Low Genetic Impact of the Roman Occupation of Britain in Rural Communities.

The Roman period saw the empire expand across Europe and the Mediterranean, including much of what is today Great Britain. While there is written evidence of high mobility into and out of Britain for administrators, traders, and the military, the impact of imperialism on local, rural population structure, kinship, and mobility is invisible in the textual record. The extent of genetic change that occurred in Britain during the Roman military occupation remains underexplored. Here, using genome-wide data from 52 ancient individuals from eight sites in Cambridgeshire covering the period of Roman occupation, we show low levels of genetic ancestry differentiation between Romano-British sites and indications of larger populations than in the Bronze Age and Neolithic. We find no evidence of long-distance migration from elsewhere in the Empire, though we do find one case of possible temporary mobility within a family unit during the Late Romano-British period. We also show that the present-day patterns of genetic ancestry composition in Britain emerged after the Roman period.

Analysis of Adsorbed Polyphosphate Changes on Milled Titanium Dioxide, Using Low-Field Relaxation NMR and Photoelectron Spectroscopy.

In this study, changes in the adsorbed amount and surface structure of sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) were investigated for aluminum-doped TiO2 pigment undergoing milling. Relaxation NMR was utilized as a potential at-line technique to monitor the effect of milling on surface area and surface chemistry, while XPS was used primarily to consider the dispersant structure. Results showed that considerable amounts of weakly adsorbed SHMP could be removed with washing, and the level of dispersant removal increased with time, highlighting destructive effects of sustained high-energy milling. Nonetheless, there were no significant chemical changes to the dispersant, although increases to the bridging oxygen (BO) peak full width at half-maximum (FWHM) suggested some chemical degradation was occurring with excess milling. Relaxation NMR revealed a number of important features. Results with unmilled material indicated that dispersant adsorption could be tracked with pseudo-isotherms using the relative enhancement rate (Rsp), where the Rsp decreased with dispersant coverage, owing to partial blocking of the quadrupolar surface aluminum. Milled samples were also tracked, with very accurate calibrations of surface area possible from either T1 or T2 relaxation data for systems without dispersant. Behavior was considerably more complicated with SHMP, as there appeared to be an interplay between the dispersant surface coverage and relaxation enhancement from the surface aluminum. Nevertheless, findings highlight that relaxation NMR could be used as a real-time technique to monitor the extent of milling processes, so long as appropriate industrial calibrations can be achieved.

Ancient Yersinia pestis genomes from across Western Europe reveal early diversification during the First Pandemic (541-750).

The first historically documented pandemic caused by Yersinia pestis began as the Justinianic Plague in 541 within the Roman Empire and continued as the so-called First Pandemic until 750. Although paleogenomic studies have previously identified the causative agent as Y. pestis, little is known about the bacterium's spread, diversity, and genetic history over the course of the pandemic. To elucidate the microevolution of the bacterium during this time period, we screened human remains from 21 sites in Austria, Britain, Germany, France, and Spain for Y. pestis DNA and reconstructed eight genomes. We present a methodological approach assessing single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ancient bacterial genomes, facilitating qualitative analyses of low coverage genomes from a metagenomic background. Phylogenetic analysis on the eight reconstructed genomes reveals the existence of previously undocumented Y. pestis diversity during the sixth to eighth centuries, and provides evidence for the presence of multiple distinct Y. pestis strains in Europe. We offer genetic evidence for the presence of the Justinianic Plague in the British Isles, previously only hypothesized from ambiguous documentary accounts, as well as the parallel occurrence of multiple derived strains in central and southern France, Spain, and southern Germany. Four of the reported strains form a polytomy similar to others seen across the Y. pestis phylogeny, associated with the Second and Third Pandemics. We identified a deletion of a 45-kb genomic region in the most recent First Pandemic strains affecting two virulence factors, intriguingly overlapping with a deletion found in 17th- to 18th-century genomes of the Second Pandemic.

Mycobacterium leprae diversity and population dynamics in medieval Europe from novel ancient genomes.

