Susan Pfeiffer

University of Toronto | U of T · Department of Anthropology

It is clear from their natural histories that various kinds of diseases would have affected African communities in the distant past. Climatic factors may have reduced the impact of plague-like epidemics across much of the continent. Because of the link between environment and disease vectors, the presence of a disease may have been a stimulus for s...

This paper evaluates risk-oriented frameworks for explaining environmental, social, and economic changes faced by fishing and herding communities in the Turkana Basin during and after the African Humid Period (AHP, 15–5 ka). The orbitally-forced AHP created moist conditions, high lake levels, and unusual hydrological connections across much of nort...

This chapter focuses on a particularly evocative and informative burial from Late Archaic times. The ecological and climatic features managed by successful hunter-gatherers of this time are described. The focal burial, dated to about 2000 years ago, is of a child, probably a girl, whose bones are very fragile. It is unlikely that she ever walked; h...

Modern humans originated between 300 and 200 ka in structured populations throughout Africa, characterized by regional interaction and diversity. Acknowledgment of this complex Pleistocene population structure raises new questions about the emergence of phenotypic diversity. Holocene Southern African Later Stone Age (LSA) skeletons and descendant K...

Environmental isotopes can provide information about the composition of groups and the movement of people across landscapes. The archaeological record of Huron-Wendat communities in south-central Ontario is one of numerous drainage-based sequences of small villages among which families or larger population segments moved. These villages amalgamated...

It is clear from their natural histories that various kinds of diseases would have affected African communities in the distant past. Climatic factors may have reduced the impact of plague-like epidemics across much of the continent. Because of the link between environment and disease vectors, the presence of a disease may have been a stimulus for s...

Over several decades, human skeletal remains from at least twelve individuals (males, females, children and infants) were recovered from a small area (ca. 10 x 10 m) on the eastern shore of Table Bay, Cape Town, near the mouth of the Diep River where it empties into the sea. Two groups, each comprising four individuals, appear to have been buried i...

Early herders in eastern Africa built elaborate megalithic cemeteries ~ 5000 BP overlooking what is now Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya. At least six ‘pillar sites’ were constructed during a time of rapid change: cattle, sheep, and goats were introduced to the basin as the lake was shrinking at the end of the African Humid Period. Cultural chang...

Objectives: The research explores whether the combined study of cortical bone histology, bone morphology, and dietary stable isotopes can expand insights into past human health and adaptations, particularly dietary sufficiency and life span. Materials and methods: Midthoracic rib cortices from 54 South African Late Holocene adult skeletons (28 M...

Abstract Purpose Skeletons sampled for ancient human DNA analysis are sometimes complete enough to provide information about the lives of the people they represent. We focus on three Later Stone Age skeletons, ca. 2000 B.P., from coastal KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, whose ancient genomes have been sequenced (Schlebusch et al., 2017). Methods Bioar...

Objectives Novel information on apartheid health conditions may be obtained through the study of recent skeletal collections. Using a backscattered scanning electron microscopy (BSE‐SEM) approach, this study aims to produce bone quality and tissue mineralization data for an understudied South African population from the Western Cape province. Meth...

Significance Archaeologists have long sought monumental architecture’s origins among societies that were becoming populous, sedentary, and territorial. In sub-Saharan Africa, however, dispersed pastoralists pioneered monumental construction. Eastern Africa’s earliest monumental site was built by the region’s first herders ∼5,000–4,300 y ago as the...

The Late Archaic in northeastern North America (4500-2800 B.P.) pre-dates reliance on pottery and domesticated plants. It is thought to reflect a highly mobile, seasonal migratory foraging/hunting regimen. A juvenile skeleton with pervasive bone wasting and fragile jaws from the Hind Site (AdHk-1), ca. 3000 B.P., southwestern Ontario, provides evid...

Holocene Southern African Later Stone Age (LSA) skeletons and their contemporary descendants, the KhoeSan peoples of southern Africa, have small adult body sizes and gracile builds. Genetic analyses indicate that contemporary KhoeSan groups diverged from non-Khoesan groups approximately 110-160 kya, during the Middle Stone Age (MSA). The most diver...

Southern African Later Stone Age (LSA) individuals and their contemporary descendants, the KhoeSan peoples of southern Africa, have small adult body sizes and gracile builds [1]. These unique proportions are documented from historic times through to the early Holocene [1]. Genetic analyses of contemporary KhoeSan groups in southern African indicate...

