Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2016

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Anthropology

Degree Program

Anthropology, MA

Committee Chair

Crespo, Fabian A.

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

DiBlasi, Philip J.

Committee Member

DiBlasi, Philip J.

Committee Member

DeWitte, Sharon N.

Author's Keywords

anthropology; bioarchaeology; osteology; Indian Knoll; systemic inflammation

Abstract

Indian Knoll is an Archaic shell midden site located in the Green River region of west-central Kentucky, and was excavated twice in the first half of the 20th century. While Indian Knoll has been the subject of frequent bioarchaeological studies, the present study presents an osteological analysis of the relationships between skeletal markers commonly associated with local inflammatory processes, and that have the potential to be used as proxies for systemic inflammation. The analysis revealed a significant positive association in the presence of periodontal disease (PD) and periosteal lesions (PL), suggesting a potential underlying hyper-inflammatory status or phenotype. These findings may indicate that different stress factors could have induced a shift in systemic inflammation. Significant positive associations were also observed between PD and age, and PL and age, which indicate an age effect. The present study also explored the associations between additional inflammatory lesions, and comparisons between age and sex.

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