Ana Maria Silva

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• PhD
• Associate Professor at University of Coimbra

Foot coalitions and bipartitions are developmental anatomical variants of the bones of the foot that can be of clinical relevance. The aim of the present study is to document the frequency of tarsal and metatarsal coalitions and bipartitions according to biological sex, age at death, co‐occurrence, and laterality in the Identified Skeletal Collecti...

This study presents a wide literature review of nonunion fractures in paleopathological contexts, including the description of a new case from Idanha‐a‐Velha (Castelo Branco, Portugal). Nonunion factures, characterized by the failure of broken bone fragments to reunite properly, are rare in the paleopathological record. This review aims to gather a...

The Iberian Peninsula, rich in archaeological and anthropological records, has experienced significant population migrations throughout history, including Celts, Romans, and Muslims. The city of Mérida, an important city during the Islamic period, experienced important transformations, especially after the fall of the Umayyad caliphate. In 2009, an...

Background Recent ancient DNA studies uncovering large-scale demographic events in Iberia have focused primarily on Spain, with limited reports for Portugal, a country located at the westernmost edge of continental Eurasia. Here, we introduce the largest collection of ancient Portuguese genomic datasets (n = 68) to date, spanning 5,000 years, from...

Los lascados dentales (chippings) corresponden a pequeñas fracturas del esmalte, que en algunas ocasiones también involucran a la dentina y que son resultado de puntos de sobrecarga de fuerza en los bordes del diente. Dichas fracturas han sido vinculadas a golpes, inclusiones de elementos duros procedentes de los alimentos, bien de la preparación d...

Data from dry bone samples, collected from anatomical or archaeological collections, can improve the knowledge regarding accessory foot bones, including prevalence, size, shape and laterality, that can be useful in disparate fields of research, from medicine to bioarcheology. In the present study, the prevalence of six accessory foot bones (os trig...

Dental caries is the most prevalent chronic infectious disease during childhood both in historical and contemporary times, but research focused on the oral health of non-adults from the past is still scant. As such, this study proposes a multidisciplinary approach to the differential diagnosis of severe dental lesions in a medieval non-adult skelet...

The analysis of ancient dental calculus (mineralized dental plaque) has provided crucial insights concerning the lifeways of past human populations. Despite its potential to preserve diverse micro-debris, entrapped non-dietary particles are rarely discussed considering their potential to enlighten the health of past communities. This study aims to...

Ancient DNA research in the past decade has revealed that European population structure changed dramatically in the prehistoric period (14,000–3000 years before present, YBP), reflecting the widespread introduction of Neolithic farmer and Bronze Age Steppe ancestries. However, little is known about how population structure changed from the historic...

The Megalitho da Capella (Figueira da Foz, Coimbra, Portugal) is one of at least 21 dolmens in a megalithic complex explored by António dos Santos Rocha between 1880 and 1909. Among the human remains from Megalitho da Capella is an incomplete and fragmented cranium. Santos Rocha interpreted a groove on the parietal bone as an incision of traumatic...

Western Eurasia witnessed several large-scale human migrations during the Holocene1–5. Here, to investigate the cross-continental effects of these migrations, we shotgun-sequenced 317 genomes—mainly from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods—from across northern and western Eurasia. These were imputed alongside published data to obtain diploid genot...

The analysis of entheseal changes requires knowing the biological profile of the sample analyzed, given that, mainly, the sex and age of the individuals influence the prevalence and degrees of the entheseal features. However, the bioarcheological record of several past populations presents isolated and commingled human bone remains, which constrain...

The sex profile estimation of pre-historic communities is often complicated by the commingled and scattered nature of skeletal assemblages. Demographic profiles are usually lacking and provide very truncated representations of these populations but proteomic analysis of sex-specific amelogenin peptides in tooth enamel brings new promise to these st...

Comparison among archaeological samples, using frequencies of dental morphological traits, allows us to develop hypotheses about the genetic history of an area. More accurate than the measurement of skulls or extrapolations from modem gene frequencies, often more feasible and simpler than studies of ancient DNA, the study of dental traits should be...

This protocol describes how to sample dental calculus from individual teeth for optical microscopy analysis. The primary use-case is for the analysis of dental micro-remains embedded in the matrix of the dental calculus (e.g. starches, phytoliths, pollens, fungi, fibers, etc.), though it can also be used for biomolecular analysis (DNA and proteomic...

