Analysis of fine particulates from fuel burning in a reconstructed building at Çatalhöyük World Heritage Site, Turkey: assessing air pollution in prehistoric settled communities

Chronic maxillary sinusitis in palaeopathology: A review of methods

OBJECTIVE

This study reviews the palaeopathological literature discussing maxillary sinusitis to examine current trends and issues within the study of this condition, and to make recommendations for future research in this area.

MATERIALS

Seventy-five studies were identified through a literature search of digital and physical sources.

METHODS

Information regarding study metadata, the populations investigated, sinusitis diagnostic criteria, and sinusitis prevalence was examined.

RESULTS

Populations from the UK and Europe were the most studied, reflecting both palaeopathology's systemic colonialism and academic legacies. Most studies used diagnostic criteria published in the mid-1990s, with some subsequent studies modifying these criteria.

CONCLUSIONS

The diagnostic criteria from 1995 are widely used but do not include all possible bone changes seen within sinusitis. There is also a need for researchers to engage in issues of data reductionism when using descriptive categories for archaeological sites and populations.

SIGNIFICANCE

This paper provides considerations as to how the 1995 diagnostic criteria may be revised by future researchers and synthesises much of the published sinusitis prevalence data to assist researchers interested in the palaeopathology of respiratory disease.

LIMITATIONS

More general osteological research, which includes palaeopathological information, was likely missed from this review due to the choice of key terms and languages used in the literature search.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Additional research into sinusitis in archaeological populations outside of Western Europe is required. Further work examining the ability to compare pathological data from macroscopic observation and medical imaging would be advantageous to palaeopathology as a whole.

Ageing and disease risk factors: A new paleoepidemiological methodology for understanding disease in the past

OBJECTIVES

To outline a methodology that enables the reconstruction of age-related disease risk in past societies.

MATERIALS

Modern epidemiological evidence considering risk factors for age-related disease is combined with contextual information about an archaeological society of interest.

METHODS

Data gathered is used to create a qualitative population-specific risk model for the disease of interest. To provide a case study, a risk model is constructed for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in the Eastern English Bronze Age.

RESULTS

This enables the first rigorous approach to reconstructing age-related disease risk in the past. A risk model shows a high degree of COPD risk in the Eastern English Bronze Age, with a major contribution from indoor airborne pollution and agricultural practices.

SIGNIFICANCE

This represents a significant new approach in human paleopathology, facilitating understanding of the occurrence of a wide variety of diseases in the past, without the need for well-preserved skeletons of identified elderly individuals.

LIMITATIONS

The risk models generated are, of necessity, qualitative rather than quantitative, since we are unable to calculate the size of risk factors in the past with certainty.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

The methodology could be applied to a wide variety of diseases and for many past societies.