Pathogen prospecting of museums: Reconstructing malaria epidemiology.

Malaria is a disease of global significance. Ongoing changes to the earth's climate, antimalarial resistance, insecticide resistance, and socioeconomic decline test the resilience of malaria prevention programs. Museum insect specimens present an untapped resource for studying vector-borne pathogens, spurring the question: Do historical mosquito collections contain Plasmodium DNA, and, if so, can museum specimens be used to reconstruct the historical epidemiology of malaria? In this Perspective, we explore molecular techniques practical to pathogen prospecting, which, more broadly, we define as the science of screening entomological museum specimens for human, animal, or plant pathogens. Historical DNA and pathogen prospecting provide a means of describing the coevolution of human, vector, and parasite, informing the development of insecticides, diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.

A distant city: Assessing the impact of Dutch socioeconomic developments on urban and rural health using respiratory disease as a proxy.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of respiratory disease in several populations from the Netherlands across different time periods and socioeconomic conditions. MATERIALS: We analyzed 695 adult individuals from six different Dutch contexts of urban and rural settlements dating to different time periods (i.e., early-medieval, late-medieval, post-medieval). METHODS: For each individual, the presence/absence of chronic maxillary sinusitis, otitis media, and inflammatory periosteal reaction on ribs was recorded macroscopically according to accepted methods. RESULTS: Statistically significant associations were found in the presence of sinusitis diachronically (early-medieval to late-medieval period, and early-medieval to post-medieval period) both in rural and urban environments. Differences in prevalence rates of otitis media were found statistically significant when comparing rural to urban environments in the early-medieval and late-medieval periods. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that factors such as increased contact between towns and countryside, higher population densities, and intensification of agricultural production impacted the respiratory health of past populations both in rural and urban settings. SIGNIFICANCE: Our study provides new insights into the impact of environmental changes and urbanization on respiratory disease prevalence, shedding light on the relationship between health and changing social and environmental contexts. LIMITATIONS: Research limitations included the complex etiology of respiratory diseases, and the impact of uncontrollable factors such as hidden heterogeneity, selective mortality, and rural-to-urban migration. FUTURE RESEARCH: Further research in different contexts is advised in order to continue exploring urbanization and its impact on human health across both time and space.

Developing an archaeology of malaria. A critical review of current approaches and a discussion on ways forward.

OBJECTIVE: This paper presents the current state of the art in the investigation of past malaria by providing an extensive review of previous studies and identifying research possibilities for the future. MATERIALS: All previous research on the detection of malaria in human skeletal material using macroscopic and biomolecular approaches is considered. METHODS: The approaches and methods used by scholars and the results they obtained are evaluated and the limitations discussed. RESULTS: There is a link between malaria and porous lesions with significantly higher prevalence in malaria-endemic areas, however, they are not pathognomonic or specific for malaria. Malaria can be identified using biomolecular techniques, yet, to date there is no completely satisfactory method that is able to consistently diagnose the disease. CONCLUSIONS: Using macroscopic and biomolecular techniques, malaria can be investigated in past populations and the impact of the disease studied. Yet, this is not a straightforward process and the use of multiple lines of evidence is necessary to obtain the best results. SIGNIFICANCE: The extensive discussion on ways malaria can and cannot be identified in past populations and the suggestions for new approaches provide a steppingstone for future research into this debilitating, global disease. LIMITATIONS: Malaria is a difficult disease to study archaeologically and successful identification depends on many intrinsic and extrinsic factors. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: More large-scale spatial analyses of porous lesions as well as targeting different tissues or molecules for biomolecular identification may improve the archaeological understanding of malaria.

Cribriotic lesions in archaeological human skeletal remains. Prevalence, co-occurrence, and association in medieval and early modern Netherlands.

