Workshop: Skeletal Biology, Health, and Economic Development, Ohio State University

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

This project organizes efforts to study patterns of human health in Europe over the past several millennia using skeletal remains, which are the most complete and useful source of information about the distant past, containing information on nutrition and physical growth during childhood as well as processes of degeneration associated with aging, including dental decay and degenerative joint disease. Health and nutrition were driving forces in social, political and economic change that ultimately contributed to the rise and fall of civilizations. Research on prehistoric and historic skeletons also advances understanding of various modern medical problems because numerous modern diseases evolved with humans, adapting to people living in proximity to one another and to animals in a wide variety of ecological environments. The workshop will bring 20 to 25 scholars to Ohio State University, including physical anthropologists, archaeologists, economists, climate historians and historians. They will plan a research agenda by first discussing details of preparing a large database that documents the long-term evolution of health in Europe. They will also formulate a plan for integrating and skeletal information with climatic, ecological, archaeological and historical data in the study of health patterns and their determinants. Europe is chosen as a starting point as it has the richest source of other historical information. These efforts will lead to submission of a large grant proposal that will provide funding to actually conduct the research. The research results will be distributed to the public through books, journal publications, conferences, and via the Internet.