Standing tall: Enhancing stature methodology through the study of health and stature in Early Medieval Southern Britain

Axelsson, Anton 2024. Standing tall: Enhancing stature methodology through the study of health and stature in Early Medieval Southern Britain. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

The stature reached in adulthood is a product of the net-nutritional intake during an individual’s formative years, subtracted by external demands, e.g., excessive physical labour, diseases, and environmental factors. This means that a population’s mean stature index serves as an invaluable source that can be utilized as a proxy for the health status of said population, past or present. Previous stature studies focusing on the early medieval period have relied on stature formulae developed on unrelated modern populations, with the most commonly used being developed on 20th-century North American populations. Yet stature is not only a product of nutritional intake, minus demands but is also an artefact of genetic predisposition and secular stature trends. Hence when using a formulae developed on modern populations, and applying it to past populations, only tentative results can be achieved, for no conclusion can easily be drawn if these two temporally and geographically unrelated populations share genetic predispositions towards the stature achieved in adulthood, or for that matter, have experienced similar secular stature trends. This study aims to address this issue, by calculating stature formulae directly on British early medieval populations utilizing two methods, the anatomical and the regression method. These new stature formulae will allow more valid stature results and will allow for a more confidant discussion of the health status of populations of the early medieval period in greater detail than past studies that utilized borrowed formulae. Another challenge faced in the study of stature estimation is the didactic debates regarding the methodology. Through the process of producing new stature formulae for the British early medieval period, a further discussion of stature estimation methodology can be put forward. This discussion will codify, and establish which approach produces better and more reliable results, but will furthermore allow for a problematization of the limitation of the methodology. Keywords: Stature Estimation, Regression Method, Anatomical Method, Early Medieval Britain, Biostatistics, Genetic Predisposition, Secular Stature Trends

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain Q Science > QP Physiology
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	11 February 2025
Date of Acceptance:	31 January 2025
Last Modified:	11 Feb 2025 16:26
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/176092

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