Dental analysis in commingled remains is challenging. This work explores the limitations and potentials of dental paleopathological analysis in an osteoarcheological sample from a Medieval-Modern ossuary exhumed in Miranda-do-Corvo (Coimbra, Portugal). The effect of differential preservation between in-situ and loose teeth was explored to interpret...

Sendo uma das necrópoles islâmicas mais importantes de toda a Extremadura espanhola, a maqbara do “Cuartel de Artilleria Hernán Cortés (CAHC)” revelou cerca de 230 inumações, datadas entre os séculos VIII e IX. Foi analisada a morfologia da dentição permanente de 84 indivíduos, de acordo com a metodologia ASUDAS.

O presente estudo apresenta um caso de transmigração de um canino numa mandíbula proveniente de um ossário Medieval-Moderno (Miranda-do-Corvo, Coimbra). Identificou-se um canino esquerdo impactado na região dos incisivos, recorrendo-se à análise macroscópica e imagiologia. Este caso realça a importância da radiologia como ferramenta diagnóstica nos...

Anatomical variations of teeth are used to understand population interactions, migrations, and establish geographic or biological origins and affinities of ancient and recent human populations. As such, dental morphology is a good indicator of past population biological and cultural dynamics. Maxillary lateral incisor mesial bending, or "Etruscan U...

Ancient DNA research in the past decade has revealed that European population structure changed dramatically in the prehistoric period (14,000-3,000 years before present, YBP), reflecting the widespread introduction of Neolithic farmer and Bronze Age Steppe ancestries. However, little is known about how population structure changed in the historica...

Western Eurasia witnessed several large-scale human migrations during the Holocene. To investigate the cross-continental impacts we shotgun-sequenced 317 primarily Mesolithic and Neolithic genomes from across Northern and Western Eurasia. These were imputed alongside published data to obtain diploid genotypes from >1,600 ancient humans. Our analyse...

Non‐masticatory dental lesions (e.g., notching, interproximal grooving, polished surfaces, lingual tilting, and dental trauma) may help evaluate the impact that dietary, individual, or social‐cultural habits had on ancient populations. Thus, this study aims to describe and discuss possible causes for dental wear and trauma recorded in 1206 commingl...

Dental pathology can provide information not only on the diet of past populations but also on populational biocultural differences. This study aims to interpret dental pathology of the individuals exhumed from a medieval-modern rural ossuary located next to Torre Sineira of Alto do Calvário (Miranda do Corvo) in terms of the biocultural conditions...

Las caries son una de las condiciones orales más comunes. Según la organización de la Salud (OMS), afectan alrededor del 60 al 90% de los niños en edad escolar. El desarrollo de caries en la primera infancia (early childhood caries), se caracteriza por una carie rampante en dientes deciduos de niños menores de 71 meses, en regiones generalmente res...

Como qualquer cápsula temporal, o conjunto recuperado da gruta do Medronhal abre uma janela sobre o passado, um passado mal conhecido, muito distante, nem sempre compreendido e praticamente omisso das referências da actualidade. Ao longo deste livro procurou-se realçar a extrema importância desses achados nas suas diferentes expressões e dimensões...

Significance Subsistence shifts from hunting and gathering to agriculture over the last 12,000 y have impacted human culture, biology, and health. Although past human health cannot be assessed directly, adult stature variation and skeletal indicators of nonspecific stress can serve as proxies for health during growth and development. By integrating...

Introduction Identified skeletal and skull collections are centrepiece for research in biological anthropology. However, until recently, the same relevance has not been placed on dental cast collections. This perspective evolved, mainly, with the research on population variation and human identification through dental characteristics. While dental...

Brucellosis is a zoonosis caused by bacteria of the genus Brucella. Clinical studies describe osteoarticular complications as one of the most frequent symptoms. Additionally, brucellosis is related to life-threatening complications during pregnancy for both mother and child. This case study aims to present and discuss the osteological lesions obser...

Apresenta-se o primeiro e para já único contexto conhecido da I Idade do Ferro de Coimbra. Reporta-se a uma intervenção arqueológica de salvaguarda realizada no Largo de D. Dinis, em 2008. Neste local identificou-se um depósito estratigráfico pouco extenso, encerrando espólio cerâmico e restos ósseos humanos e faunísticos. Embora modesto e desgarra...

The recent discovery and archaeological excavation of two funerary structures located at Horta do Pinheiro 5 (south of Portugal) shed new light on the early times of the Southwestern Middle Bronze Age. These structures, a pit and a hypogeum, both associated with another pit, deepen our knowledge about the funerary rituals practiced at that time. Gr...