BACKGROUND: Hansen's disease (leprosy), widespread in medieval Europe, is today mainly prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions with around 200,000 new cases reported annually. Despite its long history and appearance in historical records, its origins and past dissemination patterns are still widely unknown. Applying ancient DNA approaches to its major causative agent, Mycobacterium leprae, can significantly improve our understanding of the disease's complex history. Previous studies have identified a high genetic continuity of the pathogen over the last 1500 years and the existence of at least four M. leprae lineages in some parts of Europe since the Early Medieval period. RESULTS: Here, we reconstructed 19 ancient M. leprae genomes to further investigate M. leprae's genetic variation in Europe, with a dedicated focus on bacterial genomes from previously unstudied regions (Belarus, Iberia, Russia, Scotland), from multiple sites in a single region (Cambridgeshire, England), and from two Iberian leprosaria. Overall, our data confirm the existence of similar phylogeographic patterns across Europe, including high diversity in leprosaria. Further, we identified a new genotype in Belarus. By doubling the number of complete ancient M. leprae genomes, our results improve our knowledge of the past phylogeography of M. leprae and reveal a particularly high M. leprae diversity in European medieval leprosaria. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings allow us to detect similar patterns of strain diversity across Europe with branch 3 as the most common branch and the leprosaria as centers for high diversity. The higher resolution of our phylogeny tree also refined our understanding of the interspecies transfer between red squirrels and humans pointing to a late antique/early medieval transmission. Furthermore, with our new estimates on the past population diversity of M. leprae, we gained first insights into the disease's global history in relation to major historic events such as the Roman expansion or the beginning of the regular transatlantic long distance trade. In summary, our findings highlight how studying ancient M. leprae genomes worldwide improves our understanding of leprosy's global history and can contribute to current models of M. leprae's worldwide dissemination, including interspecies transmissions.

The prevalence of cancer in Britain before industrialization.

BACKGROUND: To plan for cancer services in the future, the long view of cancer prevalence is essential. It might be suspected that cancer prevalence before tobacco and industrial revolution pollutants was quite different to today. METHODS: To quantify the degree to which cancer prevalence may be changing over time, the authors analyzed 143 skeletons from 6 cemeteries from the Cambridge area (6th-16th centuries). Visual inspection coupled with screening using both plain radiographs and computed tomography scans was used to detect malignant lesions. RESULTS: A total of 3.5% of individuals showed evidence for metastases. Factoring in modern data for the proportion of those with cancer that die with bone metastases, this suggests a minimum prevalence of all cancers at the time of death in medieval Britain to be approximately 9% to 14% of adults. CONCLUSIONS: This figure compares with a 40% to 50% prevalence of cancer at the time of death for modern Britain. The difference may be explained by the effects of modern carcinogens, the spread of viruses that trigger malignancy, industrial pollutants, and longer life expectancy. LAY SUMMARY: Until now, no one has been able to work out how common cancer was before the time people were exposed to tumor-inducing chemicals from tobacco and industrial factories. In this novel study, the authors have determined the percentage of people living in medieval Britain who had cancer metastases to bone at the time of their death and then compared that with modern data. It was found that cancer was approximately 25% as common in medieval times as it is today. This article suggests cancer was much more widespread in medieval times than was previously realized.

Medieval injuries: Skeletal trauma as an indicator of past living conditions and hazard risk in Cambridge, England.

OBJECTIVE: To explore how medieval living conditions, occupation, and an individual's role within society impacted their risk of skeletal trauma. MATERIALS: The skeletal remains of 314 individuals from medieval Cambridge that were buried in the parish cemetery of All Saints by the Castle (n = 84), the Augustinian friary (n = 75), and the cemetery of the Hospital of St John the Evangelist (n = 155) were analyzed. METHODS: Macroscopic examination and plain radiographs were used to classify fracture type. The causative mechanisms and forces applied to a bone were inferred based on fracture morphology. RESULTS: The skeletal trauma observed represents accidental injuries, likely sustained through occupational or everyday activities, and violence. The highest prevalence rate was observed on the individuals buried at All Saints by the Castle (44%, n = 37/84), and the lowest was seen at the Hospital of St John (27%, n = 42/155). Fractures were more prevalent in males (40%, n = 57/143) than females (26%, n = 25/95). CONCLUSIONS: Skeletal trauma was highest in All Saints parish burial ground, indicating that the poor, whether working urban or rurally, had the highest risk of injury. The pattern and types of fractures observed suggests that males experienced more severe traumatic events than females. However, females that were routinely involved in manual labor were also at increased risk of injury. SIGNIFICANCE: This article enhances our understanding of how traumatic injuries differed by age, sex, and burial locations in the medieval period. FURTHER RESEARCH: Additional comparative studies in different geographical regions are needed to determine how representative these findings are.

