OREA - Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 2021 Mar;174(3):519-531. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24196. Epub 2020 Dec 9.
Pelvic features, mostly known as parturition scars, have been extensively studied in the last decades and are frequently investigated in archaeological and forensic contexts. It is still unclear, however, whether they really relate to pregnancy and birth, or whether these features are caused by other biomechanical factors. Because the length and difficulty of labor correlates with the form of the birth canal, we studied the association between the expression of pelvic features and pelvic shape using geometric morphometrics.
We scored the expression of the preauricular sulcus, margo auricularis groove, sacral preauricular extension, dorsal and ventral pubic pitting for 54 individuals from a 19th century collection and 19 individuals from the Bronze Age cemetery of Hainburg-Teichtal, Austria. Based on photogrammetric surface models, pelvic shape was captured by 331 landmarks and semilandmarks. The multivariate association between pelvic features and pelvic shape was explored by partial least squares analysis.
Within the female subsample, we detected a significant association of a constrained birth canal with a strong expression of the preauricular sulcus, the margo auricularis groove, and a retroverted position of the acetabulum. No significant association was found among males.
This suggests that difficult or prolonged labor may indeed cause more strongly expressed pelvic features, presumably because of increased strain of the pelvic ligaments during birth. Furthermore, the retroversion of the acetabulum, which is known to cause sacroiliac joint dysfunction, changes the strain on pelvic ligaments and can thus also result in the development of pronounced pelvic features.
几十年来，骨盆特征（主要为分娩痕迹）已被广泛研究，并经常在考古和法医学背景下进行研究。然而，目前仍不清楚这些特征是否真的与妊娠和分娩有关，或者这些特征是否是由其他生物力学因素引起的。由于分娩的长度和难度与产道的形态有关，我们使用几何形态测量学研究了骨盆特征的表达与骨盆形态之间的关系。
我们对 54 名来自 19 世纪收藏和奥地利海因堡-泰希塔尔青铜时代墓地的个体的耳前沟、耳缘沟、骶骨耳前延伸、耻骨背侧和腹侧凹陷的表达进行了评分。基于摄影测量表面模型，通过 331 个标志点和半标志点捕获了骨盆形状。通过偏最小二乘分析探索了骨盆特征与骨盆形状之间的多元关联。
在女性子样本中，我们检测到一个受约束的产道与耳前沟、耳缘沟强烈表达和髋臼后倾位置之间存在显著关联。在男性中未发现显著关联。
这表明，困难或延长的分娩过程可能确实会导致骨盆特征更强烈地表达，大概是因为分娩过程中骨盆韧带的张力增加。此外，髋臼后倾会导致骶髂关节功能障碍，改变骨盆韧带的张力，从而导致明显的骨盆特征的发展。