In this study, total mercury (THg) was analyzed in archaeological human bone from 23 sites dating to between the Middle Neolithic and the Antiquity. A total of 370 individuals from individual or collective burials were sampled, mostly using cortical bone from the humerus. These individuals were recovered from over 50 different funerary structures r...

Background Hansen’s disease (leprosy), widespread in medieval Europe, is today mainly prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions with around 200,000 new cases reported annually. Despite its long history and appearance in historical records, its origins and past dissemination patterns are still widely unknown. Applying ancient DNA approaches to i...

The Dolmen of Pedras Grandes (Odivelas, Lisboa, Portugal) was discovered and excavated at the end of the 19th century by Carlos Ribeiro. In 2004, this monument was re-excavated by Rui Boaventura and a complete study was conducted. The Dolmen of Pedras Grandes presents a polygonal chamber and a very short passage and may have had a short period of b...

To infer the diet and cultural behaviours of Islamic communities during the medieval period in Portugal, 43 adult skeletons (13 females, 27 males, and 3 individuals of undetermined sex) from the medieval Islamic necropolis of Santarém were analysed. A total of 779 teeth were macroscopically observed to score dental wear and dental alterations as en...

This article focuses on the study of the Early Iron Age necropolis of Esfola, taking into account the burial rituals of the site (the architecture, the funerary objects and the human skeletal analyses are dealt with in the context of ‘burial ritual’ studies). This research will contribute to the body of knowledge on Early Iron Age necropolises with...

The dolmen of Cabecinha in the region of Figueira da Foz (Coimbra, Portugal) was excavated at the end of the 19th century by António dos Santos Rocha. This tomb belongs to a Megalithic necropolis of c. 21 dolmens in Western-Central Portugal and was explored and published between 1880 and 1909. The aim of this contribution is to present the human bo...

The estimation of biological sex is a primary source of information regarding unidentified skeletal individuals in bioarcheological and forensic contexts. This study aims to propose new metric standards for the estimation of sex using variables of the calcaneus and talus. An ancillary goal encompasses the creation of a web-based decision support sy...

Stable isotope analysis is a tool widely used in the reconstruction of past human ways of life, as, for example, diet, migration, breastfeeding and weaning strategies, socioeconomic and biological restrains. Santarém was one of the most important medieval Portuguese cities and underwent structural and socioeconomic changes that may have potentially...

Mandibular traumatic injuries are rarely documented in bioanthropological literature. This study aims to present an antemortem mandibular fracture of an adult exhumed from a medieval-modern rural ossuary located next to Torre Sineira of Alto do Calvário (Miranda do Corvo, Portugal). The mandibular fragment, composed by the mental region and the lef...

Human culture, biology, and health were shaped dramatically by the onset of agriculture ~12,000 years before present (BP). Subsistence shifts from hunting and gathering to agriculture are hypothesized to have resulted in increased individual fitness and population growth as evidenced by archaeological and population genomic data alongside a simulta...

Objective This study describes the first evidence of a probable paleopathological case of leprosy from northern Portugal. Materials An adult male, skeleton 403, exhumed from the Christian cemetery associated with the church dedicated to Saint Mamede (Travanca, Santa Maria da Feira), dated from the 17th-19th century AD. Methods Standard bioarchaeo...

Two human lateral mandibular incisors exhibiting exceptional dental wear in the form of lingual surface grooves along the cementoenamel junction were recovered from the superficial levels of a pit grave attributed to the Bronze Age at the archaeological site of Monte do Vale do Ouro 2 (Ferreira do Alentejo, Beja, Portugal). Although a number of ana...

Between the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, António dos Santos Rocha excavated several prehistoric megalithic monuments in the region of Figueira da Foz (Portugal). Some of them revealed human bones, albeit very disturbed and fragmented, which ended up forgotten in the Municipal Museum of Santos Rocha (Figueira da Foz), as did...

A middle-age adult male from the Bronze Age necropolis Torre Velha 3 (Serpa, Portugal) shows an enlarged right femoral head (coxa magna) with severe osteoarthrosis, and compatible changes on the right acetabulum. Using macroscopic and X-ray analysis, we discuss its possible aetiology as Legg-Calvé-Perthes, slipped femoral capital epiphysis, congeni...