Intrapopulation variation in lower limb trabecular architecture.

OBJECTIVES: Trabecular structure is frequently used to differentiate between highly divergent mechanical environments. Less is known regarding the response of the structural properties to more subtle behavioral differences, as the range of intrapopulation variation in trabecular architecture is rarely studied. Examining the extent to which lower limb trabecular architecture varies when inferred mobility levels and environment are consistent between groups within a relatively homogenous population may aid in the contextualization of interpopulation differences, improve detectability of sexual dimorphism in trabecular structure, and improve our understanding of trabecular bone functional adaptation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study sample was composed of adult individuals from three high/late medieval cemeteries from Cambridge (10th-16th c.), a hospital (n = 57), a parish cemetery (n = 44) and a friary (n = 14). Trabecular architecture was quantified in the epiphyses of the femur and tibia, using high resolution computed tomography. RESULTS: The parish individuals had the lowest bone volume fraction and trabecular thickness in most regions. Multiple sex differences were observed, but the patterns were not consistent across volumes of interest. DISCUSSION: Differences between the three groups highlight the great variability of trabecular bone architecture, even within a single sedentary population. This indicates that trabecular bone may be used in interpreting subtle behavioral differences, and suggests that multiple archaeological sites need to be studied to characterize structural variation on a population level. Variation in sex and group differences across anatomical locations further demonstrates the site-specificity in trabecular bone functional adaptation, which might explain why little consistent sexual dimorphism has been reported previously.

Evaluating macroscopic sex estimation methods using genetically sexed archaeological material: The medieval skeletal collection from St John's Divinity School, Cambridge.

OBJECTIVES: In tests on known individuals macroscopic sex estimation has between 70% and 98% accuracy. However, materials used to create and test these methods are overwhelming modern. As sexual dimorphism is dependent on multiple factors, it is unclear whether macroscopic methods have similar success on earlier materials, which differ in lifestyle and nutrition. This research aims to assess the accuracy of commonly used traits by comparing macroscopic sex estimates to genetic sex in medieval English material. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-six individuals from the 13th to 16th century Hospital of St John the Evangelist, Cambridge, were assessed. Genetic sex was determined using a shotgun approach. Eighteen skeletal traits were examined, and macroscopic sex estimates were derived from the os coxae, skull, and os coxae and skull combined. Each trait was tested for accuracy to explore sex estimates errors. RESULTS: The combined estimate (97.7%) outperformed the os coxae only estimate (95.7%), which outperformed the skull only estimate (90.4%). Accuracy rates for individual traits varied: Phenice traits were most accurate, whereas supraorbital margins, frontal bossing, and gonial flaring were least accurate. The preauricular sulcus and arc compose showed a bias in accuracy between sexes. DISCUSSION: Macroscopic sex estimates are accurate when applied to medieval material from Cambridge. However, low trait accuracy rates may relate to differences in dimorphism between the method derivative sample and the St John's collection. Given the sex bias, the preauricular sulcus, frontal bossing, and arc compose should be reconsidered as appropriate traits for sex estimation for this group.

East Anglian early Neolithic monument burial linked to contemporary Megaliths.

