Growing Up in Tell el-Amarna: An Examination of Growth and Non-specific Stress Indicators in New Kingdom Children.

The health status of the subadult skeletal remains from the South Tombs Cemetery at Tell el-Amarna were assessed by examining fluctuations in childhood growth and rates of skeletal indicators of physiological stress within a biocultural framework. The long bone standardization method outlined by Goode et al. (1993) was used to compare the South Tombs cemetery’s cross-sectional growth data to subadult samples from other cemeteries during which major social, political, and economic changes were taking place. The comparative subadult samples included the HK43 cemetery from Hierakonpolis (Egypt), the African American Cemetery from Cedar Grove (Arkansas), and the St. Martin’s Churchyard from Birmingham (United Kingdom). Incidences of skeletal stress markers (cribra orbitalia, linear enamel hypoplasias, and porotic hyperostosis) and diseases of malnutrition (scurvy and rickets) were examined to obtain a more holistic representation of the general health of the comparative populations. Result showed that the subadults from the South Tombs Cemetery were under tremendous childhood stress as evidenced by the reduced growth status and high rates of childhood stress indicators. Comparison of the biocultural models indicate that migration, population growth, and manufacturing were parallel factors contributing to the poor health and delayed growth seen in the South Tombs Cemetery and St. Martin’s Churchyard samples