Body Size and Femur Length Authors: G. Maat, R.H. Steckel, C.S. Larsen, P.L. Walker, J. Blondiaux, G. Grupe, R. Jankauskas, G. McGlynn, A. Papathanasiou, C. Roberts, M. Teschler-Nicola, U. Wittwer-Backofen, A. Agnew, S. Assis, Z. Bereczki, B. Bertrand, T.K. Betsinger, S. Boulter, C. Bourbou, A. Boylston, M. Brickley, L. Bürli, C. Cooper, A. Coppa, J. Coughlan, A. Drozd, E. During, C. Eliopoulos, J. Eng, F. Engel, S. Fox, M. Furtado, G. Gerhards, K. Haebler, K. Harkins, P. Holck, M. Holst, G. Hotz, R. Ives, H. Justus, K. Kaminska, A. Kjellström, C.J. Knüsel, T. Kozlowski, A. Lagia, C. Lopes, S. Manolis, A. Marcsik, C. Marques, M. Melikian, C. Moenke, C. Niel, S.A. Novak, F. Novotny, J. Peck, I. Potiekhina, B. Rega, R. Richman, F. Rijpma, J. Rose, J. Ruiz, P. Sannen, P. Sciulli, M. Smith, A. Soficaru, M. Spannagl, R. Storm, E. Subirà, D. Swales, V. Tritsaroli, E. Tyler, S. Ulrich-Bochsler, S. Vatteoni, Nuria Villena-Mota, V. Villar, R. Wiggins, and L.L. Williams Acknowledgements Supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (BCS-0527658, SES-0138129, BCS-0117958). Special thanks to Kimberly Williams for her assistance in the development of this research, and Ohio State University for continued institutional and facilities support AAPA Symposium Reconstructing Health and Disease in Europe: The Early Middle Ages through the Industrial Period Methods Of course, we cannot observe stature directly from the skeleton but several studies establish that height is highly correlated with femur length. In the 1950s, Trotter and Gleser measured the femur lengths (and other long bones) of American troops who died and were buried with identification bracelets that enabled them to compare bone lengths with heights measured at enlistment. We use their equation to estimate average height, but some analyses are based on femur length alone. The codebook for the European project specifies that maximum femur length be coded to the nearest millimeter using an osteometric board. It is defined as the distance from the most superior point on the head of the femur to the most inferior point on the distal condyles. Obviously this requires a fused femur, which defines an adult in our procedures. Background Social scientists have long been developing and analyzing measures of social performance, a generic term that refers to well-being. Scholars have devised a large number of measures such as life expectancy at birth, income per person, and socioeconomic inequality. Most of these measures are available for no more than one or two centuries into the past, which considerably limits our understanding of the evolution of the human condition. Human biologists and medical anthropologists know that average stature is an excellent measure of net nutritional conditions in childhood. One may think of the body as a biological machine that consumes fuel (calories, protein, vitamins and so forth) in basal metabolism, work or physical activity and fighting infection or disease. Physical growth has a low priority under conditions of physiological stress, and persistent malnutrition leads to stunting by as much as 10 to 20 centimeters, depending upon duration and severity. Therefore average height is a useful measure of population health and well-being. Objectives We seek to measure average stature over time, across space, and by sex, to establish baseline patterns against which more recent evidence can be evaluated. We will test the null hypothesis that no differences existed over time, across space, or by sex. Ultimately we will draw comparisons with the Western Hemisphere database, which showed that physical growth was retarded in urban areas and in upland environments where food was relatively sparse. Figure 1 Variation by Sex and Time Period Whereas rates of cranial trauma were rising among men during the Middle Ages (see trauma poster), average stature of both men and women was declining (Fig. 1). The stature decline agrees with that reported by Steckel (2004; 2005) based on published studies. Possibly the two patterns are related in that socioeconomic stress could have contributed to both malnutrition and violence. Steckel suggests, and the project will investigate, whether the onset of the Little Ice Age in the late Middle Ages led to deteriorating diets. Other sources of stress may have emerged from the growth of interregional trade and urbanization, which both led to the spread of communicable disease. Regional Variation Various cross-country studies of height in modern Europe report a north-south gradient, with the Dutch and the Scandinavians being the tallest and the Mediterranean populations of Portugal, Spain and Greece the shortest (Schmidt et al. 1995). Interestingly, this pattern also existed a thousand years earlier (see Fig. 2), which may lead one to think genetic factors were involved. The Dutch, however, were relatively short in the mid-nineteenth century and are now the tallest in the world, which discounts the role of genes. The modern pattern is consistent with a north- south income gradient. Both measures of social performance are converging such that southern Europeans are growing faster and getting richer relative to the north. A millennium ago, however, southern Europe was richer than the north (Cameron and Neal, 2003). Quite possibly the trade and commerce that made southern Europe rich during the Middle Ages also led to the formation of inequality and the spread of disease that stunted growth. The project will investigate these ideas in future publications. Sexual Dimorphism Several studies of growth by human biologists report that women and girls are more resistant to deprivation than are men and boys (Eveleth and Tanner, 1976; 1990). As a result, the heights of men tend to rise relative to those of women if nutritional conditions improve. Although the pattern is a bit jagged, the data in Figure 4 confirm this relationship. As average stature declined during the Middle Ages, the heights of men fell faster than those of women, such that the ratio of their heights diminished. 140 150 160 170 180 Mean Height (cm) 35 40 45 50 55 Latitude Men Women Slope=0.34 Slope=0.12 Figure 2 Figure 3 Regional Variation, cont. It is well known that cities were less healthy than rural areas prior to the advent of public health measures in the late nineteenth century. Therefore it is unsurprising that heights of men and women were generally taller in the countryside compared with the cities (Fig. 3). Notably heights declined faster in rural than urban areas during the Middle Ages. Figure 4 Figure 1: Images from the codebook for the European project, indicating long bone measurements. Codebook available at http://global.sbs.ohio- state.edu/new_docs/Co debook-06-28-06.pdf Life in Venice in 1553 Rural life. From 'The Book of Hours' Flemish c. 1500. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.