ORKNEY’S FIRST FARMERS Reconstructing biographies from osteological analysis to gain insights into life and society in a Neolithic community on the edge of Atlantic Europe. Volume 2 of 2 David Michael LAWRENCE submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Archaeological Sciences University of Bradford 2012 1 Contents of Volume 2 page 3. Results of Macroscopic Study (continued from Volume 1) 3.6 Palaeopathology (continued from volume 1) 341 4. Isotopic Analysis 401 4.1 Stable Light Isotope Analysis Methods 402 4.2 Bulk Bone Collagen Results 410 4.3 Incremental Tooth Collagen Analyses 429 4.4 Summary of Stable Isotope Results 455 4.5 Radiocarbon Dating of Human Bone from Isbister 458 5. Discussion 468 5.1 Nineteenth Century Accounts 469 5.2 Mortuary Practices 476 5.3 Taphonomy, Recovery and Deposition 479 5.4 Form and Function of Neolithic Tombs 491 5.5 Animal Bone 497 5.6 Body Proportions 499 5.7 Demographic Features 508 5.8 Palaeopathology 513 5.9 Who was Interred in the Tombs? 550 5.10 Alternative Disposal Methods 569 6. Conclusions 575 7. References 591 Oral, Dental and Periodontal Disease at Isbister “Ulceration and sloughing of the edges of the gums takes place, leading to loosening and loss of the teeth...” Colyer and Sprawson 1946:533 Table 156. Oral Pathology from Isbister. Top - in Adult Maxillae. Severity of Cases Observed Condition None Slight Moderate Severe Periodontal disease - 11 14 8 Ante mortem tooth loss - 12 5 6 Ante mortem tooth loss in 12/27 6/27 4/27 5/27 complete adult arcades (0/14 additional young adults) Mandibular Pathology Periodontal disease - 9 13 0 Ante mortem tooth loss - 14 9 4 Alveolar resorption - 3 16 3 NB Severity will be greater than appears because several slight cases may belong to single individuals but could not be conjoined; absence could rarely be observed. Table 157. Definitions of Oral Pathology Severity Condition Slight Moderate Severe Periodontal disease Alveolar porosity, Alveolar porosity Extensive resorption, (after Ogden 2008) resorption slight only clear resorption, (stage 4) (stage 2) (stage 3) Tooth loss 1-2 teeth lost 3-6 teeth lost 7+ teeth lost Note that, unlike the maxillary lesions, alveolar resorption was recorded separately, because it was not obviously related to periodontal disease. Mandibles exhibited remodelling with subsequent loss of evidence for infection. It is possible that ante-mortem tooth loss will have resulted from trauma: 341 including violence and/or non-masticatory activity (Merbs 1983:177ff), although a combination of factors is likely, especially where a tooth was loosened by periodontal disease and was particularly vulnerable. Figure 190. Dental caries at Isbister was observed in three teeth. Left: mandible IS(7042); centre and right: loose teeth. The prevalence of enamel hypoplasia seems low at Isbister compared with other pathological conditions but stressors may have resulted in early death rather than growth disruption (Wood et al. 1992). Similar features appear at Hazleton North (Rogers 1990). Figure 191. Examples of mandibular tooth loss: left: IS(6707) anterior aspect exhibiting asymmetric loss, suggestive of trauma (possibly sharp force); right: IS(7289) exhibiting symmetrical molar loss, suggestive of infection. 342 Table 158. Ante Mortem Tooth Losses at Isbister (per permanent tooth socket). I1 I2 C P1 P2 M1 M2 M3 Upper Left 7/52 3/54 4/51 7/51 7/51 6/56 7/45 11/36 Upper Right 6/50 4/52 3/48 8/50 6/51 7/50 5/52 6/38 Combined 12.7% 6.6% 7.1% 14.9% 12.7% 12.3% 12.4% 23.0% Maxilla Lower Left 5/47 4/48 3/45 3/42 2/45 6/46 8/46 8/45 Lower Right 5/47 4/49 4/45 3/45 4/49 11/48 11/49 9/47 Combined 10.6% 8.2% 7.8% 6.9% 6.4% 18.1% 20% 18.5% Mandibular NB The number of sockets may be inflated, mostly for the anterior dentition, because it could include unidentified juvenile fragments. Ante mortem tooth loss was scored only where there was