Visual analysis of geographical distribution of poets in Song China based on Complete Song Poetry.

This article analyzes the geographical distribution of poets in Song China based on Complete Song Poetry (Quansongshi), which includes poems from over 9000 poets, with 6056 of them having clear native place. Visualization strategy is used to present the geographical distribution of these 6056 poets, and its formation factors are also analyzed. The results reveal that majority of the poets come from Zhejiang, Henan and Sichuan provinces, with Guangdong province also exceeding a hundred poets despite its remote location. In the central area of Ningbo, Luoyang and Meishan, there are also large distribution of the poets. Over time, the density of poets in the south increases while it decreases in the north, and this pattern becomes more pronounced as time progresses. By employing visualization strategy, we aim to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the geographical distribution of poets of Complete Song Poetry in Song Dynasty to reflect the cultural, economic, and political development of Song China.

Analysis and comparison of tooth wear in late antiquity and early middle age in populations that lived in continental and coastal Croatia using digitized VistaMetrix method.

BACKGROUND: Tooth wear is a non-pathological loss of hard tissues on the incisal and occlusal tooth surface. In archaeology, the loss of dental tissue through attrition is associated with living opportunities and habits, availability, characteristics and methods of food preparation. In forensics, tooth wear is used to estimate the dental age on cadavers. MATERIAL AND METHODS: For this study, we used an archaeological sample from two sample collections. In this study, tooth wear was compared in archaeological samples of well-preserved maxilla and mandible specimens (n=392) from Croatian coastal and continental populations from Late Antiquity (LA) and the Early Middle Ages (EMA). The computer system VistaMetrix 1.38 was used to analyse the abrasion and attrition of hard dental tissues. The Shapiro-Wilk and chi-square tests were performed for categorical data to test the difference between two historical periods and two geographical locations, while the Kruskal-Wallis test was performed for continuous data. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference in the proportion of tooth wear in total teeth area (P < 0.001) when comparing continental and coastal Croatia in LA and coastal Croatia between LA and EMA (P = 0.006 and P < 0.001, respectively). Samples from coastal Croatia from the LA period had the lowest percentage of tooth wear with a median of 8.35%, while samples from coastal Croatia from the EMA had the highest percentage of tooth wear with a median of 18.26%. Our results generally show greater tooth wear in the EMA period in male subjects. CONCLUSION: The results of the tooth wear research obtained with the Vista Metrix software can contribute to the study of life circumstances and changes that the analysed population has experienced in its historical development.

Human genetic structure in Northwest France provides new insights into West European historical demography.

The demographical history of France remains largely understudied despite its central role toward understanding modern population structure across Western Europe. Here, by exploring publicly available Europe-wide genotype datasets together with the genomes of 3234 present-day and six newly sequenced medieval individuals from Northern France, we found extensive fine-scale population structure across Brittany and the downstream Loire basin and increased population differentiation between the northern and southern sides of the river Loire, associated with higher proportions of steppe vs. Neolithic-related ancestry. We also found increased allele sharing between individuals from Western Brittany and those associated with the Bell Beaker complex. Our results emphasise the need for investigating local populations to better understand the distribution of rare (putatively deleterious) variants across space and the importance of common genetic legacy in understanding the sharing of disease-related alleles between Brittany and people from western Britain and Ireland.

Searching for alternative high DNA-yielding bone types for DNA analysis of aged skeletal remains.

The petrous bone contains significantly higher amounts of DNA than any other human bone. Because of highly destructive sampling and because it is not always part of the recovered remains, the need for alternative sources of DNA is important. To identify additional optimal bone types, petrous bones were compared to femurs, tali, and calcanei sampled from 66 adult skeletons from two distinct modern-era Christian cemeteries. An extraction method employing full demineralization was used to obtain DNA, real-time PCR quantification to ascertain DNA quantity and degradation, and a commercial forensic short tandem repeats (STR) PCR amplification kit to determine genetic profiles. Statistical analysis was performed to explore the differences in DNA yield, DNA degradation, and success of STR amplification. A systematic studies exploring intra-skeletal variability in DNA preservation including various excavation sites differing by time period and geographical position are rare, and the second part of the investigation was based on a comparison of both archaeological sites, which allowed us to compare the effect of different post-mortem intervals and environmental conditions on DNA preservation. The older burial site in Crnomelj was active between the 13th and 18th century, whereas the more recent Polje burial was in use from the 16th to 19th century, creating different temporal and geographical environments. Results for the Crnomelj burial site revealed that the petrous bone outperformed all other bone types studied, except the calcaneus. At the Polje archeological site calcanei, tali, and femurs yielded the same STR typing success as petrous bones. The results obtained highlight the importance of careful bone sample selection for DNA analysis of aged skeletal remains. In addition to petrous bones, calcanei were found to be an alternative source of DNA when older burial sites are investigated. When more recent burial sites are processed, calcanei, tali, and femurs should be sampled besides petrous bones, not only because they exhibited good performance, but also because of easier sampling and easier grinding in the case of trabecular bones. This study contributes valuable insights into the potential use of various skeletal types as a source of DNA for investigation of aged skeletal remains, and it offers practical implications for forensic and archaeological investigations.