Well-preserved skeletal remains of a forager child from the SW Ontario Late Archaic Hind Site (AdHk- 1; ca. 3000 BP) document prolonged survival with a debilitating condition: a unique case of chronic physical impairment in a mobile, foraging group. Pervasive gracility, characterized by a diffuse reduction in osseous density involving both the axia...

Archaeological evidence of the ancestral Huron-Wendat Nation of Southern Ontario, Canada, shows a population increase from the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries, suggesting high fertility. Birth timing and infant survival are influenced by mothers' decisions about weaning. This study explores trophic enrichment of δ ¹⁵ N in horizontal dentine...

The skeletal remains of a forager child (about 14.5 to 16.5 years old and probable female) from the Late Archaic Hind Site (AdHk-1; ca. 3000 BP) of Southwestern Ontario indicate prolonged survival with a debilitating pathological condition. Pervasive gracility characterized by a diffuse reduction in osseous density involving both the axial and appe...

Following the entry of Zea mays to northeast North America, Northern Iroquoian populations expanded their numbers and range. Isotopic values from bone collagen have shown fluctuations in reliance on this dietary staple. With permission of the Huron-Wendat Nation of Wendake, Quebec, we measured δ¹³Cenamel, δ¹³Cdentine and δ¹⁵Ndentine from 167 perman...

Following the entry of Zea mays to northeast North America, Northern Iroquoian populations expanded their numbers and range. Isotopic values from bone collagen have shown fluctuations in reliance on this dietary staple. With permission of the Huron-Wendat Nation of Wendake, Quebec, we measured δ ¹³ C enamel , δ ¹³ C dentine and δ ¹⁵ N dentine from...

A common assertion that humans are inherently aggressive toward one another is based in part on interpretation of anthropological evidence, including observational reports of Khoesan immediate-return hunter-gatherers of southern Africa. Bioarchaeological evidence from 446 dated South African Cape Holocene skeletons representing Khoesan ancestors pr...

The juvenile period is a time of increased risk within the lifespan, where dietary transitions, susceptibility to infectious disease, and increasing self-reliance are features of “normal” childhood. Burials of children allow for investigation of the experience of child “health” through lesions in bones and teeth, and may be interpreted as a signal...

Objectives: Normal human bone tissue changes predictably as adults get older, but substantial variability in pattern and pace remains unexplained. Information is needed regarding the characteristics of histological variables across diverse human populations. Methods: Undecalcified thin sections from mid-thoracic ribs of 213 skeletons (138 M, 75...

This report describes an approximately 2000-year-old pre-colonial burial (SAM-AP 6383) recovered from a construction site in Bloubergstrand on the CapeWest Coast. A number of decorative items were associated with the burial and this is considered unusual forWest Coast burials. Although disturbed prior to recovery, the majority of the skeleton was p...

This study explores pleural rib lesions seen on a skeletonized cadaver collection from the apartheid era, Western Cape, South Africa: the Kirsten Collection of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Stellenbosch. The collection includes a high proportion of “coloured” individuals (mixed ancestry, predominantly Khoesan) (59% Coloured, 24% Bl...

An obstetric dilemma may have been a persistent characteristic of human evolution, in which the bipedal female's pelvis is barely large enough to accommodate the birth of a large-brained neonate. Evidence in the archaeological record for mortality risk associated with childbirth is rare, especially among highly mobile, immediate return hunter-gathe...

Diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry can be used to infer activity patterns in archaeological populations. We examined the cross-sectional geometric (CSG) properties of adult Later Stone Age (LSA) herder-forager long bones from the inland lower Orange River Valley of South Africa (n=5 m, 13 f). We then compared their CSG properties to LSA forager ad...

Diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry can be used to infer activity patterns in archaeological populations. This study examines the cross-sectional geometric (CSG) properties of adult Later Stone Age (LSA) herder-forager long bones from the inland lower Orange River Valley of South Africa (n=5 m, 13 f), and compares their CSG properties to LSA forage...

Bioarchaeological research must balance scholarly commitment to the generation of new knowledge, descendants' interests in their collective past, and the now common practice of rapid re-interment of excavated human remains. This paper documents the first results of a negotiated protocol built on the retention of one tooth per archaeologically deriv...

