1 2
1
2
Recent excavations in northwest Transylvania uncovered over 160 individuals from a 14th-
17th century cemetery. This collection is housed in the Satu Mare County Museum in
Romania. Bioarchaeological analysis of this peasant population has provided demographic and health data for a previously little studied area of medieval Eastern
Europe. Lesions indicative of specific and nonspecific infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies, trauma, and degenerative joint disease were scored. These data indicate an
In situ burial from Bobald, Carei
The city of Carei, located south of the Somes River in the plains, is first mentioned in historical documents during the 14th century A.D. The city takes its name from the Carei family, a local noble family. During 2001 and
2002, archaeologists from the Satu Mare County Museum performed trench excavation of the cemetery in the site of Bobald, located in Carei. The peasant population likely used this cemetery, whereas the noble family had their own land for interments. Archaeological evidence suggests that the cemetery was used continuously, with many intrusive burials, until its apparent abandonment in the 17th century. About 15% of the entire cemetery was excavated during the two seasons of fieldwork. Skeletal remains encountered in the trenches usually were recovered as exposed, without further excavation beyond the trench. As a result, most of the individuals are at least partially incomplete. Each trench exposed burials that
Map of the
Romanian region ca. 15th century AD
Hotin
Cernauti
H
UN
GA
R
Y
Debretin
Tis za
R.
CAREI
Satu Mare m
R
Siret
Suceava
Baia
Seghedin Arad
Timisoara
Oradea
Cluj
Targu Mures
Tr an s yl v an ia
Alba Julia
Sibiu
ROMANIA
Brasov
Iasi
Chisinau
M o l d o v a
Vaslui
Targul Putnel
Galati
Braila
Cahul
Tighina
Cetatea Alba
Chilia
Belgrade
Serbia
Orsova
Smederevo
Targa Jiu
Severin
Buzau
Targoviste
Ploiesti
Pitesti
Wallachia
Bucharest
Targul de Floci
Calarasi
Turnu
Giurgiu
Silistra
Turtucaia
Rusciuc
Calafat
Nicopole
OTTOMAN EMPIRE Razgrad
Harsova
Constanta
The
Black
Sea
West wall of Carei castle, now the Carei
Cultural Museum.
Teeth were preserved in 52 individuals. The maxillary and mandibular central incisors and canines were scored for presence or absence of enamel hypoplastic lesions. Fortythree individuals have at least one of these teeth present for observation. Of these, 42% (n=18) showed evidence of at least one episode of growth disruption. Twelve of the affected individuals were adults. Subadults exhibit hypoplastic lesions significantly less frequently than adults
2 differ significantly in the frequency of hypoplastic lesions (X
Prevalence of enamel hypoplasia in individuals by age
Subadult Adult Adult M Adult F
Max I1 N 3/17
% 17.6
3/10
30.0
1/5
20.0
2/5
40.0
Max C N 3/15
% 20.0
Mand I1 N 2/9
% 22.2
Mand C N 3/11
% 27.3
8/20
40.0
44.4
1/9
11.1
5/18
27.8
4/9
0/6
0.0
2/11
18.2
4/11
36.4
1/3
33.3
3/7
42.9
Total N 4/20 12/23 6/12
% 20.0
52.2
50.0
6/11
54.5
N = number of individuals scored with at least one linear enamel defect
Adult with enamel hypoplastic lesions
Most of the adults in this sample were in their late thirties or older at time of death. This is considered “old” in the demographic literature on medieval populations. Of the 82 individuals with no observed pathological lesions, 33 (40%) were adults, with only 10 individuals whose age could be further narrowed, and 16 whose sex could be determined
(4 males and 12 females). Pathological conditions, mostly involving dental disease and arthritis, were observed in the skeletons of 49 adults. These conditions probably reflect the high-carbohydrate diet and heavy workload of this agricultural population. Several individuals survived childhood periods of stress into adulthood, as evidenced by six cases of healed cribra orbitalia and 12 cases of enamel hypoplasia, with two individuals who were affected by both.
Long bone dimensions, such as femoral and humeral lengths, indicate that adult height was similar to that of people in contemporaneous Eastern European populations (Éry,
1998). In particular, the stature estimates from femur lengths using Sjøvold's (1990) formula show no significant differences when compared to the stature estimates of Éry's
Hungarian samples living in the 11-12th century, 13-15th century, and 16th-17th century.