The role of emerging elites in the formation and development of communities after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Elites played a pivotal role in the formation of post-Roman Europe on both macro- and microlevels during the Early Medieval period. History and archaeology have long focused on their description and identification based on written sources or through their archaeological record. We provide a different perspective on this topic by integrating paleogenomic, archaeological, and isotopic data to gain insights into the role of one such elite group in a Langobard period community near Collegno, Italy dated to the 6-8th centuries CE. Our analysis of 28 newly sequenced genomes together with 24 previously published ones combined with isotope (Sr, C, N) measurements revealed that this community was established by and organized around a network of biologically and socially related individuals likely composed of multiple elite families that over time developed into a single extended pedigree. The community also included individuals with diverse genetic ancestries, maintaining its diversity by integrating newcomers and groups in later stages of its existence. This study highlights how shifts in political power and migration impacted the formation and development of a small rural community within a key region of the former Western Roman Empire after its dissolution and the emergence of a new kingdom. Furthermore, it suggests that Early Medieval elites had the capacity to incorporate individuals from varied backgrounds and that these elites were the result of (political) agency rather than belonging to biologically homogeneous groups.

Five centuries of consanguinity, isolation, health, and conflict in Las Gobas: A Northern Medieval Iberian necropolis.

Between the 8th and 11th centuries CE, the Iberian Peninsula underwent profound upheaval due to the Umayyad invasion against the Visigoths, resulting in population shifts and lasting demographic impacts. Our understanding of this period is hindered by limited written sources and few archaeogenetic studies. We analyzed 33 individuals from Las Gobas, a necropolis in northern Spain, spanning the 7th to 11th centuries. By combining archaeological and osteological data with kinship, metagenomics, and ancestry analyses, we investigate conflicts, health, and demography of these individuals. We reveal intricate family relationships and genetic continuity within a consanguineous population while also identifying several zoonoses indicative of close interactions with animals. Notably, one individual was infected with a variola virus phylogenetically clustering with the northern European variola complex between ~885 and 1000 CE. Last, we did not detect a significant increase of North African or Middle East ancestries over time since the Islamic conquest of Iberia, possibly because this community remained relatively isolated.

Bone Toothbrush Handles in Chinese Tang Dynasty Ash Pits.

China has been recognized as an important birthplace of dentistry in the world. The bone toothbrush from ash pits in the museum of the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine confirms that the Chinese had the awareness of cleaning their teeth and the tools to do for over 1000 years. These findings help to promotes the study of the historical development of dentistry in China.

A glimpse into the past of Hansen's disease - Re-evaluation and comparative analysis of cases with leprosy from the Avar period of the Trans-Tisza region, Hungary.

Our knowledge of how society viewed leprosy and treated its victims in the past is still scarce, especially in geographical regions and archaeological periods from where no written sources are available. To fill in some research gaps, we provide the comparative analysis of five previously described, probable cases with leprosy from the Avar-period Trans-Tisza region (Hungary). The five skeletons were subject to a detailed macromorphological (re-)evaluation. Where possible, the biological and social consequences of having leprosy were reconstructed based on the observed bony changes and mortuary treatment, respectively. The retrospective, macromorphology-based diagnosis of leprosy could be established in three cases only. Based on the detected skeletal lesions, all of them suffered from near-lepromatous or lepromatous leprosy. The disease resulted in aesthetic repercussions and functional implications, which would have been disadvantageous for these individuals, and limited or changed their possibilities to participate in social situations. They could have even required heavy time investment from their respective communities. The analysis of the mortuary treatment of the confirmed leprosy cases revealed no evidence of a social stigma. These findings indicate that the afflicted have not been systematically expulsed or segregated, at least in death, in the Early Middle Ages of the Carpathian Basin.