In the fourth millennium BCE a cultural phenomenon of monumental burial structures spread along the Atlantic façade. Megalithic burials have been targeted for aDNA analyses, but a gap remains in East Anglia, where Neolithic structures were generally earthen or timber. An early Neolithic (3762-3648 cal. BCE) burial monument at the site of Trumpington Meadows, Cambridgeshire, UK, contained the partially articulated remains of at least three individuals. To determine whether this monument fits a pattern present in megalithic burials regarding sex bias, kinship, diet and relationship to modern populations, teeth and ribs were analysed for DNA and carbon and nitrogen isotopic values, respectively. Whole ancient genomes were sequenced from two individuals to a mean genomic coverage of 1.6 and 1.2X and genotypes imputed. Results show that they were brothers from a small population genetically and isotopically similar to previously published British Neolithic individuals, with a level of genome-wide homozygosity consistent with a small island population sourced from continental Europe, but bearing no signs of recent inbreeding. The first Neolithic whole genomes from a monumental burial in East Anglia confirm that this region was connected with the larger pattern of Neolithic megaliths in the British Isles and the Atlantic façade.

Reduction of left ventricular outflow tract obstruction with transcatheter mitral valve repair.

Many patients with severe mitral regurgitation cannot undergo conventional mitral valve surgery due to prohibitive surgical risk and are candidates for transcatheter repair with an edge-to-edge technique. Prior reports suggest efficacy with this approach for mitral regurgitation due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with left ventricular outflow obstruction. We present a case report of transcatheter mitral valve repair for posterior leaflet prolapse with concomitant left ventricular outflow tract obstruction due to systolic anterior motion of the mitral valve in the absence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Patient-defined goals for the treatment of severe aortic stenosis: a qualitative analysis.

BACKGROUND: Patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) at high risk for aortic valve replacement are a unique population with multiple treatment options, including medical therapy, surgical aortic valve replacement and transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Traditionally, in elderly populations, goals of treatment may favour quality of life over survival. Professional guidelines recommend that clinicians engage patients in shared decision making, a process that may lead to decisions more aligned with patient-defined goals of care. Goals of care for high-risk patients with AS are not well defined in the literature, and patient-reported barriers to shared decision making highlight the need for explicit encouragement from clinicians for patient involvement. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to elicit and report patient-defined goals from elderly patients facing treatment decisions for severe AS. METHODS: This analysis was conducted at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, an academic medical institution. In a retrospective manner, we qualitatively analysed goal statements reported by high-risk, elderly patients with severe AS evaluated for TAVR between June 2012 and August 2014. RESULTS: Forty-six patients provided treatment goals during consideration of TAVR and defined preferred outcomes as maintaining independence, staying alive, reducing symptoms or, most commonly, increasing their ability to do a specific activity or hobby. CONCLUSIONS: In the high-risk patient population considering TAVR, patient-reported goals may be obtained with a simple question delivered during the clinical encounter. Encouraging patients to define their goals may lead to a greater degree of shared decision making, as advocated in current professional guidelines.

Health inequality in medieval Cambridge, 1200-1500 CE.

Health inequality is not only a major problem today; it left its mark upon past societies too. For much of the past, health inequality has been poorly studied, mostly because bioarchaeologists have concentrated upon single sites rather than a broader social landscape. This article compares 476 adults in multiple locations of medieval Cambridge (UK). Samples include ordinary townspeople (All Saints), people living in a charitable institution (the Hospital of St. John), and members of a religious order (the Augustinian Friary). These groups shared many conditions of life, such as a similar range of diseases, risk of injury, and vertebral disk degeneration. However, people living on charity had more indicators of poor childhood health and diet, lower adult stature, and a younger age at death, reflecting the health effects of poverty. In contrast, the Augustinian friars were members of a prosperous, well-endowed religious house. Compared with other groups, they were taller (perhaps a result of a richer diet during their adolescent growth period); their adult carbon and nitrogen isotope values are higher, suggesting a diet higher in terrestrial and/or marine animal protein; and they had the highest prevalence of foot problems related to fashionable late medieval footwear. As this illustrates, health inequality will take particular forms depending upon the specificities of a social landscape; except in unusual circumstances where a site and its skeletal samples represent a real cross-section of society, inequality is best investigated by comparison across sites.

