The Backbone of Europe

Health, Diet, Work and Violence over Two Millennia

Richard H. Steckel, Clark Spencer Larsen, Charlotte A. Roberts, Joerg Baten

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781108421959
• eBook ISBN: 9781108390040
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Physical Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Using human skeletal remains, this volume traces health, workload and violence in the European population over the past 2, 000 years. Health was surprisingly good for people who lived during the early Medieval Period. The Plague of Justinian of the sixth century was ultimately beneficial for health because the smaller population had relatively more resources that contributed to better living conditions. Increasing population density and inequality in the following centuries imposed an unhealthy diet - poor in protein - on the European population. With the onset of the Little Ice Age in the late Middle Ages, a further health decline ensued, which was not reversed until the nineteenth century. While some aspects of health declined, other attributes improved. During the early modern period, interpersonal violence (outside of warfare) declined possibly because stronger states and institutions were able to enforce compromise and cooperation. European health over the past two millennia was hence multifaceted in nature.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Contents
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1 The European History of Health Project: Introduction to Goals, Materials, and Methods
• 2 Contextual Dimensions of Health and Lifestyle: Isotopes, Diet, Migration, and the Archaeological and Historical Records
• 3 Measuring Community Health Using Skeletal Remains: A Health Index for Europe
• 4 The History of European Oral Health: Evidence from Dental Caries and Antemortem Tooth Loss
• 5 Proliferative Periosteal Reactions: Assessment of Trends in Europe Over the Past Two Millennia
• 6 Growth Disruption in Children: Linear Enamel Hypoplasias
• 7 History of Anemia and Related Nutritional Deficiencies: Evidence from Cranial Porosities
• 8 Agricultural Specialization, Urbanization, Workload, and Stature
• 9 History of Degenerative Joint Disease in People Across Europe: Bioarchaeological Inferences about Lifestyle and Activity from Osteoarthritis and Vertebral Osteophytosis
• 10 The History of Violence in Europe: Evidence from Cranial and Postcranial Bone Trauma
• 11 The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Early Life Health Conditions and Adult Age at Death in Europe
• 12 Climate and Health: Europe from the Pre-Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century
• 13 Multidimensional Patterns of European Health, Work, and Violence over the Past Two Millennia
• 14 Data Collection Codebook
• 15 Database Creation, Management, and Analysis
• Index