Revisiting osteoarthritis in the Cis-Baikal: Understanding behavioralvariability and adaptation among middle Holocene foragers

International audienceThis examination of osteoarthritis (OA) focuses on better understanding behavioral variability among themiddle Holocene foragers of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia, particularly as it pertains to a unique period ofdiachronic cultural change in the region. The three cemetery populations considered lie on either side ofan 800e1000 year biocultural ‘hiatus’dcharacterized by a cessation in the use of formal cemeteriesdandare located in two of the Cis-Baikal's four main micro-regions. Two of the cemetery samples, Lokomotivand Shamanka II, represent the pre-hiatus early Neolithic (EN) Kitoi culture (8000e7000/6800 cal. BP),while the third, Ust'-Ida I, represents the post-hiatus late Neolithiceearly Bronze Age (LNeEBA) IsakovoeSerovoeGlazkovo (or ISG) cultural complex (6000/5800e4000 cal. BP). Results reveal a dynamicpattern of variability across both time and space. Of particular interest is an apparent dichotomy betweenthe two pre-hiatus EN sites, namely considerably higher OA severity at Lokomotiv compared to ShamankaII. This disparity suggests fundamental behavioral differences between the populations despitetheir contemporaneity and cultural continuity, possibly reflecting distinct residential mobility patternsand population densities in their respective micro-regions. In addition, intra-site analyses reveal thatactivity may have differed considerably between the sexes, whether in type, intensity, and/or duration.Male-dominated logistical foraging on both sides of the hiatus may explain, at least in part, these discrepancies.Finally, results of intra-joint component analyses of the elbow and knee were similar acrossage, sex, and cemetery groups, and largely consistent with those of epidemiological studies. Takentogether, these results add to our growing understanding of pre- and post-hiatus adaptive strategies inthe Cis-Baikal by providing a more detailed picture of the complex and highly variable behavioral andactivity patterns employed by the region's middle Holocene foragers