold about what you've eaten?

This module will introduce you to many of the ways that we reconstruct one's diet

from their skeleton.

We'll dive into some simple biochemistry to teach you about a common technique we

use called Stable Isotope Analysis.

With this technique we can take a small piece of bone, say like this.

And after a lot of steps, get some numbers that tell us about the types of plants and

protein that someone ate.

For example, we can tell if someone ate a lot of seafood or if they were a vegan.

And as you'll learn, we can also say how long someone was breast fed for.

Next, we'll have a case study that investigates not so

much what people were eating, but what they weren't eating.

And this is via a lesion on the teeth called enamel hypoplasia.

It can form when people undergo a serious episode of malnutrition or

under-nutrition.

Finally, we'll also have a case study about two common dental pathologies.

Cavities, which we call caries, and mineralized plaque,

which we call calculus, and how these have a relationship to diet.

In the final discussion video of this module,

we will talk about the recent trend of eating paleo.

Now, while there's no doubt a discord

between Western diets today and what diet our body has adapted to,

you will come to see there was no single diet eaten by all people in the past.

In fact, that there was remarkable diversity.

It is not the case that the diets of past peoples were always perfect or

ideal either.

So hopefully this introductory video has given you lots of food for thought.

And piqued your interest in the osteoarchaeological reconstruction of

past diets.

Coming up next is the video explaining the principles and

methods of stable isotope analysis.

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