Health inequalities in the classical city. A biocultural approach to socioeconomic differentials in the polis of Athens during the Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial Roman periods
p. 95-115
Résumés
L’application des méthodes issues de l’anthropologie politique, économique et biologique offre la possibilité d’appréhender des groupes sociaux qui sont jusqu’à présent restés marginalisés. Ainsi, la comparaison de paramètres liés à l’anémie infantile dans deux cimetières du centre urbain d’Athènes permet de remettre en cause nos impressions concernant non seulement l’interprétation des lésions osseuses, mais aussi la société des cités et son dynamisme aux époques classique, hellénistique et romaine. Les femmes sont plus fréquemment atteintes d’anémie, ce qui semble indépendant du statut socio-économique et du contexte chronologique. Bien que ce groupe soit donc également plus affecté par cette pathologie à l’époque romaine, ce sont surtout les hommes qui permettent de mettre en évidence des différences significatives en rapport avec le contexte socio-économique. À l’époque classique, les hommes appartenant à l’élite sociale souffrent moins que les autres d’épisodes de stress pendant la croissance. Plus tard cependant, leur condition décline pour ressembler davantage à celle des hommes (et des femmes) de basse condition. À l’époque impériale, les différences liées au genre et au statut socio-économique s’atténuent.
The application of methods that originate from political, economic and biological anthropology provides the opportunity to approach social groups that have thus far remained marginalised. Thus the comparison of health parameters related to childhood anemia in two cemeteries from the urban center of Athens offers the possibility to retract our impressions concerning not only the interpretation of the osseous lesions but also of the society of the polis and its fluidity during the Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial Roman times. Women have higher frequencies of anemic lesions and this appears to be independent of socioeconomic status and chronological period. Even though this group as well is more affected during the Imperial Roman period, it is principally men who demonstrate significant differences in relation to socioeconomic parameters. In the Classical period men of the elite are affected less from stress episodes during growth. Later, however, their condition declines and resembles more that of men (and women) of the lower socioeconomic strata. During the Imperial Roman period differences based on gender and socioeconomic group are minimised.
Entrées d’index
Mots-clés : Inégalités de santé, cité classique, anémie, staut socioéconomique, genre
Keywords : Health inequalities, classical polis, anemia, socioeconomic status, gender
Texte intégral
1. Introduction
1Perhaps one of the most stimulating appraisals in human history comprises the recognition of the range of “normality” of human biology and behavior: what we coin and accept as the “norm” in a given society and how this may appear as “foreign” or inapt in another. In regards in particular to the appraisal of the position of women in the past as at the present at the political, social and economic levels it has become clear that numerous factors confound women’s visibility. The silencing of the voice of women by ancient and modern scholars has been palpable.1 Athenian legal oratory for example despite its “great treasure of details about slaves and women” reveals only indirectly the social world of marginalized people.2 Archaeologically the stark social distinctions that are believed to have existed in the Classical polis have been difficult to trace even in contexts (other than burials) where they are most expected.3 Iconographic and written sources on the other hand despite their frequent portrayal of women appear to forward ideal norms rather than real behaviors. The extent to which the range of possible behaviors could have been contained within such constricted frameworks has been questioned.4 A much greater sophistication of norms and behaviors is implicit in the range of identities that emerge when socioeconomic and political parameters are considered. It is perhaps startling that even in contemporary studies that address health inequalities women are often excluded because of the difficulty to fit them in a rigid categorization scheme5. The position of women in the past as at the present has been more complex.
2Researchers have asked whether the position of women in Classical Athens and in classical antiquity in general resembled that in societies where the religious and political systems keep women in conditions of extreme oppression.6 The lower social value of girls advanced by ancient historians is used to contend that girls were less well treated and well nourished than boys.7 Other scholars attempt to place ancient women within the range of “normality” of a traditional Mediterranean society.8 Nicole Loraux asks whether the very myths that assert the “birth” of the [male] citizens from the earth of their city in reality aspire to, or result in, the complete elimination from women of any possibility to participate in the life of the city.9 Whichever perspective is taken the total exclusion of women from the political and a large part of the social life is widely accepted.
3Current approaches in biocultural anthropology offer the possibility – perhaps unique in gender studies – to approach aspects and groups in a society that have remained invisible.10
4Pioneering biocultural studies have used osteological and dental health indicators to assess disparities not only in present, overtly depreciated populations11 but also in numerous past societies.12 The impact that sociocultural and political economic processes have on human biologies has been irrefutable.13 Hand in hand with contemporary epidemiologic research concerned with the societal determinants of health, biocultural studies investigate the ways with which “societal conditions – and especially social inequality – become embodied, thereby shaping population distributions of health”.14
5Building on these perspectives this study investigates health disparities between genders and social groups in the polis of Athens. A deeper appreciation of the complex link between biological traits and cultural norms shaping behavior highlights the need to distinguish between sex and gender in assessing health determinants.15 Although the determination of the sex of a (well preserved) skeleton is based mostly on biological criteria, skeletal health reflects both the biological and the cultural dimensions of being.
2. The Cemeteries
6Two cemeteries from the urban centre of Athens, the Kerameikos and the Plateia Kotzia cemeteries (fig. 1) believed to encompass different social strata are compared to investigate patterns of health during the Classical (475-336 B. C.), the Hellenistic (end of 4th - 1st century B. C.) and the Imperial Roman periods (A. D. 1st - 3rd century).
Fig. 1: The location of the two Athenian cemeteries understudy.

