School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, 900 Cady Mall, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402, United States.
Int J Paleopathol. 2020 Jun;29:102-116. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpp.2019.07.002. Epub 2019 Aug 1.
The ubiquity of cribra orbitalia in skeletal samples has led to rigorous debate over their etiology, with most concluding that nutrition, physiological stressors, and environmental disease vectors synergistically contribute to lesion development. To parse the relative contributions of these etiological factors in the prehistoric Andes, this spatial paleopathological meta-analysis investigates the relationship between population-wide prehistoric Andean cribra orbitalia rates and geographic, climatic, and hydrological variables.
Crude prevalence patterns of cribra orbitalia from 61 archaeological sites were plotted and analyzed with geostatistical methods to explore spatial patterns in the distribution of anemia-associated lesions. Multiple linear regression modeling was performed on 19 spatial variables suspected to contribute to various forms of anemia that result in cribrotic lesions.
Spatially-clustered high cribra orbitalia rates exist around the Central Peruvian coast, but are paradoxically low on the Ecuadorian coast. Multiple regression shows that elevation, temperature, and precipitation were not predictive of lesion rates. Multiple regression models show that aridity and seasonal variability in freshwater supply, together, explained a third of the variation in lesion rates.
While cribra orbitalia has long been tied to coastal proximity, these results suggest environmental constraints such as the need for water storage could have promoted malnutrition and pathogenic infection more than mere coastal proximity.
This analysis is limited by the paucity of data from highland sites and by the assumption that burials are local to the excavation site.
Future studies will integrate isotopic and remotely-sensed data into models to explore links between water security, nutrition, and disease.
颅骨骨缝广泛存在于骨骼样本中，这引发了关于其病因的激烈争论，大多数结论认为，营养、生理应激和环境疾病媒介协同作用促进了病变的发展。为了分析史前安第斯山脉中这些病因因素的相对贡献，本空间古病理学荟萃分析调查了史前安第斯地区人群普遍存在的颅骨骨缝率与地理、气候和水文变量之间的关系。
利用地质统计学方法绘制和分析了 61 个考古遗址的颅骨骨缝粗患病率模式，以探讨贫血相关病变分布的空间模式。对 19 个被怀疑与导致骨裂病变的各种形式贫血有关的空间变量进行多元线性回归建模。
在秘鲁中部海岸周围存在空间聚类的高颅骨骨缝率，但在厄瓜多尔海岸却异常低。多元回归表明，海拔、温度和降水与病变率无关。多元回归模型表明，干旱和淡水供应的季节性变化共同解释了病变率变化的三分之一。
虽然颅骨骨缝长期以来一直与沿海接近有关，但这些结果表明，环境限制因素（如对储水的需求）可能比仅仅靠近海岸更能促进营养不良和病原感染。
本分析受到来自高地遗址的数据稀少以及假设埋葬是挖掘地点所在的局限性的限制。
未来的研究将把同位素和遥感数据整合到模型中，以探索水安全、营养和疾病之间的联系。
