Osteological Analysis of Heel Spurs and Subtalar Variation in Prehistoric Populations

史前人群足跟骨刺和距下变异的骨学分析

• 批准号: 9911273
• 负责人: Jan Bruckner
• 金额: $ 0.64万
• 依托单位: Thomas Jefferson University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-03-01 至 2001-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9911273&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Osteological; Analysis; Heel; Spurs; Subtalar

This project examines heel spurs and subtalar joint (STJ) variations as a new way of interpreting the lives of people in the past. The objectives are: 1) to establish the association of heel spurs with occupational stress, age, and STJ configurations; and 2) to demonstrate that spur patterns reflect habitual activities and can be used to distinguish prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups from agriculturalists. In previous work from Illinois sites, Middle Woodland hunters and gatherers had fewer heel spurs than their agriculturalist descendants of the Late Woodland-Mississippian Period. In the Middle Woodland sample, age was a factor: older individuals had heel spurs and younger people did not. In the Late Woodland-Mississippian sample, the combination of age and STJ configurations that restricted joint motion ("rigid STJ configurations") was associated with heel spurs. Aged individuals with rigid STJ configurations had a higher incidence of heel spurs while aged individuals with mobile STJ configurations did not. A second area of investigation is spur patterns. In the Middle Woodland sample, spurs tended to be bilaterally symmetric reflecting the bilaterally symmetric activities of hunters and gatherers. In the Late Woodland-Mississippian sample, spur patterns were asymmetric reflecting the asymmetric activities that agriculturalists engage in when using hand tools. The researcher will analyze STJ configurations and heel spurs of the collections of the Alabama Museum of Natural History, including the remains of 1500 individuals from the Mississippian site of Moundville and approximately 1500 individuals from the Perry site's Archaic and Mississippian periods. The potential impact of this project is the development of a new way to assess occupational stress and to distinguish prehistoric samples of hunter-gatherer populations from agriculturalist populations by examining tarsal bones.

这个项目研究了脚跟马刺和距下关节（STJ）的变化，作为一种新的方式来解释过去人们的生活。目标是：1）建立脚跟骨刺与职业压力，年龄和STJ配置的关联; 2）证明骨刺模式反映了习惯性活动，并可用于区分史前狩猎采集群体和农业家。 在伊利诺伊州遗址的先前研究中，中部林地的猎人和采集者比他们在林地-密西西比晚期的农业后裔有更少的脚跟马刺。在中部林地样本中，年龄是一个因素：老年人有脚跟马刺，年轻人没有。在伍德兰-密西西比晚期样本中，年龄和限制关节运动的STJ构型（“刚性STJ构型”）的组合与足跟骨刺有关。具有刚性STJ构型的老年个体具有较高的足跟骨刺发生率，而具有移动的STJ构型的老年个体则没有。研究的第二个领域是毛刺图案。在中部林地样本中，马刺往往是双边对称的，反映了猎人和采集者的双边对称活动。在晚期林地密西西比样本，马刺模式是不对称的，反映了不对称的活动，农业从事时，使用手工工具。研究人员将分析STJ配置和脚跟马刺的亚拉巴马自然历史博物馆的收藏品，包括1500个人的遗体从密西西比网站的蒙德维尔和大约1500个人从佩里网站的史前和密西西比时期。该项目的潜在影响是开发了一种新的方法来评估职业压力，并通过检查跗骨来区分狩猎采集人口和农业人口的史前样本。