Lewis Mary E, French Jennifer C, Rossoni-Notter Elena, Notter Olivier, Moussous Abdelkader, Sparacello Vitale, Boschin Francesco, Ricci Stefano, Nowell April
Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6NZ, UK.
Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, 12-14 Abercromby Square, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7WZ, UK.
J Hum Evol. 2025 Jan;198:103577. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2024.103577. Epub 2024 Sep 12.
Childhood and adolescence are two life-history stages that are either unique to humans, or significantly expanded in the human life course relative to other primates. While recent studies have deepened our knowledge of childhood in the Upper Paleolithic, adolescence in this period remains understudied. Here, we use bioarchaeological maturational markers to estimate puberty status of 13 Upper Paleolithic adolescents from sites in Russia, Czechia, and Italy to 1) evaluate the feasibility of the application of bioarchaeological puberty assessment methods to Upper Paleolithic (Homo sapiens) skeletal individuals, 2) estimate the timing and tempo of puberty in Upper Paleolithic adolescents compared to other archaeological populations analyzed using the same method, and 3) characterize adolescence in the Upper Paleolithic by contextualizing the results of this puberty assessment with data on individual and population-level health, morbidity and burial practices. Our results revealed that while puberty had begun by 13.5 years of age for the majority of individuals, there was a lot of variability, with the adolescents from Arene Candide (AC1 and AC16), both aged around 16 years when they died, taking several years longer to progress through puberty than their peers. Assessing the age of menarche was challenging due to the paucity of female adolescents, but based on the available evidence, it appears to have occurred between 16 and 17 years of age. For some, full adulthood had been achieved by 17-22 years, similar to the patterns seen in modern wealthy countries and in advance of historic populations living in urbanized environments. The bioarchaeological analysis of puberty among Upper Paleolithic adolescents has important implications for the study of the emergence of adolescence within human-life histories, as well as for understanding the developmental plasticity of sexual maturation across past and present human populations.
童年和青春期是人类独有的两个生命史阶段，或者相对于其他灵长类动物而言，在人类生命历程中显著延长。虽然最近的研究加深了我们对上旧石器时代童年的认识，但这一时期的青春期仍未得到充分研究。在这里，我们使用生物考古成熟标记来估计来自俄罗斯、捷克和意大利遗址的13名上旧石器时代青少年的青春期状态，以1）评估生物考古青春期评估方法应用于上旧石器时代（智人）骨骼个体的可行性，2）与使用相同方法分析的其他考古人群相比，估计上旧石器时代青少年青春期的时间和节奏，3）通过将青春期评估结果与个体和群体层面的健康、发病率和埋葬习俗数据相结合，对上旧石器时代的青春期进行特征描述。我们的结果显示，虽然大多数个体在13.5岁时开始进入青春期，但存在很大差异，来自阿雷内坎迪德（AC1和AC16）的青少年在死亡时年龄都在16岁左右，他们进入青春期的时间比同龄人长几年。由于女性青少年数量稀少，评估初潮年龄具有挑战性，但根据现有证据，初潮似乎发生在16至17岁之间。对于一些人来说，17至22岁时已达到完全成年，这与现代富裕国家的模式相似，且早于生活在城市化环境中的历史人群。对上旧石器时代青少年青春期的生物考古分析对研究人类生命史中青春期的出现以及理解过去和现在人类群体中性成熟的发育可塑性具有重要意义。
