White, S.D. orcid.org/0000-0003-0068-6439, Newman, S.L., Primeau, C. et al. (2 more authors) (2024) The impact of urbanization on growth patterns of non‐adults in medieval England. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 34 (6). e3347. ISSN 1047-482X
Abstract
Increasing urbanization seen during the medieval period (7th to 16th centuries) is associated with adverse living conditions that may have negatively impacted childhood growth via the influence of infectious diseases and nutritional deficiencies due to increasing population density and periodic food shortages. This study aims to compare the growth of non-adults (less than 12 years of age) from urban, proto-urban, and rural environments from medieval England to determine whether settlement type influenced child health, and by proxy overall population health, during this period. Tibial and femoral maximum diaphyseal lengths and dental age of non-adults (0–12 years) from urban St. Gregory's Priory (n = 60), urban York Barbican (n = 16), proto-urban Black Gate (n = 38), and rural Raunds (n = 30) were examined using z-scores. The results reveal that non-adults < 2 years from St. Gregory's Priory had the lowest growth values followed by Raunds, Black Gate, and York Barbican with the highest growth values. Further, non-adults 2–12 years from York Barbican had the lowest growth values followed by Raunds, Black Gate, and St. Gregory's Priory with the higher growth values. The femoral and tibial diaphyseal growth values are explored within the context of breastfeeding and weaning practices, stability of economies, and environmental conditions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | bioarchaeology; child health; femora diaphyseal length; growth; tibial diaphyseal length; urbanization |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 09 Sep 2024 15:15 |
Last Modified: | 25 Feb 2025 11:27 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/oa.3347 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:217011 |