Susan Pfeiffer
Biographic Data
| ID | 89237 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Susan Pfeiffer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Susan |
| FAMILY NAME | Pfeiffer |
| SIGNATURE | PFEIFFER S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cape Town |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0248-0530 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 60 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 858 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 59 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 16 |
Cultural Disruption Suggested by Dates of Late Holocene Burials, Southwestern Cape, South Africa
Radiocarbon dates (3500-900 BP) from human skeletons of late Holocene foragers from the Southwestern Cape coast are calibrated, incorporating estimates of the proportion of diet from marine sources using mixed calibration curves. As with Later Stone Age foragers throughout southern Africa, most were single burials without garb or objects. Cultural change may accompany the regional arrival of pastoralism, here benchmarked to a date for sheep bone …
Buffering new risks? Environmental, social and economic changes in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period
This paper evaluates risk-oriented frameworks for explaining environmental, social, and economic changes faced by fishing and herding communities in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period (AHP, 15–5 ka). The orbitally-forced AHP created moist conditions, high lake levels, and unusual hydrological connections across much of northern and eastern Africa. As arid conditions set in and rainfall decreased between 5.3 and 3.9 ka in …
Small body size phenotypes among Middle and Later Stone Age Southern Africans
Population movements of the Huron-Wendat viewed through strontium isotope analysis
Environmental isotopes can provide information about the composition of groups and the movement of people across landscapes. The archaeological record of Huron-Wendat communities in south-central Ontario is one of numerous drainage-based sequences of small villages among which families or larger population segments moved. These villages amalgamated in the early to mid-sixteenth century into fewer, larger communities. Strontium isotope values (87S…
Disease as a Factor in the African Archaeological Record
The people behind the samples: Biographical features of Past Hunter-Gatherers from KwaZulu-Natal who yielded aDNA
PURPOSE: Skeletons sampled for ancient human DNA analysis are sometimes complete enough to provide information about the lives of the people they represent. We focus on three Later Stone Age skeletons, ca. 2000 B.P., from coastal KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, whose ancient genomes have been sequenced (Schlebusch et al., 2017). METHODS: Bioarchaeological approaches are integrated with aDNA information. RESULTS: All skeletons are male. Dental develo…
Diet and adult age‐at‐death among mobile foragers: A synthesis of bioarcheological methods
Objectives The research explores whether the combined study of cortical bone histology, bone morphology, and dietary stable isotopes can expand insights into past human health and adaptations, particularly dietary sufficiency and life span. Materials and methods Midthoracic rib cortices from 54 South African Late Holocene adult skeletons (28 M, 24 F, two sex undetermined) are assessed by transmitted‐light microscopy for cross‐sectional area measu…
Use of backscattered scanning electron microscopy to quantify the bone tissues of mid‐thoracic human ribs
Objectives Novel information on apartheid health conditions may be obtained through the study of recent skeletal collections. Using a backscattered scanning electron microscopy (BSE‐SEM) approach, this study aims to produce bone quality and tissue mineralization data for an understudied South African population from the Western Cape province. Methods Using BSE‐SEM imaging, cortical porosity (Ct.Po), osteocyte lacunar density (Ot.Lc.Dn), and the d…
The bioarchaeology of mid-Holocene pastoralist cemeteries west of Lake Turkana, Kenya
Early herders in eastern Africa built elaborate megalithic cemeteries ~ 5000 BP overlooking what is now Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya. At least six 'pillar sites' were constructed during a time of rapid change: cattle, sheep, and goats were introduced to the basin as the lake was shrinking at the end of the African Humid Period. Cultural changes at this time include new lithic and ceramic technologies and the earliest monumentality in easter…
Southern Africans address human remains management
Regional Continuity and Local Challenges to Resilience among Holocene Hunter-Gatherers of the Greater Cape Floristic Region, South Africa
A juvenile with compromised osteogenesis provides insights into past hunter-gatherer lives
