Patterns of Prehistoric Epidemiology and Human Paleopathology

Human paleopathologists are interested in the visible marks of diagnosable disease that reflect various aspects of human biocultural interaction. Whether infectious, nutritional, or a combination of both, pathological characteristics in the dry bone provide some insight into the health of past human populations. Paleoepidemiology and human paleopathology are important parts of ecology in that they deal directly with a major aspect of man\u27s relationship to his environment. The significance of this relationship has, to a large extent, been neglected by human skeletal biologists. The purpose of this study is to examine one of the most important aspects of human biocultural interaction: patterns of nutritional stress