OBJECTIVE: This paper studies the prevalence, co-occurrence, and association of cribra orbitalia, cribra humeri, and cribra femora to contribute to the complex debate on cribriotic lesions and their relationship with one another. MATERIALS: 179 adults and 53 non-adults from the medieval/early modern Netherlands (800-1600 CE) for whom all three lesions could be observed are included in this study. METHODS: Presence or absence of cribriotic lesions was studied macroscopically. Prevalence, co-occurrence, and association of lesions and their link to sex and age-at-death were assessed. RESULTS: A clear link between prevalence of the lesions and age-at-death is found. Co-occurrence and association of all three lesions is uncommon. There is a significant moderate correlation for cribra humeri-femora in non-adults. CONCLUSIONS: Lesion prevalence is connected to age-at-death. However, while a similar age distribution and associations between pairs of lesions are noted, due to limited co-occurrence of the three lesions, the presence of a 'cribrous syndrome' cannot supported. SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first study investigating the prevalence, co-occurrence and association of cribra orbitalia, cribra humeri, and cribra femora in non-adults and adults contributing to discussions about the nature and the much-debated aetiology of these commonly encountered skeletal lesions. LIMITATIONS: The number of non-adults in this study is limited, potentially obscuring meaningful patterns, as the cribrous lesions are significantly more common in younger individuals. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: More research into the prevalence of the post-cranial lesions and their co-occurrence as well as into bone growth and remodelling is warranted.

Coming of age in the Netherlands: An osteological assessment of puberty in a rural Dutch post-medieval community.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to apply pubertal stage estimation methods to a sample from a rural community: the post-medieval Dutch skeletal collection from Middenbeemster. Puberty is a key developmental period involving transition to physical adulthood with broad societal relevance through its impact on fertility, morbidity, and mortality. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Individuals (n = 55), including 27 of known sex and age-at-death, between the ages of 8 and 25 years were assessed for six skeletal markers indicative of pubertal growth spurt. Recent novel osteoarchaeological methods from Shapland and Lewis are used to reconstruct the timing and duration of pubertal stages. RESULTS: Pubertal acceleration occurred earlier in females (10.38 years, n = 8) than males (13.30 years, n = 6), whereas maturation occurred later in males (21.36 years, n = 11) than females (19.30 years, n = 5). Onset appears earlier and completion later compared to other archaeological skeletal samples with osteoarchaeological evidence of puberty. Age shortly after menarche was reconstructed at 20.45 years, substantially later than historic records and bioarchaeological research reports suggest. CONCLUSION: This early onset and late completion caused a "stretch" of the overall duration of puberty compared to other collections, especially of the last three stages. This prolonged development is reflected in historically known social expectations for the Netherlands, for example, that marriage and children should not occur before about 22-23 years of age. Increasing the range of past peoples with puberty stage reconstruction will permit more insightful interpretations of the biological and cultural patterns of this important life stage.

Ancient Bacterial Genomes Reveal a High Diversity of Treponema pallidum Strains in Early Modern Europe.

Syphilis is a globally re-emerging disease, which has marked European history with a devastating epidemic at the end of the 15th century. Together with non-venereal treponemal diseases, like bejel and yaws, which are found today in subtropical and tropical regions, it currently poses a substantial health threat worldwide. The origins and spread of treponemal diseases remain unresolved, including syphilis' potential introduction into Europe from the Americas. Here, we present the first genetic data from archaeological human remains reflecting a high diversity of Treponema pallidum in early modern Europe. Our study demonstrates that a variety of strains related to both venereal syphilis and yaws-causing T. pallidum subspecies were already present in Northern Europe in the early modern period. We also discovered a previously unknown T. pallidum lineage recovered as a sister group to yaws- and bejel-causing lineages. These findings imply a more complex pattern of geographical distribution and etiology of early treponemal epidemics than previously understood.

A probable case of metastatic carcinoma in the medieval Netherlands.

Despite recent considerable gains, our knowledge of cancer in antiquity is still limited. This paper discusses an adult individual from a Dutch medieval hospital site who demonstrates osteoblastic and osteolytic lesions on the ribs, scapula, clavicle, and vertebrae. The morphology, radiographic appearance, and distribution of the skeletal lesions suggest that this individual was affected by metastatic carcinoma. This case increases the number of publications that present an osteoblastic and osteolytic response to cancer and contributes to the body of evidence for archaeological neoplastic disease. For the Netherlands, this individual presents the first published case of probable metastatic carcinoma with mixed skeletal lesions.