Given their strong affinity for the skeleton, trace elements are often stored in bones and teeth long term. Diet, geography, health, disease, social status, activity, and occupation are some factors which may cause differential exposure to, and uptake of, trace elements, theoretically introducing variability in their concentrations and/or ratios in the skeleton. Trace element analysis of bioarchaeological remains has the potential, therefore, to provide rich insights into past human lifeways. This review provides a historical overview of bioarchaeological trace element analysis and comments on the current state of the discipline by highlighting approaches with growing momentum. Popularity for the discipline surged following preliminary studies in the 1960s to 1970s that demonstrated the utility of strontium (Sr) as a dietary indicator. During the 1980s, Sr/Ca ratio and multi-element studies were commonplace in bioarchaeology, linking trace elements with dietary phenomena. Interest in using trace elements for bioarchaeological inferences waned following a period of critiques in the late 1980s to 1990s that argued the discipline failed to account for diagenesis, simplified complex element uptake and regulation processes, and used several unsuitable elements for palaeodietary reconstruction (e.g. those under homeostatic regulation, those without a strong affinity for the skeleton). In the twenty-first century, trace element analyses have been primarily restricted to Sr and lead (Pb) isotope analysis and the study of toxic trace elements, though small pockets of bioarchaeology have continued to analyse multiple elements. Techniques such as micro-sampling, element mapping, and non-traditional stable isotope analysis have provided novel insights which hold the promise of helping to overcome limitations faced by the discipline.
Starvation represents a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality, past and present, and is therefore of critical importance to the field of paleopathology. Scholars have previously argued that while critical to understanding past human health, starvation is often not directly observable in skeletal remains. But is this assessment still valid today? In re-evaluating this assessment, this paper discusses new developments in the analysis of (1) the “hunger osteopathies” (osteoporosis with some overlay of osteomalacia), (2) skeletal signs of arrested growth such as Harris lines and Linear Enamel Hypoplasia (LEH), and (3) carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of skeletal remains. Periods of starvation are known to cause these visible and chemical alterations within skeletal remains, but these phenomena are complex, multi-etiological, and approaches to evaluate them are often fraught with a lack of standardization and specificity. An interdisciplinary approach synthesizing multiple lines of osteological and dental evidence, borrowing anatomical and medical research, and implementing new advancements in computer modeling, imaging modalities, and chemical micro-sampling may theoretically aid in inferring starvation bioarchaeologically.
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