L. Creighton Avery

McMaster University | McMaster · Department of Anthropology

Incremental analysis of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in tooth dentine is used to explore child and adolescent diet among individuals in the Late Roman Michelet Necropolis (Lisieux, France; 4‐5th centuries CE). We analysed 292 incremental sections from 46 second and third molars to explore dietary patterns between the ages of 4.5 and 23.5 yea...

Adolescence is a key phase of the life course in modern western society, yet the study of adolescence in past populations has only recently developed. In this paper, we explore patterns of biological and social changes during adolescence, some of the challenges associated with this type of research, and how bioarchaeologists can explore this transi...

Previous isotopic studies of Roman diet for individuals buried at Isola Sacra (first–fourth centuries C.E.; Italy) have focused on variation in adult diet or the critical stages of breastfeeding and weaning during infancy and childhood; however, little is known about the characteristics of diet when a child transitioned through adolescence to adult...

Gendered experiences are not static but are influenced by other aspects of identity. This study investigates the influence of interrelated aspects of identity on diet through an analysis of dental health at Late Roman Win-chester (fourth and fifth centuries A.D.), England. Specifically, we investigate the influence of age and social status on gende...

Adolescence is marked by a wide range of biological, social, and neurological changes. Adolescents are stereotypically viewed as reckless, impulsive, and troubled, but research across the social and biomedical sciences is demonstrating that this is a narrow view of a dynamic period of life. Now, research is showing that adolescents are frequently r...

Objectives Puberty is a period of rapid growth and development, and the age of onset and duration of puberty may serve as an indicator of developmental stress during childhood. In this study, we compare pubertal timing and tempo in individuals from two Roman Imperial cemetery sites, integrating biological and social factors to better understand pub...

Ancient writers tell us that in the Roman Empire, puberty took place between 12 and 20 years of age. However, literary sources can be heavily biased and often represent the attitudes and experiences of higher status individuals living within Rome, rather than the greater population of the Roman Empire. The current study goes beyond these literary s...

There is increasing awareness that human lives are multidimensional, and cannot be explained or understood through one facet of identity. Within bioarchaeology, however, studies tend to focus on inequalities of sex or social status independently, and rarely consider multiple aspects of identity concurrently. This research uses the feminist framewor...

There are no standards to determine social status in mortuary archaeology. Instead, researchers use a wide variety of methods to create divisions in the past. This poster examines methods used in five case studies, and applies them to the same cemetery (Lankhills, UK) to better understand how these methods affect our results.