This case is an example of fibrous dysplasia (FD) of bone in an adult male cranium. The Glen Williams Ossuary is a commingled sample composed of a minimum of 309 individuals from southern Ontario, Canada, dating to the 14th century, A.D., just prior to European contact. The site represents the outcome of a Feast of the Dead, a defining ceremony amo...

Diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry can be used to infer activity patterns in archaeological populations. This study examines the cross-sectional geometric (CSG) properties of adult Later Stone Age (LSA) herder-forager humeri and femora from the inland lower Orange River Valley of South Africa (n=5m, 13f), and compares their CSG properties to LSA f...

Discoveries from diverse locales indicate that early Homo was sometimes petite. Small body size among fossil forms is difficult to explain because its existence in modern human populations is not fully understood. The history, ethnography, genetics, and bioarchaeology of KhoeSan peoples of southern Africa are reviewed in the context of their small...

This case provides an example of fibrous dysplasia (FD) of bone in an adult male cranium from the Glen Williams Ossuary (GWO). Despite recognizable features that persist in the post-mortem environment, FD has not been a focus for paleopathologists. At this time only six cases of FD have been documented in the bioarchaeological/paleopathological lit...

Opportunities to assess morphological allometry in small-bodied human populations are rare. The foragers of the Later Stone Age of the South African Cape are characteristically small-bodied. Previous studies have shown that during the period of ca. 3500 to 2000 years BP (uncalibrated (14) C dates), the regional population shows transient reduced st...

The assumption of natural selection for obstetric adequacy would predict the occasional discovery of skeletal evidence for inadequacy, yet such cases are rare. Here stress injuries to the pelvic ring are associated with an asymmetrical pelvis caused by partial agenesis of the right sacral costal process. The small, middle-aged woman lived about 200...

This study seeks to understand the interaction of cortical bone strength and mass within individuals and across age-groups in male and female adults from a relatively active, long-lived nineteenth-century Euro-Canadian population. Strength and relative cortical area are measured in paired femora (weight-bearing elements) and metacarpals (manipulati...

Natural selection for small adult body size may be directly linked to various factors that differ by global region. Indirect selection through early cessation of growth has been postulated for pygmy groups. Small adult body size was maintained throughout the Holocene by the ancestors of the KhoeSan groups, Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers who lived...

Determining the appropriate approach to calibrating radiocarbon dates is challenging when unknown and variable fractions of the carbon sample are derived from terrestrial and marine systems. Uncalibrated dates from a large number of human skeletons from Western Cape and Southern Cape locales, South Africa (n = 187), can be used to explore alternate...

Body size (stature and mass) estimates are integral to understanding the lifeways of past populations.Body size estimation of an archaeological skeletal sample can be problematic when the body size or proportions of the population are distinctive. One such population is that of the Holocene Later Stone Age (LSA) of southern Africa, in which small s...

Estimates of age at death that are both accurate and precise can provide information about the patterns and causes of premature mortality in both Later Stone Age and Iron Age archaeology. Assuming a link between subsistence and health, differences in patterns of childhood growth are hypothesized. The best source of this information comes from the f...

If predictable, ecogeographic patterning in body size and proportions of human populations can provide valuable information regarding human biology, adaptation to local environments, migration histories, and health, now and in the past. This paper evaluates the assumption that small-bodied Later Stone Age (LSA) foragers of Southern Africa show the...

AbstrAct the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of human bone collagen have been used to determine the diet of a sample of United states soldiers who died during the siege of Fort Erie in the War of 1812. controls were enacted during the analysis to discriminate between well-preserved and contaminated bone. results from a sample of 15 indi-v...

Variation in the size of structures within mature cortical bone is relevant to our understanding of apparent differences between human samples, and it is relevant to the development of histologically based age-estimation methods. It was proposed that variation may reflect effects of physical activity, through biomechanical and/or metabolic mechanis...

Matjes River Rock Shelter is a large shell midden on the southern coast of South Africa. Stable nitrogen (delta(15)N) and carbon (delta(13)C) isotope ratios were measured in bone collagen and dentine from human skeletons excavated from this site in order to establish a weaning curve in mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers. delta(15)N results show a progre...

