The Early Childhood Diet of Adult Individuals with Evidence of Metabolic Diseases from Commingled Remains at Tell Hisban

Abstract

In the 19th century, many unknown agropastoralists were buried at Tell Hisban in Jordan. Many of these individuals have a high frequency of metabolic diseases, including rickets, during infancy and childhood. Approximately 60% of analyzed infants between birth and 2 years of age died with active vitamin D deficiency. Further research of the assemblage discovered that many of the adults had evidence of interglobular dentin (IGD), indicating that many individuals of the population survived at least one IGD-forming condition, possibly rickets, during childhood. Although childhood rickets typically derive from a lack of sunlight to synthesize the amount of vitamin D necessary for normal bodily functioning, the timing and duration of breastfeeding can also impact the risk for vitamin D deficiency in infancy. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic analysis of incremental dental dentin samples from 7 adult individuals with and without evidence of IGD created a timeline of their childhood diet to identify dietary changes during early life. Indication of the weaning process was difficult to analyze due to the size of incremental samples, but fluctuations in isotopic ratios showed individuals experienced significant amounts of stress due to climatic shifts and tissue catabolism. Future research will focus on the stable isotope analysis of the infant teeth of the Hisban sample to provide more insight into the weaning process and early diet.