After Travlos 1988, fig. 29.
7The two cemeteries were selected so as to provide a relative fair cross-section of the population. As much as there is no doubt an overlaps in the two cemeteries in terms of statuses represented,16 there are clear indications that the most affluent strata favoured the Kerameikos cemetery.
8Magnificent monuments of eminent politicians, families and war dead have been excavated at the Kerameikos cemetery since the end of the 19th century17 confirming its eminence forwarded by written sources.18 The importance of the cemetery is related to its location in the area outside the Dipylon Gate and the Sacred Gate, which are well known for their association with major city processions. A long standing bias in archaeology in preserving skeletons from prominent graves has resulted in an overrepresentation of elite graves among the curated skeletons and a severe reduction of subadult remains.19 The bias nevertheless in favor of “high-status” graves reinforces a comparison between upper and lower socioeconomic strata. Due to poor preservation, out of the 207 skeletons analyzed for overall health and dietary status in the periods under study 97 are amenable to the investigation of anemic lesions.
9The cemetery of Plateia Kotzia is located approximately 40 m outside the ancient city wall of Athens, most likely outside the Acharnian Gate in an area between two main roads that lead to the city’s northern suburbs. Lack of ostentation of grave types and decoration suggest the cemetery was used by non-elite inhabitants of the urban center.20 Graves tend to cluster temporally in different regions of the cemetery, although burials from different periods are also found interspersed throughout the site. Due to the poor preservation of the human skeletal material, out of the 172 skeletons available for the Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial Roman times from the Plateia Kotzia cemetery 82 are amenable to the analysis of anemic lesions. Preservation of juvenile remains among these is nevertheless higher than at the Kerameikos cemetery comprising 33% of the sample.
10Comparison of the two cemeteries therefore provides the opportunity to assess quantitatively the degree of divergence between the sexes and social groups in terms of health. If the health status of those buried in the two cemeteries depended mostly on socioeconomic determinants we should be able to observe a correlation between health and cemetery. If on the other hand the health status of either sex superseded socioeconomic class, we should expect to find similarities in the state of health based on determinants other than cemetery affiliation.
3. Skeletal markers of stress during growth
11Two of the most commonly studied skeletal markers of stress during growth, cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis, generally associated with anemia are analyzed to assess the occurrence of socioeconomic differences in the polis of Athens. These markers describe pitting and porosities on the outer table of the orbital roofs and the cranial vault that are caused by an expansion of the diploë of the cranium due to compensational to anemia marrow hypertrophy.21 Because both inherited and environmentally induced anemic conditions may trigger marrow hyperplasia it is important to differentiate among the possible etiologies especially in geographical areas like the eastern Mediterranean where both groups of anemias may co-exist. While several diagnostic criteria allow the differentiation of the inherited anemias,22 epidemiological factors are most commonly employed to explain the widespread occurrence of these lesions. Cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis, like many forms of anemia today, are prevalent in numerous historic and prehistoric contexts worldwide. Because of this association their occurrence is generally attributed to the synergistic effects of unfavourable environmental factors such as unsanitary living conditions (including gastrointestinal parasite infections and crowding), cultural practices related to pregnancy and breastfeeding and nutrient deficiencies.23 The absence of any of the pathognomonic criteria of an inherited anemia in the two collections under study, in addition to their epidemiological characteristics suggest that cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis in the two cemetery populations most likely reflect environmental conditions.
Fig. 2a: Cribra orbitalia in a middle adult male from the Plateia Kotzia cemetery (grave 402 of the Imperial Roman period).