Early archaeological evidence of wheat and cotton from medieval Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

This study reports the earliest directly dated occurrence of archaeological wheat and cotton in the humid forests of West Africa. These are the first archaeobotanical results from the medieval urban center of Ile-Ife, southwestern Nigeria, best known for its famous artworks. Both wheat and cotton likely spread through trans-Saharan trade networks that laid the foundation for later European trade systems. Forty-eight (48) grains of free-threshing wheat (Triticum aestivum/durum) represent the largest assemblage of wheat recovered in sub-Saharan West Africa, which is surprising given that wheat cannot be cultivated locally. Larger quantities of cotton (Gossypium sp.) recovered from late 12th- to early 13th-century CE contexts suggest earlier and more widespread use than wheat. Cotton may have been cultivated and manufactured into cloth locally. The quick adoption of these exotic crops illustrates the active negotiation of prestige through culinary and adornment practices, as well as a high degree of agricultural experimentation.

Citation network analysis for viewpoint plurality assessment of historical corpora: The case of the medieval rabbinic literature.

Citation networks enable analysis of author groups, defining in-group dynamics, and mapping out inter-group relationships. While intellectual diversity and inclusiveness is one of the important principles of modern scholarship, it is intriguing to explore the extent to which these principles apply to historical communities of leaders and intellectuals. This paper introduces a novel methodological framework aimed at assessing the degree of viewpoint plurality and diversity of historical scholarship communities, through an in-depth analysis of the citations used in their literature, which has become possible due to the recently developed advanced computational analysis techniques. To achieve this goal, we have devised a set of new network-based indicators grounded in standard network metrics. These indicators can be applied at both the individual author and community levels. The developed methodology was applied to a citation network automatically constructed from a corpus of Rabbinic Halachic literature spanning the 10th to 15th centuries. This corpus includes over 5,000 citations from hundreds of books authored by approximately 140 Rabbinic scholars from six diverse geographic communities. We found that most of the authors and communities cite many more external resources from other communities than their own reflecting a willingness to engage with a diverse range of viewpoints. A more in-depth analysis based on the novel proportional diversity measures unveils more intriguing insights. Contrary to expectations, communities with the greatest number of external citations, such as Spain and Ashkenaz, surprisingly exhibit lower levels of viewpoint plurality compared to others, such as Italy and North Africa, elucidating a key finding of the study.

History of biological, mechanistic, and clinical understanding of concussion.

The history behind the biological, mechanistic, and clinical insights into concussion provides awareness of the current understanding and future areas for study. Although the initial description of concussion appeared in the 10th century, the potential long-term structural consequences were first defined by Harrison Martland, M.D., who performed a postmortem study of former boxers in 1928. He found evidence of perivascular microhemorrhage that he believed eventually evolved into a "replacement gliosis" underlying a clinical syndrome that he named "punch drunk," which was characterized by acute confusion with chronic cognitive and physical symptoms developing in those with prolonged exposure. Further research into the potential long-term consequences of repetitive concussions, particularly in athletics and the military, led to an understanding of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. To ameliorate possible long-term risks, research has been focused on preventative and therapeutic measures for concussion. In this review article, the authors present the history of concussion and the long-term sequelae of repeated head injury. Specifically, they consider how the understanding of concussion has evolved from antiquity into the modern era, and how this change in understanding of head injury has led to an appreciation of the fact that its long-term implications sometimes manifest as the clinical and histopathological entity of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Well supplied in life, set aside in death: A multi-isotope study of Justinian plague victims from Saint-Doulchard (France, 7th-8th centuries AD).

OBJECTIVES: Justinian plague and its subsequent outbreaks were major events influencing Early Medieval Europe. One of the affected communities was the population of Saint-Doulchard in France, where plague victim burials were concentrated in a cemetery enclosure ditch. This study aimed to obtain more information about their life-histories using the tools of isotope analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Dietary analysis using carbon and nitrogen isotopes was conducted on 97 individuals buried at Le Pressoir in Saint-Doulchard, with 36 of those originating from the enclosure ditch. This sample set includes all individuals analyzed for plague DNA in a previous study. Mobility analysis using strontium isotope analysis supplements the dietary study, with 47 analyzed humans. The results are supported by a reference sample set of 31 animal specimens for dietary analysis and 9 for mobility analysis. RESULTS: The dietary analysis results showed significantly different dietary behavior in individuals from the ditch burials, with better access to higher quality foods richer in animal protein. 87Sr/86Sr ratios are similar for both studied groups and indicate a shared or similar area of origin. DISCUSSION: The results suggest that the ditch burials contain an urban population from the nearby city of Bourges, which overall had a better diet than the rural population from Saint-Doulchard. It is implied that city's population might have been subjected to high mortality rates during the plague outbreak(s), which led to their interment in nearby rural cemeteries.