The Late Archaic in northeastern North America (4500-2800 B.P.) pre-dates reliance on pottery and domesticated plants. It is thought to reflect a highly mobile, seasonal migratory foraging/hunting regimen. A juvenile skeleton with pervasive bone wasting and fragile jaws from the Hind Site (AdHk-1), ca. 3000 B.P., southwestern Ontario, provides evidence of the social context of her family group, including aspects of mobility and food management. T…
Sex‐specific patterns in cortical and trabecular bone microstructure in the Kirsten Skeletal Collection, South Africa
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to provide bone histomorphometric reference data for South Africans of the Western Cape who likely dealt with health issues under the apartheid regime. METHODS: male = 131, mean = 47.9 ± 15.8 years) from the Kirsten Skeletal Collection, U. Stellenbosch, lived in the Cape Town metropole from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s. To study age-related changes in cortical and trabecular bone microstructure, photom…
Patterns of Weaning Among Ancestral Huron-Wendat Communities, Determined From Nitrogen Isotopes
Archaeological evidence of the ancestral Huron-Wendat Nation of Southern Ontario, Canada, shows a population increase from the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries, suggesting high fertility. Birth timing and infant survival are influenced by mothers' decisions about weaning. This study explores trophic enrichment of δ15N in horizontal dentine slices from 35 deciduous molars (n= 33 dm1,n= 2 dm2) and 39 permanent first molars (M1) representing f…
An exploration of interpersonal violence among Holocene foragers of Southern Africa
A common assertion that humans are inherently aggressive toward one another is based in part on interpretation of anthropological evidence, including observational reports of Khoesan immediate-return hunter-gatherers of southern Africa. Bioarchaeological evidence from 446 dated South African Cape Holocene skeletons representing Khoesan ancestors provides an opportunity to review approaches to interpersonal conflict over thousands of years. A synt…
Cortical bone histomorphology of known‐age skeletons from the K irsten collection, S tellenbosch university, S outh A frica
OBJECTIVES: Normal human bone tissue changes predictably as adults get older, but substantial variability in pattern and pace remains unexplained. Information is needed regarding the characteristics of histological variables across diverse human populations. METHODS: Undecalcified thin sections from mid-thoracic ribs of 213 skeletons (138 M, 75 F, 17-82 years, mean age 48 years), are used to explore the efficacy of an established age-at-death est…
Maize, Fish, and Deer: Investigating Dietary Staples among Ancestral Huron-Wendat Villages, as Documented from Tooth Samples
Following the entry of Zea mays to northeast North America, Northern Iroquoian populations expanded their numbers and range. Isotopic values from bone collagen have shown fluctuations in reliance on this dietary staple. With permission of the Huron-Wendat Nation of Wendake, Quebec, we measured δ13Cenamel, δ13Cdentine and δ15Ndentine from 167 permanent teeth, retained before reburial of their ancestral skeletons, and δ13Ccollagene and δ15Ncollagen…
Snake Hill: An Investigation of a Military Cemetery from the War Of 1812
Discernment of mortality risk associated with childbirth in archaeologically derived forager skeletons
An obstetric dilemma may have been a persistent characteristic of human evolution, in which the bipedal female's pelvis is barely large enough to accommodate the birth of a large-brained neonate. Evidence in the archaeological record for mortality risk associated with childbirth is rare, especially among highly mobile, immediate return hunter-gatherer populations. This research explores the idea that if excess mortality is associated with first p…
Fibrous dysplasia of the temporal bone: A case from the Glen Williams Ossuary, Ontario, Canada
Stable dietary isotopes and mtDNA from Woodland period southern Ontario people: Results from a tooth sampling protocol
Bioarchaeological research must balance scholarly commitment to the generation of new knowledge, descendants' interests in their collective past, and the now common practice of rapid re-interment of excavated human remains. This paper documents the first results of a negotiated protocol built on the retention of one tooth per archaeologically derived skeleton, teeth that can then be used for destructive testing associated with ancient DNA and sta…
Allometry of head and body size in holocene foragers of the south african cape
Opportunities to assess morphological allometry in small‐bodied human populations are rare. The foragers of the Later Stone Age of the South African Cape are characteristically small‐bodied. Previous studies have shown that during the period of ca. 3500 to 2000 years BP (uncalibrated 14 C dates), the regional population shows transient reduced stature, body mass, and cranial size, a pattern that has been tentatively tied to demographic pressure o…
Conditions for Evolution of Small Adult Body Size in Southern Africa