Fig. 2b: Porosity on the right parietal of a child from the Kerameikos cemetery (tomb D1 of the Imperial Roman period).

12The recording system of J. E. Buikstra and D. H. Ubelaker24 was used to distinguish among the different expressions of the lesions. This scheme accounts for finer expressions of porosity that comprise the majority of lesions in the populations under study (fig. 2a and 2b). Based on this scheme, the lesions in the orbital roofs and the cranial vault were distinguished among very indistinct porosity, true porosity, coalescing pores and coalescing pores in association with expansive changes. The latter category was least often encountered while extreme expressions of porosity resembling those found in the New World are lacking from these as from most collections in Greece thus far analysed.25
13A lesion was recorded as present when it was observed in at least one of the bones of its typical occurrence, i. e. the orbits, the parietals, or the squamous of the occipital bone. Lesions were distinguished between active and healed ; active lesions were observed among the subadult remains, while most of the lesions noted were barely discernible porosities. Although cribra orbitalia is often considered as an initial stage of involvement of the skull, porotic hyperostosis can also be observed without any signs of involvement of the orbits. Moreover, it has been suggested that cribra orbitalia may be caused by diseases other than the anemias.26 Therefore only cases that showed that porosity was the result of spongious expansion rather than a process involving the periosteum were recorded. The decision to include also fine lesions of the cranial vault and analyse cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperstosis together was based on the awareness that the severity of skeletal involvement does not correspond linearly to the severity of a pathological condition27 while the threshold triggering skeletal involvement has not been clinically established.28
4. Analysis
14Quantitative analysis of the prevalence of cribra orbitalia and porotic hyper-ostosis reveals differences at several levels in terms of the age-at-death, sex and socioeconomic status (tab. 1). It is obvious that the samples, especially when broken down to subgroups per cemetery, sex, or age-at-death are small.29 Therefore, the strength of certain patterns that emerge is confirmed statistically while others require further investigation.
15The first substantial find concerns the age differentiation of the prevalence of the lesions. In both cemeteries sub-adults show the greatest frequencies of lesions related to anemia compared to adults (tab. 1; fig. 3); this is statistically significant for the Kerameikos cemetery and the cemeteries combined. Noteworthy, the prevalence of the lesions among juveniles is remarkably similar between the cemeteries and shows no correlation with socioeconomic status.
16Likewise, when the adult age groups are compared to each other it is the young adults (20-34 years)30 that have the highest frequencies of lesions in both cemeteries; among older adults (>50 years) lesion frequencies are the lowest. Statistical comparison (tab. 2) suggests that the frequencies of the lesions in the young adult groups differ significantly from those in the middle (35-49 years) and old adults at the Kerameikos cemetery and the cemeteries combined.
Table 1. The frequency and distribution of cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis in the cemeteries

A = number of individuals affected; O = number of individuals examined
Fig. 3: The proportion of adults and subadults with cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis in the cemeteries

Table 2. Comparisons of the occurrence of cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis between cemeteries

*Temporal comparisons include adults only
Fig. 4: The proportion of men and women with cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis per adult age group

17The presence of a large number of middle adults with anemic lesions at the cemetery of Plateia Kotzia is explained when the adult age groups are examined separately for the sexes (fig. 4). It is then shown that women have similar high frequencies of anemic lesions among all adult age groups (tab. 3). Among men, however, the prevalence of the lesions is high in the young adult group, decreases significantly (tab. 4)in the middle adults and is at its lowest among the old adults.
18Noteworthy, women have overall a higher prevalence of anemic lesions than men so much within cemeteries as for the cemeteries combined (fig. 5). Although this trend is apparent in both cemeteries, it is statistically significant for the cemeteries combined at the 90 % confidence level (tab. 2). Remarkably, the prevalence of lesions among men from the Plateia Kotzia cemetery appears to be closer to that of women in both cemeteries than to that of men from the Kerameikos cemetery ; the latter are set apart by their comparatively lower frequencies of anemic lesions (tab. 1). The analysis hereby suggests that overall the adults from the Plateia Kotzia cemetery have a higher prevalence of anemic lesions compared to the adults from the Kerameikos.
Table 3. The frequency and distribution of cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis in men and women

Table 4. Comparisons of the occurrence of cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis between men and women

Fig. 5: The proportion of men and women with cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis in the cemeteries

Fig. 6: The proportion of adults with cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis per chronological period

Fig. 7: The proportion of men and women with cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis per chronological period