Temporal and geographic variability in adult body size can be a useful indicator of a population's adaptation. The southern African Cape supported foraging populations exclusively until some pastoralism is seen, ca. 2000 BP. This paper describes and interprets body-size patterns among foragers, as deduced from maximum femoral lengths and femoral he...

The discovery of a Middle Epipaleolithic adult skeleton (F-81) at the site of Wadi Mataha in southern Jordan provides new insights into human variability in the Epipaleolithic of the Levant. This paper analyzes the skeletal morphology of Wadi Mataha F-81 in the context of other Epipaleolithic remains from Jordan and Israel to assess the current evi...

Prehistoric human skeletal remains from Later Stone Age archaeological sites, South Africa, were examined for evidence of habitual use of a squatting posture during life. Bony facets that are believed to be associated with habitual squatting were identified on the tali and the proximal tibial condyles of adult bones. The sample (n=98 adults) was fo...

The location of a burial of three juvenile skeletons, discovered in 1980 and dated to about 2600 BP, was confirmed through guidance from the discoverers. The site was near the mouth of the Modder River, Malmesbury District, Western Cape, South Africa. Skeletal ages at death are approximately 1-1.5, 6-7 and 12-13 years, based on dental and skeletal...

The robusticity of human long bone diaphyses can provide information about habitual behaviour among humans in the past. Mechanically relevant morphological variables include the strength of the diaphysis relative to body size, asymmetry between antimeres, diaphyseal shape, and sexual dimorphism in mechanical properties. This study compares the long...

The skeletal remains of an infant from a southwest South African rock shelter at Byneskranskop show pervasive abnormalities that are consistent with the effects of hypertrophic (hyperplastic) rickets. Diagnostic features include beading of the costochondral junctions of the ribs, flaring and tilting of the metaphyses, and cupping of the distal ulna...

The Moatfield ossuary (AkGv-65) was discovered in North York, Ontario, in 1997. Archaeological Services Inc. was contracted to exhume and then re-bury the human remains. Located on the periphery of a Late Woodland Iroquoian village, the ossuary included 87 people, 58 of them adults. First Nations authorities allowed the analysis of one tooth per pe...

The cross-sectional distribution of cortical bone in long bone diaphyses is highly responsive to mechanical loading during life, yet the relationship between systemic and localized influences on skeletal structure remains unclear. This study investigates postcranial robustness throughout the body among adults from two groups of foragers with differ...

Researchers in archaeological bone chemistry have suggested that the histological preservation of bone may mirror the preservation of its organic framework, comprised primarily of collagen. Such a relationship may provide a criterion for sample selection prior to chemical analysis. This proposed relationship was explored using a study sample compri...

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Excavations at Steenbokfontein Cave revealed a burial hollow containing the naturally desiccated partial body of an infant who died during the first few weeks after birth. The cause of death was not apparent. There were no grave goods, nor were there any notable features of the grave other than a wad of grass that had been used to cover the body. T...

Few human skeletons have been recovered from the Fold Mountain Belt region of the Western Cape. This paper reports on the rescue excavations of three juvenile hunter-gatherer skeletons from the Clanwilliam district. Two individuals were interred in an unusual double burial, dated to 2145 ± 50 BP. After study, these remains were returned to the cave...

Chronic infectious respiratory disease in a past human population is investigated through the quantification of maxillary sinusitis among Iroquoian horticulturists. Three hundred forty-eight right and left maxillae of a Southern Ontario Iroquoian skeletal sample, Uxbridge Ossuary, ca. AD 1440, were examined for evidence of chronic infection (minimu...

This paper summarizes indigenous mining methods used to collect metal ores in pre-colonial southern Africa, south of 15°S. These methods, for the purposes of discussion, are divided into sections in order of increasing organizational complexity, from scavenging, which only required basic equipment and a relatively minimal division of labour, to und...

The discovery and analysis of two human skeletons from the southwestern Cape of South Africa are described. Buried together at Melkbosstrand about 2500 years ago, they are people from the period of hunting and gathering known as the Later Stone Age. A juvenile and a middle-aged woman, both show signs of having died from violent blows delivered to t...

Determining age at death of fragmentary, skeletonized human remains can be difficult. We report on an investigation of the efficacy of published methods using bone histology as a predictor of age at death, applying them to a genetically diverse recent human sample. Two histological methods (Stout, 1986; Stout and Paine, 1992) were tested on samples...