Discoveries from diverse locales indicate that early Homo was sometimes petite. Small body size among fossil forms is difficult to explain because its existence in modern human populations is not fully understood. The history, ethnography, genetics, and bioarchaeology of KhoeSan peoples of southern Africa are reviewed in the context of their small adult body size. Since the Middle Stone Age, at least some southern African foragers were petite. Th…
Cortical bone mass and geometry: Age, sex, and intraskeletal variation in nineteenth‐century Euro‐Canadians
Age change in bone strength is systemically controlled and homeostatic, but change in bone mass may vary with limb-specific mechanical environment, particularly in females. However, the distribution of within-individual divergence between femur and metacarpal values suggests that idiosyncratic factors, rather than age, have the strongest influence on intraskeletal divergence. Attempts to reconstruct skeletal ageing in past populations may benefit…
Pelvic stress injuries in a small-bodied forager
The assumption of natural selection for obstetric adequacy would predict the occasional discovery of skeletal evidence for inadequacy, yet such cases are rare. Here stress injuries to the pelvic ring are associated with an asymmetrical pelvis caused by partial agenesis of the right sacral costal process. The small, middle-aged woman lived about 2000 years ago and pursued a physically vigorous life as a coastal forager on the South African Cape co…
Linking structural variability in long bone diaphyses to habitual behaviors: Foragers from the southern African Later Stone Age and the Andaman Islands
The cross‐sectional distribution of cortical bone in long bone diaphyses is highly responsive to mechanical loading during life, yet the relationship between systemic and localized influences on skeletal structure remains unclear. This study investigates postcranial robustness throughout the body among adults from two groups of foragers with different patterns and modes of mobility, to determine whether there is evidence for upper vs. lower body …
Long bone robusticity and subsistence behaviour among Later Stone Age foragers of the forest and fynbos biomes of South Africa
Diet, Body Size, and Landscape Use among Holocene People in the Southern Cape, South Africa
Body size among Holocene foragers of the Cape Ecozone, southern Africa
Temporal and geographic variability in adult body size can be a useful indicator of a population's adaptation. The southern African Cape supported foraging populations exclusively until some pastoralism is seen, ca. 2000 BP. This paper describes and interprets body-size patterns among foragers, as deduced from maximum femoral lengths and femoral head diameters, using 127 individually dated adult skeletons from the western (70) and southern (57) r…
The Moatfield ossuary: Isotopic dietary analysis of an Iroquoian community, using dental tissue
Weaning age among foragers at Matjes river rock shelter, South Africa, from stable nitrogen and carbon isotope analyses
Matjes River Rock Shelter is a large shell midden on the southern coast of South Africa. Stable nitrogen (δ 15 N) and carbon (δ 13 C) isotope ratios were measured in bone collagen and dentine from human skeletons excavated from this site in order to establish a weaning curve in mid‐Holocene hunter‐gatherers. δ 15 N results show a progressive increase in individuals from birth to 1.5 years old. δ 13 C results are more tightly clustered and mirror …
Body size estimation of small‐bodied humans: Applicability of current methods
Body size (stature and mass) estimates are integral to understanding the lifeways of past populations.Body size estimation of an archaeological skeletal sample can be problematic when the body size or proportions of the population are distinctive. One such population is that of the Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA) of southern Africa, in which small stature (mean femoral length = 407 mm, n = 52) and narrow pelves (mean bi‐iliac breadth = 210 mm, n =…
Are the Biological Differences Between North American Indians and Eskimos Truly Profound? [and Comments and Reply]
A prevailing view in North American anthropology is that Eskimos are descendants of the most recent migrants from Siberia and are more closely related to Asiatic Mongoloids than to Indians. The assumption of Eskimo-Indian biological distinctiveness is challenged by genetic-marker and cranial data, analyzed separately and then compared, for populations from the Arctic, Subarctic, Northwest Coast, and Great Plains. Genetic distances and cluster ana…
Snake Hill: An Investigation of a Military Cemetery from the War Of 1812
Secondary osteon and Haversian canal dimensions as behavioral indicators
Variation in the size of structures within mature cortical bone is relevant to our understanding of apparent differences between human samples, and it is relevant to the development of histologically based age-estimation methods. It was proposed that variation may reflect effects of physical activity, through biomechanical and/or metabolic mechanisms. If these factors are local, femoral osteon area (On.Ar) should be more histologically variable t…
