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Assessing Maternal and Infant health through stable isotope analysis of auditory ossicles’.
Naomi Kilburn, University of Durham
The first 1000 days of life are a crucial period of developmental plasticity for humans.
Stressors experienced during this phase, including in utero exposures, impact the health and well-being of individuals, both throughout their own lifespan and across future generations.
My doctoral research investigates the isotopic analysis of human auditory ossicles as a means of accessing health information for this critical stage of life.
Although all human tissues can be used for isotopic analyses, bone and teeth are the most often sampled in archaeology. Because of differences in the formation and physiology of bones and teeth, they record different time periods in an individual’s life. Teeth grow progressively from crown to root and do not undergo any significant remodelling once formed. In contrast, most bones experience ongoing remodelling and repair throughout an individual’s lifetime, even after the completion of growth.
One exception is human auditory ossicles. These tiny ear bones are considered fully ossified by 24-26 weeks in utero and do not remodel; though they do have a secondary mineralisation phase, as their large medullary cavities become gradually filled in during early life. While further research is required to ascertain the timing and impact of the secondary mineralisation phase on isotope ratios, preliminary research by Leskovar et al. (2019) suggests the ossicles provide an isotopic signal of the second trimester of pregnancy—prior to dental development.
This study combines micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) analysis with carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses of auditory ossicles and incremental dentine samples to determine the period of development reflected by auditory ossicle isotope ratios. The results will then be integrated with palaeopathological data to provide insights into maternal, infant, and overall population health at multiple archaeological sites.
This research grant will support the micro-CT analysis of ossicle samples from the Coach Lane skeletal assemblage, a post-medieval burial site in North Shields. I am very grateful to the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology for funding this portion of my research.
Leskovar, T., Beaumont, J., Lisić, N., & McGalliard, S. (2019). Auditory ossicles: a potential biomarker for maternal and infant health in utero. Annals of Human Biology, 46(5), 367-377. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014460.2019.1639824