Histotaphonomic analysis of bone bioerosion reveals a regional framework of diverse deathways in the Neolithic of Southeast Italy.

The wide diversity of Neolithic funerary practices is increasingly recognised. In Southeast Italy, recent studies have drawn attention to the co-existence of multiple ways of treating the dead within single sites and across the region. In this study, we address how such diverse deathways form a regional framework of ritual practice through histotaphonomic analysis of bone bioerosion. Samples were obtained from articulated, semi-articulated and disarticulated remains from four sites in Apulia which each presented different modes of treatment and disposal of the dead. Bone thin sections were analysed by light microscopy to characterise microstructural preservation through features including bacterial bioerosion, staining, inclusions, and Wedl tunnelling. We investigate the early post-mortem histories of individuals whose remains ended up in various states of dis/articulation and diverse depositional contexts. Disarticulated remains frequently displayed arrested or extensive bacterial bioerosion, which was also found in articulated and semi-articulated skeletons. Additionally, remains deposited in similar contexts, as well as articulated and disarticulated remains deposited together in the same context, often showed different histotaphonomic characteristics, suggesting diverse early post-mortem trajectories. As a result, we argue that Neolithic deathways in southeastern Italy incorporated a high level of diversity in the early post-mortem treatment of the body. A framework for funerary practices emerges, whereby disarticulated remains probably originated from bodies which had been buried previously and subjected to varying extents of shelter, exposure to invertebrates, and duration of burial. However, we acknowledge the ongoing research into the origins of bacterial bioerosion and the problem of equifinality, which leaves open the possibility for further scenarios of early post-mortem treatment.

Genetic history of Cambridgeshire before and after the Black Death.

The extent of the devastation of the Black Death pandemic (1346-1353) on European populations is known from documentary sources and its bacterial source illuminated by studies of ancient pathogen DNA. What has remained less understood is the effect of the pandemic on human mobility and genetic diversity at the local scale. Here, we report 275 ancient genomes, including 109 with coverage >0.1×, from later medieval and postmedieval Cambridgeshire of individuals buried before and after the Black Death. Consistent with the function of the institutions, we found a lack of close relatives among the friars and the inmates of the hospital in contrast to their abundance in general urban and rural parish communities. While we detect long-term shifts in local genetic ancestry in Cambridgeshire, we find no evidence of major changes in genetic ancestry nor higher differentiation of immune loci between cohorts living before and after the Black Death.

Object lessonsSo Much Stuff: How Humans Discovered Tools, Invented Meaning, and Made More of Everything Chip Colwell University of Chicago Press, 2023. 304 pp.

An anthropologist confronts the history and ubiquity of human-made items.

The Black Death in Hereford, England: A demographic analysis of the Cathedral 14th-century plague mass graves and associated parish cemetery.

OBJECTIVES: This study explores the paleoepidemiology of the Black Death (1348-52 AD) mass graves from Hereford, England, via osteological analysis. Hereford plague mortality is evaluated in the local context of the medieval city and examined alongside other Black Death burials. METHODS: The Hereford Cathedral site includes mass graves relating to the Black Death and a 12th-16th century parish cemetery. In total, 177 adult skeletons were analyzed macroscopically: 73 from the mass graves and 104 from the parish cemetery. Skeletal age-at-death was assessed using transition analysis, and sex and stress markers were analyzed. RESULTS: The age-at-death distributions for the mass graves and parish cemetery were significantly different (p = 0.0496). Within the mass graves, young adults (15-24 years) were substantially over-represented, and mortality peaked at 25-34 years. From 35 years of age onwards, there was little variation in the mortality profiles for the mass graves and parish cemetery. Males and females had similar representation across burial types. Linear enamel hypoplasia was more prevalent within the mass graves (p = 0.0340) whereas cribra orbitalia and tibial periostitis were underrepresented. CONCLUSIONS: Mortality within the Hereford mass graves peaked at a slightly older age than is seen within plague burials from London, but the overall profiles are similar. This demonstrates that young adults were disproportionately at risk of dying from plague compared with other age groups. Our findings regarding stress markers may indicate that enamel hypoplasia is more strongly associated with vulnerability to plague than cribra orbitalia or tibial periostitis.