Bioarchaeological Evidence for the Basis of Small Adult Stature in Southern Africa: Growth, Mortality, and Small Stature
Natural selection for small adult body size may be directly linked to various factors that differ by global region. Indirect selection through early cessation of growth has been postulated for pygmy groups. Small adult body size was maintained throughout the Holocene by the ancestors of the KhoeSan groups, Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers who lived in the coastal and near-coastal regions of South Africa. Contextual information from 134 burials of…
Stable dietary isotopes and mtDNA from Woodland period southern Ontario people: Results from a tooth sampling protocol
Bioarchaeological research must balance scholarly commitment to the generation of new knowledge, descendants' interests in their collective past, and the now common practice of rapid re-interment of excavated human remains. This paper documents the first results of a negotiated protocol built on the retention of one tooth per archaeologically derived skeleton, teeth that can then be used for destructive testing associated with ancient DNA and sta…
Adult proportionality in small‐bodied foragers: A test of ecogeographic expectations
If predictable, ecogeographic patterning in body size and proportions of human populations can provide valuable information regarding human biology, adaptation to local environments, migration histories, and health, now and in the past. This paper evaluates the assumption that small‐bodied Later Stone Age (LSA) foragers of Southern Africa show the adult proportions that would be expected of warm‐adapted populations. Comparisons are also made with…
Rib lesions and New World tuberculosis
Tuberculosis had a devastating effect on many Amerindian populations at the time of European contact. Our explanation of its effect on prehistoric aboriginal populations is frustrated by the non-specific nature of the associated skeletal lesions and their variable manifestation. It has been suggested that certain lesions seen on the interior aspect of the ribs may be specific to tuberculosis. This proposition is explored within the context of two…
DNA from Complex Identified in North American, Pre-Columbian Human Skeletal Remains
Approaches to Estimating Marine Protein in Human Collagen for Radiocarbon Date Calibration
Determining the appropriate approach to calibrating radiocarbon dates is challenging when unknown and variable fractions of the carbon sample are derived from terrestrial and marine systems. Uncalibrated dates from a large number of human skeletons from Western Cape and Southern Cape locales, South Africa ( n = 187), can be used to explore alternate approaches to the marine carbon correction. The approach that estimates theoretically expected min…
F-81 skeleton from Wadi Mataha, Jordan, and its bearing on human variability in the Epipaleolithic of the Levant
The discovery of a Middle Epipaleolithic adult skeleton (F-81) at the site of Wadi Mataha in southern Jordan provides new insights into human variability in the Epipaleolithic of the Levant. This paper analyzes the skeletal morphology of Wadi Mataha F-81 in the context of other Epipaleolithic remains from Jordan and Israel to assess the current evidence for morphological variability throughout this period. The F-81 skeleton shares morphological f…
The bioarchaeology of mid-Holocene pastoralist cemeteries west of Lake Turkana, Kenya
Early herders in eastern Africa built elaborate megalithic cemeteries ~ 5000 BP overlooking what is now Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya. At least six 'pillar sites' were constructed during a time of rapid change: cattle, sheep, and goats were introduced to the basin as the lake was shrinking at the end of the African Humid Period. Cultural changes at this time include new lithic and ceramic technologies and the earliest monumentality in easter…
Conditions for Evolution of Small Adult Body Size in Southern Africa
Discoveries from diverse locales indicate that early Homo was sometimes petite. Small body size among fossil forms is difficult to explain because its existence in modern human populations is not fully understood. The history, ethnography, genetics, and bioarchaeology of KhoeSan peoples of southern Africa are reviewed in the context of their small adult body size. Since the Middle Stone Age, at least some southern African foragers were petite. Th…
Hunter-Gatherer Child Burials from the Pakhuis Mountains, Western Cape: Growth, Diet and Burial Practices in the Late Holocene
Paleopathology in an Iroquoian ossuary, with special reference to tuberculosis
Pathological skeletal remains from the Uxbridge Ossuary (1490 ± 80 A.D., N = 457) are classified into four broad categories: trauma, congenital disability, tumor, and infection. Traumatic injuries are relatively common (fractures in 5–9.4% of total), considering the date and subsistence pattern of the population. Congenital disabilities and tumors are rare, affecting approximately 2% of the population. Nonspecific periosteitis and osteitis affect…