19A further comparison reinforces the association between an increased prevalence of anemic lesions with lower socioeconomic statuses including women. When the frequencies of lesions in the Classical, Hellenistic and the Imperial Roman periods are compared between cemeteries for all adults combined it becomes apparent that the prevalence of lesions at the Plateia Kotzia cemetery remains consistently high throughout time (fig. 6; tab. 1). In contrast, at the Kerameikos cemetery the frequency of lesions is comparatively low in the Classical period ; it increases gradually in the Hellenistic period and rises dramatically in the Imperial Roman times. Strikingly, in the Imperial Roman period the frequencies of the lesions in the two cemeteries are similar. A statistical comparison of the occurrence of the anemic lesions within and between cemeteries shows clearly that the Classical period differs significantly from the Hellenistic and the Imperial Roman times at the Kerameikos cemetery and the cemeteries combined but not at the Plateia Kotzia cemetery (tab. 2).
20One last comparison suggests that the aforementioned temporal increase is gender specific. When the frequencies of the lesions are examined temporally between the sexes it becomes apparent that women maintain a high proportion of lesions throughout time (tab. 3; fig. 7). In contrast, frequencies among men are comparatively low in the Classical period, they increase gradually in the Hellenistic and rise rather appreciably in the Imperial Roman times ; this increase is significant at the 95% confidence level (tab. 4). It is rather interesting that in the Imperial Roman period the frequencies of lesions between men and women are indistinguishable.
5. Discussion
21The age distribution of cranial lesions related to anemia in the two cemetery populations of the urban center of Athens accord with their correlation with conditions describing childhood.31 The extent to which these conditions concern principally a diet deficient in vitamin B12 as the most recent approach forwards,32 or nutritional deficienciesin combination with an environmental setting in which infectious diseases and parasitic loads33 turned the generally trivial for a developed society diseases to epidemics, requires the consideration of more lines of investigation. The evidence hereby corroborates a number of studies that demonstrate a higher prevalence of anemic lesions among juveniles.34 It suggests that during development factors that describe the environment in a pre-industrial context superseded the importance of socioeconomic conditions. These latter, nevertheless, appear to have taken precedence in the period after the completion of development.
22The evidence from the polis of Athens therefore addresses the still open question concerning the impact of childhood stress on survival.35 Did the occurrence of early stress episodes reduce cumulatively the ability to survive? It is obvious that mortality did not differ among groups in the young ages. Past the age of maturation however, those that underwent stress during development appear more susceptible to socioeconomic conditions. Among adult age groups significant differences are noted between cemeteries and between the sexes. The traditionally vulnerable groups i. e. those of low socioeconomic status and women show higher frequencies of anemic episodes. While the proportion of affected women does not seem to differ significantly between cemeteries, social class appears to have been important among men. How can the difference in the prevalence of stress indicators between the sexes as well as between social strata in the two cemetery populations under study be appraised?
23Although it is known that women are more susceptible than men to certain diseases, overall they seem to be better buffered in morbidity and mortality.36 Concerning the occurrence of osteological stress markers several studies have shown a greater prevalence of anemic lesions among women ; nevertheless a consistent pattern between sexes has not been confirmed.37 Could the higher prevalence of anemic lesions among women reflect a greater ability of women to survive stress episodes due to better buffering mechanisms?
24Evaluation of sex differences in the risk of mortality associated with osteological stress markers has shown that men with a history of exposure to stressors have an increased excess mortality.38 The extent to which this difference suggests an increased frailty among exposed men relative to their healthier peers compared to women is not straightforward to interpret. Overall, the scenario of women being less frail than men “is consistent with the widespread perspective that female buffering or female advantages in morbidity and mortality are biological norms for humans and other species”.39