To access the role of mobility in the social trajectory of Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic societies in the South of Portugal (Southwest Iberia) a project was design to address the human, animal and object/raw material flow present at Perdigões enclosure. Perdigões, located in the inner Alentejo region, has a long chronology from Late Middle Neolit...

To access the role of mobility in the social trajectory of Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic societies in the South of Portugal (Southwest Iberia) a project was design to address the human, animal and object/raw material flow present at Perdigoes enclosure. Perdigoes, located in the inner Alentejo region, has a long chronology from Late Middle Neolit...

The dolmen of Carrascal (Sintra, Portugal) was discovered at the end of the 19th century. The human bones housed in the Museu dos Serviços Geológicos (Lisbon) were re-analysed in the scope of a research program that is investigating the past lifeways of Late Neolithic populations from the central and southern regions of Portugal. Recent fieldwork u...

A Necrópole de Alapraia (Cascais), datada do Neolítico final, é constituída por quatro grutas artificiais escavadas entre os anos de 1889 e 1943. Restos ósseos humanos foram recuperados das grutas II, III e IV. Este espólio acabou por ficar esquecido e depositado no Museu Condes de Castro Guimarães, em Cascais, sem nunca ter sido estudado de modo a...

Dental examination of 21 individuals (11 females, nine males and one undetermined sex) exhumed from the rock‐cut tombs of Torre Velha 3 (Serpa, Portugal), dating from the 2nd millennium BC, revealed dental wear features and oral lesions that can be linked to non‐masticatory activities and/or dietary habits. A total of 471 teeth were macroscopically...

We investigated mercury (Hg) in human bone from archaeological sites in the Iberian Peninsula where the cultural use of cinnabar (HgS) as a pigment, offering or preservative in burial practices has been documented from the 4th to 2nd millennia cal B.C. (Late Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age). Previous analyses have shown high levels of total me...

We assembled genome-wide data from 271 ancient Iberians, of whom 176 are from the largely unsampled period after 2000 BCE, thereby providing a high-resolution time transect of the Iberian Peninsula.We document high genetic substructure between northwestern and southeastern hunter-gatherers before the spread of farming.We reveal sporadic contacts be...

As grutas artificiais 1 e 2 de São Paulo (Almada) foram utilizadas como sepulcros colectivos durante os 4º e 3º milénios AC. Ainda que ambas se encontrassem destruídas, particularmente a gruta 1, a análise do espólio ósseo humano recuperado permitiu inferências relevantes sobre os indivíduos ali depositados, particularmente para a gruta 2.Na gruta...

Resumo: O acervo do monumento megalítico do Cabeço dos Moinhos, escavado por Santos Rocha nos anos 80 do séc. XIX, depositado no Museu Santos Rocha, foi por si publicado nos finais do séc. XIX (Santos Rocha, 1988). No âmbito do Projeto ENARDAS, desenvolvido entre 2011 e 2015, parte deste acervo, assim como a informação disponível sobre aspectos co...

Apesar dos hipogeus (ou grutas artificiais) serem explorados desde a década de 1870, é apenas da última década do século XX que um destes monumentos é pela primeira vez alvo de uma intervenção levada a cabo por arqueólogos e antropólogos-o Hipogeu de Monte Canelas I. Aqui, o tipo de registo efectuado permitiu realizar uma análise arqueotanatológi-c...

Entheseal changes (ECs), that is the visible appearance at the attachment sites of tendons to bones, have been widely used to infer activity in bioarchaeology. The majority of recent research on ECs, testing methodological approaches and the impact of age and occupation, has focussed on male lives. The primary reason for this is the wider range of...

Tomb I is a tholos type structure found in the prehistoric ditched enclosure of Perdigões (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal) and dated from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. The total MNI estimate was103: 55 adults and 48 non-adults. All age groups were present. Both sexes were represented with a slight predominance of female fragments over m...

Os contextos funerários até ao momento conhecidos nos Perdigões relativos à fase neolítica resumem−se ainda a apenas duas fossas (Fossas 7 e 11), já objecto de várias publicações (Valera 2008; Godinho 2008; Valera, Godinho 2009; Valera et al. 2014, Silva et al. 2015), a que se somam alguns restos humanos desarticulados depositados no interior de fo...

URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/81685

Partindo-se dos dados recolhidos no Hipogeu 2 do Monte do Carrascal 2 (Ferreira do Alentejo, Beja), um dos sepulcros colectivos sito nas imediações do grande sítio do Porto Torrão, procurou-se obter uma leitura biográfica do mesmo, abordando-se especificamente as questões relativas à construção, uso, reconfiguração, reutilização e abandono da estru...