Cortical bone formation and diet among protohistoric iroquoians
Two samples of protohistoric Iroquoians are found to show low values for bone formation indicators. Two southern Ontario ossuary samples, Kleinburg (1600 AD , N = 561) and Uxbridge (1490 ± 80 AD , N = 457) are examined. Mean values for the cortical index (Barnett and Nordin, 1960) and percent cortical area (Garn, 1970) are consistently below expected normal values. Some of the lowest values may reflect the presence of a disease state. Nevertheles…
Allometry of head and body size in holocene foragers of the south african cape
Opportunities to assess morphological allometry in small‐bodied human populations are rare. The foragers of the Later Stone Age of the South African Cape are characteristically small‐bodied. Previous studies have shown that during the period of ca. 3500 to 2000 years BP (uncalibrated 14 C dates), the regional population shows transient reduced stature, body mass, and cranial size, a pattern that has been tentatively tied to demographic pressure o…
Cranial Injuries to Later Stone Age Children from the Modder River Mouth, Western Cape Province, South Africa
S. Pfeiffer, N. J. van der Merwe, Cranial Injuries to Later Stone Age Children from the Modder River Mouth, Western Cape Province, South Africa, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 59, No. 180 (Dec., 2004), pp. 59-65
An ill child among mid‐Holocene foragers of Southern Africa
The skeletal remains of an infant from a southwest South African rock shelter at Byneskranskop show pervasive abnormalities that are consistent with the effects of hypertrophic (hyperplastic) rickets. Diagnostic features include beading of the costochondral junctions of the ribs, flaring and tilting of the metaphyses, and cupping of the distal ulna, as well as general skeletal hypertrophy. With an uncalibrated accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) …
Are the Biological Differences Between North American Indians and Eskimos Truly Profound? [and Comments and Reply]
A prevailing view in North American anthropology is that Eskimos are descendants of the most recent migrants from Siberia and are more closely related to Asiatic Mongoloids than to Indians. The assumption of Eskimo-Indian biological distinctiveness is challenged by genetic-marker and cranial data, analyzed separately and then compared, for populations from the Arctic, Subarctic, Northwest Coast, and Great Plains. Genetic distances and cluster ana…
The relationship of buccal pits to caries formation and tooth loss
It is demonstrated that in mandibular molars there is a statistically significant tendency for teeth with buccal pits to be lost premortem more frequently than teeth without buccal pits. The mandibles of a large ossuary population (ca. 1600 A.D. ) are examined with regard to buccal pitting, caries formation and premortem tooth loss. A log likelihood ratio test is used to test the relationship between age and frequency of buccal pits. A G‐value of…
Age changes in the external dimensions of adult bone
Humeri from a large, ossuary‐derived sample are used to demonstrate that considerable size variability is introduced to transverse skeletal measurements when young adults and older adults are pooled. Humeri from young adults (epiphyseal lines still visible, N ≈︁ 25) are smaller in transverse dimensions than those of older adults (N ≈︁ 300). Among left humeri, only shaft diameters demonstrate statistically significant differences. The right humeri…
Bone-Remodelling Age Estimates Compared With Estimates by Other Techniques
On the Use of Microstructural Bone for Age Determination
Cortical bone formation and diet among protohistoric iroquoians
Two samples of protohistoric Iroquoians are found to show low values for bone formation indicators. Two southern Ontario ossuary samples, Kleinburg (1600 AD , N = 561) and Uxbridge (1490 ± 80 AD , N = 457) are examined. Mean values for the cortical index (Barnett and Nordin, 1960) and percent cortical area (Garn, 1970) are consistently below expected normal values. Some of the lowest values may reflect the presence of a disease state. Nevertheles…
Paleopathology in an Iroquoian ossuary, with special reference to tuberculosis
Pathological skeletal remains from the Uxbridge Ossuary (1490 ± 80 A.D., N = 457) are classified into four broad categories: trauma, congenital disability, tumor, and infection. Traumatic injuries are relatively common (fractures in 5–9.4% of total), considering the date and subsistence pattern of the population. Congenital disabilities and tumors are rare, affecting approximately 2% of the population. Nonspecific periosteitis and osteitis affect…
Rib lesions and New World tuberculosis
Tuberculosis had a devastating effect on many Amerindian populations at the time of European contact. Our explanation of its effect on prehistoric aboriginal populations is frustrated by the non-specific nature of the associated skeletal lesions and their variable manifestation. It has been suggested that certain lesions seen on the interior aspect of the ribs may be specific to tuberculosis. This proposition is explored within the context of two…