25Evidence concerning the nutritional status of men and women in the periods under study furthers this interpretation. Bone chemistry addressing diet in the two Athenian cemeteries has shown that during adult life the diet of women, albeit somewhat poorer than that of men, was not deficient in terms of protein intake.40 Moreover, where analyzed isotopically the diet of infants and young children is found to be enriched in terms of protein in comparison to that of the adults.41 While isotopic analyses reveal temporal, regional and intra-site variations no evidence exists to support the widespread occurrence of a vegetarian diet nor of significant differences between the sexes.42 On the contrary, protein consumption in Athens during the three periods under study belongs to the highest known so far in the Eastern Mediterranean.43
26It is interesting that the paradoxical co-occurrence of high rates of anemia in contemporary populations with abundant iron bioavailability through diets rich in animal protein has been linked to the presence of high levels of viral and bacterial infections, parasitosis and gastrointestinal diseases in addition to possible nutritional deficiencies other than iron.44 Taken together therefore the evidence from the polis of Athens suggests that the disease environment, including sanitary conditions, feeding practices, hygiene and crowding played a more important role in the development of stressors during growth.
27This assessment helps us interpret further the high prevalence of cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis among men (and women)45 buried at the “poor status” cemetery as well as the increase of frequencies for both sexes in the Imperial Roman period. The evidence herby suggests that besides frailty reflecting “innate” biological differences, socioeconomic conditions extending to adulthood had a saying on the development of the lesion and the survivability of those exposed to stress during childhood. Interestingly, sex-related differences in survival and reproductive performance in reaction to early life stressors were observed in a study of an 18th and 19th century population from northern Germany.46 This study showed that early stressors related to infectious diseases did not affect female survival later in life; in contrast they influenced male survival. The only variable that was found to affect females was social status in terms of reproductive success.47 Noteworthy in this analysis survivability of offspring shaped by parental decisions was dependent on social class only until the first year of life ; later in development (2-15 years) survival was independent of social class.
6. Conclusions
28A rather complex picture of social inequalities in the polis of Athens emerges from the temporal comparison of the two cemeteries. The health status and the survivability of women exposed to stress in childhood appear to be less affected by social status and overall socioeconomic conditions than that of men. In contrast the survivability of men exposed to stressors during growth is much more strongly correlated with socioeconomic conditions. A greater proportion of men from the lower status cemetery in Athens are affected from stress during childhood than men of the upper strata.
29Temporal comparison offers a further refinement of this association showing that in the Imperial Roman period in Athens although conditions appear to worsen for both sexes than in the preceding eras it is principally the health status of elite men that is more heavily affected. The health status of the lower class cemetery does not change as noticeably in time. It follows than that the living standards of the elite declined from the Classical towards the Imperial Roman periods. Because this temporal shiftwas not as significant for the lower status cemetery, it appears that in the Imperial Roman times health differences among social strata diminish significantly. These results are corroborated by the analysis of stable isotopic signatures that address diet in the two Athenian cemeteries. Stable isotope analysis has shown that in the Imperial Roman period the diet was poorer in terms of protein inclusion compared to the Classical and the Hellenistic times and that this temporal shiftwas more noticeable by the upper classes.48
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Notes de bas de page
1 S.B. Pomeroy (Pomeroy 2002, p. 157-159) comments on how women have been neglected not only by ancient writers but also by modern mainstream ancient historians until the end of the 20th century.
2 According to S. Johnstone (Johnstone 1998, p. 222) Athenian legal speeches are silent about women and slaves because these “did not appear as agents in their own right, but only in relationship to the free men who were the subjects of the law’s stories.”
3 I. Morris (Morris 1998, p. 219) attributes this invisibility to “an unusually pervasive male citizen culture, which systematically undermined the formation of alternative value systems.”
4 W. Scheidel (Scheidel 1995) for example has argued that the stark division of labor between men and women forwarded by prescriptive literary sources cannot have accommodated the activities of middle-and lower-class women.
5 Women are often excluded from biomedical studies of health inequalities because of “lack of data”, or “a belief that health inequalities are a smaller problem for women than men,” or because “women are more difficult and controversial to classify by social class or by general standing in the community” (Vågerö 2000, p. 1286).