A morphological and molecular approach to investigating infectious disease in early medieval Iberia: The necropolis of La Olmeda (Palencia, Spain).

OBJECTIVE: Here we investigate infectious diseases that potentially contribute to osteological lesions in individuals from the early medieval necropolis of La Olmeda (6th-11th c. CE) in North Iberia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied a minimum number of 268 individuals (33 adult females; 38 adult males, 77 unknown/indeterminate sex; and 120 non-adults), including articulated and commingled remains. Individuals with differential diagnoses suggesting chronic systemic infectious diseases were sampled and bioinformatically screened for ancient pathogen DNA. RESULTS: Five non-adults (and no adults) presented skeletal evidence of chronic systemic infectious disease (1.87% of the population; 4.67% of non-adults). The preferred diagnoses for these individuals included tuberculosis, brucellosis, and malaria. Ancient DNA fragments assigned to the malaria-causing pathogen, Plasmodium spp., were identified in three of the five individuals. Observed pathology includes lesions generally consistent with malaria; however, additional lesions in two of the individuals may represent hitherto unknown variation in the skeletal manifestation of this disease or co-infection with tuberculosis or brucellosis. Additionally, spondylolysis was observed in one individual with skeletal lesions suggestive of infectious disease. CONCLUSIONS: This study sheds light on the pathological landscape in Iberia during a time of great social, demographic, and environmental change. Genetic evidence challenges the hypothesis that malaria was absent from early medieval Iberia and demonstrates the value of combining osteological and archaeogenetic methods. Additionally, all of the preferred infectious diagnoses for the individuals included in this study (malaria, tuberculosis, and brucellosis) could have contributed to the febrile cases described in historical sources from this time.

The Genesis of Multidisciplinary Health Professionals Teams for Pain Management. A History from the Hellenic Antiquity to Modern Palliative Medicine.

The aim of our article is to highlight the history of pain management. The multidisciplinary team (MDT) concept in confronting pain was first conceptualized by the Hippocratics, and has evolved through time and become a trend in medicine over recent decades. Documentary research was conducted to unveil the story of the evolution of MDTs. From the early 1950's the idea of an MDT approach to deal with various types of pain was sporadically introduced in medicine. Studies encouraged health institutions to support this concept by providing health professionals with training, alongside the necessary facilities and resources. Specialized care programs started with Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders as one of the pioneers. CONCLUSIONS: Team work and continuous interdisciplinary treatment of pain have rendered MDTs essential for health systems. Barriers in flexibility, information flow and personal issues give rise to the need for better organization and training. Pain and terminal disease palliation call for MDTs, and educated leaders to run them. Present and future health MDTs are considered necessary in all medical fields.

[Xuezheng Quanji, the earliest monograph on blood disorder].

Xuezheng Quanji(«¼) written by Sun Guangyu, a doctor in the Ming Dynasty, is the first known book on blood disorders in China. The book mainly deals with bleeding. The book begins with a collection of the Neijing and the treatises of the sages, focusing on systematically summarizing the theories and experiences of the past dynasties in the treatment of bleeding, interspersed with Sun's own opinions.The main part discusses four types of bleeding, summarizing Sun's profound experience in clinical practice, and many of his personal creative opinions.In terms of causes,Sun believed that there are three causes of bleeding and more due to heat. In terms of treatment,he opposed the abuse of bitter cold and attached great importance to nourishing yin and strengthening kidney and proposed four treatment methods of dispelling stasis, nourishing Yin and suppressing Yang, regulating Qi and blood, and tonifying deficiency. He advocated that bleeding should not be treated quickly, and emphasized that the disease should be judged according to the bleeding location and bleeding color to use herbs flexibly.Special attention should be paid to daily life care during and after illness as well.

[A brief history of the use of Gypsum in orthopedics].