evidence of healing. The Isbister assemblage exhibited high prevalences of periodontal disease, ante-mortem tooth loss and palatal pitting but only minor dental attrition or calculus deposition and low prevalence of caries. The distinction of high prevalence in the medial incisors and posterior dentition compared with the lateral incisors and canines may relate to aetiology: anterior tooth loss ante mortem among the Sadlermiut was most likely to result from trauma (Merbs 1983:154ff). The posterior teeth may be more prone to attrition through chewing but neither the relative prevalences between the molars nor their attrition supports this: it is more likely related to infection. The higher prevalences of mandibular first and second molar loss over maxillae may relate to the contrastingly greater prevalences of maxillary premolar loss, although it is difficult to find any compelling explanation. 343 Table 159. Ante Mortem Tooth Losses Related to Age at Death. Adults I1 I2 C P1 P2 M1 M2 M3 Upper Left 8/33 4/32 3/31 7/31 7/31 6/30 7/27 10/28 Upper Right 7/31 4/31 3/33 8/33 6/35 7/35 5/32 5/27 Lower Left 5/42 4/37 3/35 3/31 2/35 6/34 7/33 8/32 Lower 5/36 4/34 4/34 3/34 3/37 11/36 11/37 9/36 Right In Young Adults Upper Left 0/15 0/16 1/16 0/16 0/15 0/15 0/15 1/13 Upper Right 0/15 0/15 0/15 0/15 0/15 0/15 0/15 1/13 Lower Left 0/11 0/11 0/10 0/12 0/12 0/12 1/13 0/13 Lower 0/11 0/11 0/11 0/12 1/12 0/12 0/12 0/11 Right YA:A χ2 6.605 3.790 1.019 6.815 5.605 5.684 5.754 2.847 maxillary P=0.01 P=0.05 P=0.31 P<0.01 P=0.02 P=0.02 P=0.02 P=0.09 2 YA:A χ 2.75 2.419 2.085 2.165 0.212 5.538 3.986 5.687 mandibular P=0.1 P=0.12 P=0.15 P=0.14 P=0.65 P=0.02 P=0.05 P=0.02 YA:A χ2 8.788 6.137 2.928 8.579 4.689 11.377 9.793 8.005 overall P<0.01 P=0.01 P=0.09 P<0.01 P=0.03 P<0.001 P<0.01 P<0.01 NB. there is no independent age attribution for mandibles: only stage of M3 development and attrition, this may produce misleading results if there are abnormalities. Fisher’s exact test was used to confirm the results where numbers were small. ν=1 in each χ2 test; significant statistical results in bold. Tooth loss occurred predominantly in the adults, rarely in young adults; it appears to have been more common in males than females but not sufficiently to confidently assume significance (χ2=3.655 with ν=1: p>0.05). There is little apparent disparity between the left and right dentitions and this is therefore assumed to be coincidental (in overall maxillary dentitions, χ2=0.677 for sided males, χ2= 0.036 for females (p=0.41 and p=0.85 respectively) but comparing male and female left side maxillary dentitions, χ2=2.109 (p=0.15), which accounts for much of the difference between the sexes). 344 Table 160. Ante Mortem Maxillary Tooth Loss in Adults, Related to Sex Male Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Upper Left 1/11 1/12 2/12 2/12 4/12 3/12 3/12 5/12 Upper Right 3/11 1/10 1/11 2/11 2/11 3/12 1/11 2/10 Lower Left 1/9 0/8 0/8 2/9 1/9 3/10 3/10 4/10 Lower Right 2/9 1/9 2/9 2/9 1/9 2/8 2/8 2/8 Female Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Upper Left 3/8 0/7 0/8 2/8 0/7 0/8 2/8 1/8 Upper Right 3/8 1/8 0/8 1/8 2/8 1/8 0/8 1/8 Lower Left 3/11 2/10 2/9 1/7 1/7 0/6 0/6 0/6 Lower Right 1/11 1/11 1/11 1/11 1/11 4/10 3/10 2/9 There is no compelling reason to infer side differences. Table 161. Dental Attrition in Adults at Isbister: Grouped as Slight/Moderate/Heavy (after Smith’s {1,2}:{3,4,5}:{6,7,8}) and ante mortem loss (below in bold) I1 I2 C P1 P2 M1 M2 M3 Upper Left 2:10:1 3:6:0 2:14:1 4:9:3 9:9:1 4:22:8 15:14:2 13:5:0 (7) (3) (4) (7) (7) (6) (7) (11) Upper Right 1:8:0 1:7:0 1:12:1 5:4:3 4:8:3 1:25:6 14:13:2 13:6:0 (6) (4) (3) (8) (6) (7) (5) (6) Lower Left 0:5:0 1:10:0 0:14:0 22:6:0 19:6:0 6:27:13 14:15:9 12:12:0 (5) (4) (3) (3) (2) (6) (8) (8) Lower Right 0:2:3 0:6:0 2:13:0 19:12:3 7:20:1 4:28:8 12:17:6 14:14:0 (5) (4) (4) (3) (4) (11) (11) (9) NB.