Time N Mean S.D.
t-test p-value
CAREI 14-17th cent AD 14 168.9
6.61
Hungarian 11-12th cent AD 1141 168 6.12
0.528
>0.5
Hungarian 13-15th cent AD 519 168.7
6.29
0.129
>0.5
Hungarian 16-17th cent AD 80 170.8
6.75
-0.979
>0.2
Male Stature
Time N Mean S.D.
t-test p-value
CAREI 14-17th cent AD 18 159.3
4.49
Hungarian 11-12th cent AD
Hungarian 13-15th cent AD
Hungarian 16-17th cent AD
966 157.5
5.31
7.689 <0.001
361 158.1
5.68
0.897
>0.5
78 160.9
4.79
-1.242
>0.2
Female Stature
Comparsion of stature estimates from this Carei sample with Hungarian samples
The remains of at least 162 individuals were recovered. Although archaeological excavation techniques and poor preservation affected the recovery of complete burials, subadults are quite common and comprise 45% (73 individuals) of the total sample. While there are slightly more adults than subadults in this sample (89 individuals), subadults between the ages of 2 and 10 constitute the largest age group and make up 30% (49 individuals) of the sample. Nineteen adults 35-45 years old are the next most common age group (12% of the sample). When combined with the eight individuals in the 45+ category, these older adults account for 17% of the total sample. Sex could be determined for only 68 of the adults (31 males and 37 females). The slight excess of females does not deviate
Cribra orbitalia in a subadult
60
40
20
0
7
49
14
18
8
19
8
0 - 2 2 - 10 10 - 18 18 - 25 25 - 35
35 - 45
Age-at-death distribution in Carei sample
45+
Out of the entire sample, 82 (51%) individuals had no evidence of pathological conditions noted on the observable skeletal elements. Subadults accounted for 49 of these cases, with five cases in the 0-2, 35 in the
2-10, and four in the 10-18 year old age groups. Five additional individuals are subadults of indeterminate age. However, several subadult and adult individuals did display evidence of childhood stress in the form cribra orbitalia and enamel hypoplasia.
Cribra Orbitalia
Cribra orbitalia was observed in 16 (36%) of the 42 orbits available for analysis; 10 (44% of all orbits, 63% of affected orbits) of the affected individuals were subadults. The difference in the occurrence of cribra
2 orbitalia in subadults and adults is significant (X = 8.08, p < 0.01), while the difference in occurrence between adult males and females is not
Subadult
Adult
Total
Absent Present
5 10
21
26
6
16
Total
15
27
42
The incomplete nature of these remains makes conclusive inferences about health difficult owing to the absence of many elements, which may or may not have been affected by pathological conditions. Thus, sample sizes were small for several health indicators. However, some inferences may be drawn from the results. The age-at-death distribution of this sample, with many subadults and older adults, is perhaps what would be expected for a medieval agricultural population. However, only seven (4%) infants and eight (5%) adults older than 45 were present, which deviates markedly from the model life table of Milner et al. (1989). The low frequency of the youngest and oldest age groups suggests that the fragile remains of very young individuals were not preserved. Age estimation bias may in turn account for the lack of elderly individuals (Paine and Harpending, 1998).
Subadult individuals past the stage of infancy are particularly well represented in this agricultural sample, which suggests that this population had a high childhood mortality rate. The high frequency of cribra orbitalia and enamel hypoplasia clearly suggests that childhood was a stressful period for this population. People surviving to adulthood, in contrast, appear to have lived reasonably long lives, and have skeletons with comparatively little evidence of pathological conditions. In addition, the comparable long bone dimensions of adults in this late medieval sample to earlier and
This collection from Transylvania offers insight into the health of the peasantry in Eastern Europe during the late middle ages. These data indicate that biases incurred from preservation, archaeological recovery, and age estimation methods may account for the low proportion of infants and elderly in the age-at-death distribution. However, the large proportion of juveniles in the sample and the high incidence of childhood stress indicators suggest high childhood mortality, while those adults who survived childhood stress appear to have been relatively healthy. The findings from this collection present exciting potential for health comparisons with other European populations.
Gravesite located in the Hungarian
Great Plain
Éry K. 1998. Length of limb bones and stature in ancient populations in the Carpathian Basin. Humanbiologia Budapestinensis
2.
Milner GR, Humpf DA, Harpending HC. 1989. Pattern matching of age-at-death distributions in paleodemographic analysis. Am
J Phys
Anthropol 80:49-58
Paine RR, HC Harpending. 1998. Effect of sample bias on paleodemographic fertility estimates. Am J Phys Anthropol 105:231-