Cortical hone age estimates from historically known adults
Adult skeletal remains from 19th century historic cemeteries were used to test the accuracy and precision of age estimations based on the cortical bone histological technique proposed by Thompson [6, 7]. Comparison of estimates made from anterior microscopic fields versus peripheral fields (N = 29 femora) indicates general age agreement, with 6/29 demonstrating marked differences between sampling locations. Three cases of unilateral trauma show n…
Cortical remodeling data are affected by sampling location
It has been argued that techniques for estimating adult ageat‐death from cortical histology are deleteriously affected by sampling location. This study uses nine complete femoral midshaft cross‐sections to test the effect of sampling site on measurement of a standard histological variable, percent remodeled bone. Circumferential periosteal fields from four anatomically defined locations (anterior, posterior, medial, lateral) and four mechanically…
A morphological and histological study of the human humerus from Border Cave
A morphological and histological study of the human humerus from Border Cave
Variability in osteon size in recent human populations
The possibility of smaller osteons in the cortical bone of Late Pleistocene human populations begs the question of how these histological features vary within individual skeletons among and between populations. The distributional characteristics of total osteon area (On.Ar) and Haversian canal area (H.Ar) are explored using data from three samples of historically known individuals: ribs and femora from eighteenth-century Huguenots in England (Spi…
Variability in osteon size in recent human populations
DNA from Complex Identified in North American, Pre-Columbian Human Skeletal Remains
An Infant Burial from Steenbokfontein Cave, West Coast, South Africa: Its Archaeological, Nutritional and Anatomical Context
Antonieta Jerardino, Judith Sealy, Susan Pfeiffer, An Infant Burial from Steenbokfontein Cave, West Coast, South Africa: Its Archaeological, Nutritional and Anatomical Context, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 55, No. 171 (Jun., 2000), pp. 44-48
Hunter-Gatherer Child Burials from the Pakhuis Mountains, Western Cape: Growth, Diet and Burial Practices in the Late Holocene
Maxillary sinusitis as an indicator of respiratory health in past populations
Chronic infectious respiratory disease in a past human population is investigated through the quantification of maxillary sinusitis among Iroquoian horticulturists. Three hundred forty-eight right and left maxillae of a Southern Ontario Iroquoian skeletal sample, Uxbridge Ossuary, ca. AD 1440, were examined for evidence of chronic infection (minimum number of individuals = 207: 114 adults, 22 adolescents, 38 juveniles and 33 infants). Modern clin…
Diet, Body Size, and Landscape Use among Holocene People in the Southern Cape, South Africa
Linking structural variability in long bone diaphyses to habitual behaviors: Foragers from the southern African Later Stone Age and the Andaman Islands
The cross‐sectional distribution of cortical bone in long bone diaphyses is highly responsive to mechanical loading during life, yet the relationship between systemic and localized influences on skeletal structure remains unclear. This study investigates postcranial robustness throughout the body among adults from two groups of foragers with different patterns and modes of mobility, to determine whether there is evidence for upper vs. lower body …
Bones of the Ancestors: The Archaeology and Osteobiography of the Moatfield Ossuary
The Moatfield ossuary: Isotopic dietary analysis of an Iroquoian community, using dental tissue
Cranial Injuries to Later Stone Age Children from the Modder River Mouth, Western Cape Province, South Africa
S. Pfeiffer, N. J. van der Merwe, Cranial Injuries to Later Stone Age Children from the Modder River Mouth, Western Cape Province, South Africa, The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 59, No. 180 (Dec., 2004), pp. 59-65
Postural Behaviour of Later Stone Age People in South Africa
Prehistoric human skeletal remains from Later Stone Age archaeological sites, South Africa, were examined for evidence of habitual use of a squatting posture during life. Bony facets that are believed to be associated with habitual squatting were identified on the tali and the proximal tibial condyles of adult bones. The sample (n=98 adults) was found to exhibit the highest frequency yet reported of the lateral F squatting facet on the talus. A h…
Long bone robusticity and subsistence behaviour among Later Stone Age foragers of the forest and fynbos biomes of South Africa
Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (46 works) · Geography (37 works) · Archaeology (36 works) · Biology (36 works) · Medicine (26 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (26 works) · Demography (21 works) · Anatomy (20 works) · Population (19 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (18 works)