New finds of bones of the Egyptian Mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon), one from Portugal and one from Spain, were directly ¹⁴C dated to the first century AD. While the Portuguese specimen was found without connection to the Chalcolithic occupation of the Pedra Furada cave where it was recovered, the Spanish find, collected in the city of Mérida, comes...

This paper describes a unilateral fusionof two mandibular teeth in an infant skeleton recoveredfrom the late Roman cemetery of Miroiço (Sintra,Portugal). Morphological and radiographic data wereused for the analysis and interpretation of this dentalanomaly. A brief review of the literature of present dayprimary dental fusion is presented. This repo...

There has been considerable progress in recent years in our understanding of the patterns of cortical bone loss in the second metacarpal in archeological skeletal samples. Nevertheless, cortical data from reference skeletal collections are insufficient and the possible connection of metacarpal cortical parameters with osteoporotic fractures has not...

A reference sample of dental and oral nonmetric traits should represent its biological population from which it stems. The presence of individuals born at different times, different regions, and separate countries in the Coimbra-identified cranial collections provides the test of whether this sample reflects the biological continuity of this Portug...

Nos anos 40 do século XX foram recolhidos, por mero acaso, diversos testemunhos arqueológicos na Gruta do Medronhal datáveis de inícios do I milénio a.C. Entre eles contam-se 37 artefactos metálicos (argolas, anéis, braceletes, etc.) a que se associam restos humanos e de animais. Serão apresentadas essas evidências, cujo estudo se encontra em prepa...

Bela Vista 5 is a double ditched enclosure near the town of Beringel (Beja, Portugal) from the second half of the 3rd millennium BCE. Eighty-four pits are associated with the enclosure. During archaeological works in 2012, 26 pits and sections of the ditches were excavated. The single pit found within the inner ditch contained the only funerary con...

Perdigões is located in the Alentejo region of southeastern Portugal, with occupational phases dating from the Late Middle Neolithic to Late Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age (middle 4th and 3rd millennium BCE) periods. It is a complex site that can be considered as a centre of social aggregation and a part of a larger settlement network. In this study...

In 2009, a pit burial dated to the Bronze Age was excavated in Monte do Gato de Cima 3 (Portugal). The purpose of this paper is to describe the pathological absence of the left mandibular condyle noted in an adult male skeleton and to discuss possible diagnoses, including subcondylar fracture, cystic defect, congenital absence, condylar aplasia and...

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/nature25738.

From around 2750 to 2500 BC, Bell Beaker pottery became widespread across western and central Europe, before it disappeared between 2200 and 1800 BC. The forces that propelled its expansion are a matter of long-standing debate, and there is support for both cultural diffusion and migration having a role in this process. Here we present genome-wide...

Osteoporosis is a metabolic bone disease with greater incidence in postmenopausal women and the elderly from both sexes in present-day populations. It is characterized by a decline of bone mass and strength, resulting in an increased risk of fracture. The main purpose of this article is to assess the epidemiological patterns of cortical bone loss f...

A osteoporose é uma patologia metabólica óssea com maior incidência nas mulheres pós-menopáusicas e nas camadas mais idosas das populações atuais. Caracte-riza-se pelo decréscimo da massa e da resis-tência ósseas, com aumento subsequente do risco de fratura. No presente trabalho, propõe-se, como objetivo principal, a com-preensão dos padrões epidem...

Os contextos funerários da Pré-história Recente do Alentejo têm vindo a ser estudados e debatidos com base em novos dados que têm surgido devido aos trabalhos de Arqueologia de salvamento, principalmente relativos à grande quantidade de estruturas negativas. É neste contexto que surge a escavação de duas fossas no sítio do Monte do Vale do Ouro 2 q...

In bioarchaeology, dental morphology centers on crown and root traits that are either present or absent and, when present, commonly exhibit a range of expression from slight to pronounced (e.g., shovel-shaped incisors, Carabelli's cusp). Twin and family studies show these variables are determined primarily by genetic factors. Numerous population st...

Agriculture frst reached the Iberian Peninsula around 5700 BCE. However, little is known about the genetic structure and changes of prehistoric populations in diferent geographic areas of Iberia. In our study, we focus on the maternal genetic makeup of the Neolithic (~ 5500–3000 BCE), Chalcolithic (~ 3000–2200 BCE) and Early Bronze Age (~ 2200–1500...