6 O. Murray (Murray 1991, p. 255) for example argues that “(polygamy apart) the position of Athenian women was in most important respects the same as that of the two hundred million women who today live under Islam.”
7 R. Garland’s (Garland 1990, p. 120) assertion is based on Xenophon’s (Lak. Pol. 1.3) contrast of Spartans’equal treatment of girls with most Greeks who bring up their daugters “on the least amount of food possible and with the most meagre amount of cooked fare.”
8 E. Cohen for example believes that the position of women was not as unfavorable as often assumed because women could participate to outdoor activities related to the economy of the household, to funerary practices, or [marginally to] court procedures, and, even the formation of „ intimate friendships” (Cohen 1989, p. 9).
9 Thus women (who never existed as “citizinesses”) were deprived from their most fundamental involvement in the life of the polis (Loraux 1993).
10 The study of human skeletal remains in their context (Buikstra 2006) provides an unparalleled in terms of inclusion avenue to past societies (Larsen 2006, p. 373 ; Steckel 2008).
11 Goodman et al. 1992.
12 For example various studies in Steckel, Rose 2002.
13 Goodman, Leatherman 1998.
14 Beckfield, Krieger 2009, p. 153.
15 Krieger 2003 ; Goldstein 2006, p. 377-379.
16 For example, graves of the 5th c BC have been attributed to ordinary people (Kübler 1976 ; Knigge 1976) although eminent graves in this period appear mostly in collective state tombs. Moreover, at the Kerameikos cemetery graves potentially of domestic slaves have been identified within prominent grave precincts of the 4th century BC (Kovacsovics 1990, 112), while grave precincts have also been excavated earlier from the broader region of the Plateia Kotzia cemetery (Zachariadou, Kyriakou 1993, 23) from which, nevertheless, no skeletal remains preserve today.
17 Knigge 1991 ; Stroszeck 2008.
18 Thucydides II 34, 5 ; Xenophon Hellenica II 4, 33 ; Pausanias I 29, 3, I 36, 3.
19 The effects of the underrepresentation of juveniles among the curated skeletal remains is discussed in Lagia 2007.
20 Karagiorga-Stathakopoulou 1988 ; Zachariadou, Kyriakou 1993.
21 Angel 1964 ; Angel 1966 ; Angel 1967 ; Stuart-Macadam 1987 ; Stuart-Macadam 1992 ; Ortner 2003.
22 Hershkovitz et al. 1997 ; Lagia, Eliopoulos, Manolis 2007.
23 Angel 1966 ; Kent, Weinberg, Stuart-Macadam 1992 ; Blom et al. 2005 ; Walker et al. 2009.
24 Buikstra, Ubelaker 1994, p. 121.
25 Lagia, Eliopoulos, Manolis 2007, p. 269-270.
26 Wapler, Crubézy, Schultz 2004.
27 Discussed in Lagia, Eliopoulos, Manolis 2007.
28 Ortner 1981.
29 Due to poor skeletal preservation in the cemeteries cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis are observable in less than 50 % of the available skeletons.
30 The adult age categories are based on Buikstra, Ubelaker 1994, p. 36.
31 Stuart-Macadam 1985.
32 Walker et al. 2009.
33 For an overview of this standpoint Goodman, Martin 2002, p. 27-30.
34 The occurrence of significantly higher frequencies of cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis among subadults and young adults has been noted in a number of studies including 1st-4th c. AD Ravenna and Rimini (Facchini, Rastelli, Brasili 2004) ; 2d c. AD Vallerano, Latium (Ricci et al. 1997) ; 1st-3d c. AD Lucus Feroniae and 7th c. AD Ischia di Castro (Salvadei, Ricci, Manzi 2001) and Late Antique and Early Medieval Croatia (Šlaus 2008).
35 Wood et al. 1992 ; DeWitte, Wood 2008 ; Armelagos et al. 2009.
36 For an extensive discussion on this issue DeWitte 2010.
37 Among many other sites, a trend of greater frequencies of cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis among women has been noted in 2d c. A. D. Vallerano (Ricci et al. 1997), in 1st-3d c. AD Lucus Feroniae (Salvadei 2001), and in two sites of the Late Antique and Early Medieval Croatia (Šlaus 2008). No differences between the sexes were noted in 1st-4th c. AD Ravenna and Rimini (Facchini, Rastelli, Brasili 2004).
38 DeWitte 2010.
39 DeWitte 2010, p. 292.
40 Kavadias, Lagia 2009, p. 82-83 ; Lagia in press.
41 For juveniles of the Imperial Roman period in Isola Sacra : Prowse et al. 2008 ; from diverse medieval sites in Greece : Garvie-Lok 2001 ; Bourbou, Richards 2007 ; a single case of an infant with an exceptionally low protein input from Athens : lagia in press.
42 Prowse et al. 2004 ; Prowse et al. 2005 ; Bourbou, Richards 2007 ; Craig et al. 2009 ; Vika 2011.
43 Kavvadias, Lagia 2009, fig. 21.
44 Jamieson, Kuhnlein 2008.
45 As seen in figure 4 both sexes in the “poor status” cemetery have elevated frequencies of anemic lesions compared with their counterparts in the high status cemetery ; this difference is nevertheless statistically significant for men only. Likewise both sexes have elevated rates in the Imperial Roman period (fig. 7).
46 Störmer 2011.
47 Women exposed to early stressors had a smaller proportion of surviving children while exposed mothers of lower social status tended to have more surviving daughters, Störmer 2011.
48 Lagia (in press).
Auteur
-
Anna Lagia
The University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
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