Humans processed gypsum for their everyday use at least 7000 years ago. They have been using fixed limb methods for fracture treatment for nearly 5000 years. Hippocrates recognized the importance of the splint and the "roller bandage" for fracture treatment, and made the bandage hard by adding wax, pitch, lard or resin to the multi-layer cloth bandage, but not gypsum. Arabian physician El Zahrawi (936 -1013) also described a clay glue mixture, and flour and egg white as fracture fixation materials. From 970, Persian physician Muwafak used gypsum as the exclusive material for fracture fixation. The rudimentary form of modern plaster bandages was developed in the mid-19th century and spread widely after that, using methods from the Russian Pyrogov by soaking canvas in a gypsum slurry and Dutchman Massson wrapped gypsum powder in cotton cloth strips.

A case of early childhood caries from a Medieval site in Southern Portugal: a multidisciplinary approach.

Dental caries is the most prevalent chronic infectious disease during childhood both in historical and contemporary times, but research focused on the oral health of non-adults from the past is still scant. As such, this study proposes a multidisciplinary approach to the differential diagnosis of severe dental lesions in a medieval non-adult skeleton. The skeleton of a three-year-old child recovered in the medieval necropolis of Cacela Velha (Portugal) was studied through macroscopic, radiological, elemental and stable isotope analyses. This individual exhibited enamel destruction and dentine exposure in both the maxillary and mandibular teeth, with the latter also showing changes in coloration. Elemental analysis showed that his skull presented lower values of Si, Cl, and Ca and higher of Cu compared to the control, while the concentration of P and S were significantly lower in the teeth. Early childhood caries is the most probable diagnosis for the dental lesions observed, apparently stemming from a reticulate of factors that include potential malnutrition, and the consumption of sugars in complementary feeding - even though historical sources point to the scarcity of sugar in Portugal during most of the Middle Ages.

Investigating femoral growth disruption in subadults from the 10th-13th century St. Étienne cemetery of Toulouse, France.

OBJECTIVES: The skeleton embodies an individual's environment and lived experiences. Studying childhood growth disruption can, therefore, aid in understanding the experiences of children in the past. This study evaluates growth disruption in a medieval Toulousian subadult sample to explore factors that may have influenced childhood growth and mortality at this site and to assess the utility of Harris line (HL) interpretations in bioarchaeology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Femoral growth disruption was assessed in n = 71 subadults (0.125-12.42 years) from the 10th-13th century St. Étienne cemetery of Toulouse, France, using femoral length, total area, cortical area, and relative cortical area. Femoral radiographs were assessed for HLs. To determine the prevalence of growth disruption, z-scores were calculated using data from the Denver growth study. RESULTS: The majority of subadults in this sample suffered from femoral growth disruption. Young children (1.0-3.99 years) were the most affected, with >65% experiencing reduced appositional growth and linear growth stunting at time-of-death. Additionally, while many individuals presented with observable HLs, linear and appositional growth did not significantly differ between individuals with and without HLs. DISCUSSION: Maternal malnutrition and inadequate complementary feeding practices likely contributed to the high prevalence of growth disruption among the youngest individuals in the study. The older children and adolescents buried at St. Étienne experienced an amelioration in growth deficits, indicating an improvement in nutrition and/or disease load. The results of this study suggest that more consideration is required when interpreting the presence/absence of HLs, and that studies assessing HLs may benefit from using a more individualistic approach.

Assessing the existence of the male-female health-survival paradox in the past: Dental caries in medieval London.

OBJECTIVES: This study seeks to identify signals of the male-female health-survival paradox in medieval London. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study uses skeletal data on age, sex, dental caries (n = 592) and antemortem tooth loss (n = 819) from adult individuals from medieval London cemeteries (c. 1200-1540 CE). The association between age and dental caries was assessed using binary logistic regression. The associations among age, time period (pre- vs. post-Black Death), oral biomarker (dental caries or antemortem tooth loss), and sex were tested using hierarchical log-linear analysis. RESULTS: The analyses reveal significantly higher odds of dental caries with increasing adult ages, more older adults after the Black Death, different age distributions of dental caries between the sexes, and a greater decrease in the prevalence of dental caries for females after the Black Death. These results appear not to be an artifact of trends in AMTL. However, this study does not yield evidence suggesting that females experienced both a survival advantage and a decline in oral health at late adult ages after the Black Death relative to males. CONCLUSIONS: These results do not provide evidence of the existence of a male-female health-survival paradox, but they do corroborate existing evidence of improvements in health in general in the aftermath of the Black Death. The decreased prevalence of dental caries after the Black Death may reflect dietary improvements or the effects of selective mortality during the epidemic.