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A. Tuggle 2018 Thesis.pdf (5.05 MB)

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A Historical Perspective on Skeletal Frailty in Medieval Poland: Evidence from an Early Piast Dynasty Site

Tuggle, Alexandra Christianne
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1524185537018568

Abstract Details

2018, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Anthropology.
In humans, stress and health are fundamentally intertwined. Recently, Marklein et al. (2016) proposed a skeletal frailty index (SFI) based upon clinical research methods. Such SFIs estimate somatic frailty by assessing acute and chronic skeletal lesions. My hypothesis is that skeletal frailty, as estimated using a SFI, differed by both age and sex at the medieval Polish site Kaldus (n=108). During the 10th to 13th centuries, Kaldus was a regional economic center of Poland with a population expressing a variety of religious and cultural practices. Relying on 11 biomarkers of frailty, this sample was analyzed for skeletal markers of lifetime stressors used to estimate skeletal frailty. All skeletons were assigned to an age group: 18-25 (n=21), 26-35 (n=31), 36-45 (n=31), and >45 (n=25). In the full sample, SFI averaged 4.13 (range 0-9). Among men (n=56), SFI averaged 4.45 (sd = 1.90; range 1-8); among women (n=52), it was 3.79 (sd = 2.03; range 0-9; p = 0.044). SFI was lowest in the youngest age group, 2.38 (sd = 1.83; range 0-6) and highest in the oldest, 5.48 (sd = 1.50; range 2-9; p < 0.001). In these medieval skeletons, an 11-biomarker SFI shows a significant difference between those ascribed as male or female. Additionally, frailty differs significantly by age. Skeletal frailty as estimated from biomarkers of skeletal stress suggests these individuals were exposed to a harsh environmental setting during their lives.
Douglas Crews, PhD (Advisor)
Mark Hubbe, PhD (Committee Member)
Sam Stout, PhD (Committee Member)
76 p.
Archaeology; Medieval History
stress; health; Kaldus

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Citations

  • Tuggle, A. C. (2018). A Historical Perspective on Skeletal Frailty in Medieval Poland: Evidence from an Early Piast Dynasty Site [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1524185537018568

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Tuggle, Alexandra. A Historical Perspective on Skeletal Frailty in Medieval Poland: Evidence from an Early Piast Dynasty Site. 2018. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1524185537018568.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Tuggle, Alexandra. "A Historical Perspective on Skeletal Frailty in Medieval Poland: Evidence from an Early Piast Dynasty Site." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1524185537018568

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1524185537018568
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.