The Mediterranean archive of isotopic data, a dataset to explore lifeways from the Neolithic to the Iron Age.

We present the open-access Mediterranean Archive of Isotopic dAta (MAIA) dataset, which includes over 48,000 isotopic measurements from prehistoric human, animal and plant samples from archaeological sites in the Mediterranean basin dating from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (ca. 6000 - 600 BCE). MAIA collates isotopic measurements (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S, δ18O and 87Sr/86Sr) alongside supporting information (e.g. chronology, location and bibliographic reference). MAIA can be used to explore past human and animal diets and mobility, reconstruct paleo-ecological and -climatic phenomena and investigate human-environment interaction throughout later prehistory in the Mediterranean. MAIA has multiple research applications and here we show how it can be used to evaluate sample preservation and identify data gaps to be addressed in future research. MAIA is available in an open-access format and can be employed in archaeological, anthropological, and paleo-ecological research.

Tuberculosis before and after the Black Death (1346-1353 CE) in the Hospital of St John the Evangelist in Cambridge, England.

This research explores how the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) in a medieval hospital was affected by the demographic and social changes that following the Black Death (1346-1353 CE), the initial years of the Second Plague Pandemic. To do this, skeletal remains of individuals buried at the Hospital of St John the Evangelist in Cambridge, England, that could be dated to living before (n = 77) or after (n = 55) the Black Death were assessed for evidence of TB (indicated by destructive lesions of the spine, ribs, large joints, and other recognised criteria). Overall, the odds of females having skeletal lesions caused by TB were over four times higher than males. No significant difference was detected in the prevalence rates in those who lived before and after the Black Death (7.8%, 6/77 before and 11.0%, 6/55 after). However, the odds of females having skeletal evidence of TB were over five times greater after the Black Death than they were before. These findings indicate that women may have been 1) more susceptible to TB, 2) surviving longer post-infection than men, and/or 3) that women with TB were more likely to be admitted to the Hospital especially following the Black Death. It is also possible that impairment due to TB infection may have been a contributing factor for entry into the Hospital for women but not men.

Anti-Asian racism related stigma, racial discrimination, and protective factors against stigma: a repeated cross-sectional survey among university students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, reports of anti-Asian American or Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate have increased in the United States. Institutions of higher education provide a unique opportunity to examine COVID-19 related stigma and protective factors in AAPI young adults enrolled in college. Objective: The goal of this research was to examine COVID-19 related stigma among a diverse college student population. We posited that AAPI students experience more racial discrimination, internalized stigma, and/or anticipated racial discrimination than other students. We also sought to identify protective behavioral factors against stigma. Methods: This study includes data from a repeated cross-sectional survey that was administered among college students at a large public university in the United States in April (n = 1,359) and November 2020 (n = 1,196). All university enrolled students with an active email account were eligible to participate in the online survey, which included questions about COVID-19 stigma (anticipated, enacted, internalized), stigma resistance, sources of COVID-19 information, lifestyle behaviors, and sociodemographic information. Binary logistic regression models were utilized to assess differences in stigma between race and ethnic groups and to identify factors associated with stigma. Results: AAPI students were more likely to experience all three types of stigma compared to other race and ethnic groups. AAPI students in both waves were at least 2 times more likely to experience enacted stigma and 7.3 times more likely to experience anticipated stigma in the earlier wave compared to non-Hispanic White students. Students who had experienced enacted stigma were more likely to experience anticipated stigma, and those who experienced enacted and anticipated stigma were more likely to experience internalized stigma. Higher education level, living with neighbors/roommates, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and thinking positively about oneself may act as protective factors against different types of stigma. Conclusion: AAPI students have a greater risk of experiencing COVID-19 stigma compared to those from other race and ethnic groups. Universities should combat anti-AAPI sentiments and COVID-19 stigma and promote public health efforts to build resistance against the negative effects of stigma.