Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:13:21.621Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Variation in porotic hyperostosis in the Royal Cemetery complex at Abydos, Upper Egypt: a social interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

S.O.Y. Keita  and
A.J. Boyce
S.O.Y. Keita
Affiliation:
1National Human Genome Center, Howard University and Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, USA
A.J. Boyce
Affiliation:
2Institute of Biological Anthropology and St Johns College, University of Oxford, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Variation in the frequency and severity of porotic hyperostosis [porous defects], seen in the skulls of individuals buried at two First Dynasty cemeteries at Abydos, suggested differences in health and social conditions. Those buried near the kings had suffered from childhood deficiencies, while those associated with funerary enclosures in a second cemetery further to the north seemed to have benefited from occupational or social advantages. The author speculates on the possible factors which gave rise to this difference.

Keywords

First DynastyEgyptAbydoscemeteryporotic hyperostosis
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 307 , 1 March 2006 , pp. 64 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angel, J.L. 1964. Osteoporosis: thalassemia. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 22: 369–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bestock, L. 2002. The ideological significance and societal complexity of the subsidiary graves for royal and elite monuments of the Early Dynastic period. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt, April 26–28, John Hopkins University, Baltimore (MD).Google Scholar
Brothwell, D.L. 1981. Digging up bones. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Burkhard, M.J. Brown, D.E. Mcgrath, J.P. Meader, V.P. Mayle, D.A. Keaton, M.J. Hoffman, W.P. Zimmerman, J.L. Abbott, D.L. & Sun, S. 2001. Evaluation of erythroid regenerative response in two different models of experimentally induced iron deficiency anaemia. Veterinary Clinical Pathology 30 (2): 76–85.Google Scholar
Crooks, D. 1995. American children at risk: poverty and its consequences for children’s health, growth and school achievement. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 38: 57–86.Google Scholar
Dixon, D.M. 1972. The disposal of certain personal, household and town waste in ancient Egypt, in Ucko, P.J. Tringham, R. & Dimbleby, G.W. (ed.) Man, settlement and urbanismi: 647–50. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Emery, W.B. 1961. Archaic Egypt. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Goodman, A. Martin, D.L. Armelagos, G. & Clark, G. 1984. Indications of stress from bone and teeth, in Armelagos, G. & Cohen, R. (ed.) Palaeopathologyat the origins of agriculture: 13–50. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Hillson, S. 1978. Human biological variation in the Nile valley, in relation to environmental factors. PhD Thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Keita, S.O.Y. 1992. Further studies of crania from ancient northern Africa: an analysis of crania from first dynasty Egyptian tombs, using discriminant functions. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 87: 245–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kemp, B.J. 1966. Abydos and the royal tombs of the First Dynasty. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 52: 13–22.Google Scholar
Kemp, B.J. 1967. The Egyptian 1st Dynasty royal cemetery. Antiquity 41: 22–31.Google Scholar
Kent, S. 1986. The influence of sedentism and aggregation on porotic hyperostosis and anemia. Man 21: 605–36.Google Scholar
Kent, S. & Weinburg, E. 1989. Hypoferraemia: adaptation to disease. New England Journal of Medicine 320: 672.Google Scholar
Larsen, C.S. 1997. Bioarchaeology: interpreting behavior from the human skeleton. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Levtzion, N. 1973. Ancient Ghana and Mali. New York: Methuen.Google Scholar
Marin, A. Cerutti, N. & Massa, E.R. 1999. Use of the amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS) in the study of HbS in predynastic Egyptian remains. Bollettino della Societa Italiana di Biologia Sperimentale 75 (5–6): 27–30.Google Scholar
Nestel, P.S. 1990. Nutritional vulnerability of the child, in Harrison, G.A. & Waterlow, J.C. (ed.) Diet and disease in traditional and developing societies: 185–208. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O’Connor, D. 1989. New funerary enclosures (Talbezirke) of the Early Dynastic Period at Abydos. Journal ofthe American Research Centre in Egypt 25: 51–86.Google Scholar
Ortner, D. & Putschar, W. 1981. Identification of pathological conditions in human skeletal remains. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute.Google Scholar
Palkovich, A.M. 1987. Endemic disease patterns in palaeopathology: porotic hyperostosis. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 74: 527–37.Google Scholar
Petrie, W.M.F. 1900. The royal tombs of the First Dynasty. Part I. Eighteenth Memoir. London: Egypt Exploration Fund.Google Scholar
Petrie, W.M.F. 1925. Tombs ofthe Courtiers and Oxyrhynkhos. London: Egypt Exploration Fund.Google Scholar
Roth, A.M. 1991. Phyles in the Old Kingdom: the evolution ofa system ofsocial organization. Chicago: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Sanford, M.K. Van Gerven, D.P. & Meglen, R.R. 1983. Elemental hair analysis: new evidence on the etiology of cribra orbitalia in Sudanese Nubia. Human Biology 55: 831–44.Google Scholar
Spencer, A.M. 1993. Early Egypt. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Stephenson, L.S. & Holland, C. 1987. The impact of Helminth infections on human nutrition: 57–152. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Stuart-Macadam, P. 1985. Porotic hyperostosis: representative of a childhood condition. American Journal ofPhysical Anthropology 66: 391–98.Google Scholar
Stuart-Macadam, P. 1992. Porotic hyperostosis: a new perspective. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 87: 47.Google Scholar
Tamari, T. 1991. The development of caste systems in West Africa. Journal of African History 32: 221–50.Google Scholar
Tanaka, H. 1989. Hookworm disease, in Goldsmith, R. & Heyneman, D. (ed.) Tropicalmedicine and parasitology: 361–68 Norwalk: Appleton and Lange.Google Scholar
Thomson, A. & Randall-Maciver, D. 1905. Ancient races of the Thebaid. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Trigger, B. 1983. The rise of Egyptian civilization, in Trigger, B. et al. (ed.) Ancient Egypt, a social history: 1–70. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ucko, P. 1969. Ethnography and archaeological interpretation of funerary remains. World Archaeology 1: 262–80.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T. 1999. Early Dynastic Egypt. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, J.W. Milner, G.R. Harpending, H.C. & Weiss, K.M. 1992. The osteological paradox: problems of inferring prehistoric health from skeletal samples. Current Anthropology 33 (4): 343–70.Google Scholar