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Emma Pomeroy
Humans past and present vary greatly in their morphology, but how does this variation relate to both our social and natural environments, and what are the implications for health throughout the life course?
Understanding the interaction between morphology, evolutionary history, and environmental conditions has great potential to inform us about the nature of human adaptation and adaptability, and the consequences of economic variation and social interaction for human health and biology. I pursue an interdisciplinary approach combining work with human skeletons from archaeological sites and studies of contemporary populations to offer new insight into human variation. Previous and current projects include research in South America, South Asia and Europe. In particular, my interests centre on the origin and adaptive significance of variation in limb proportions and body composition, and their implications for health in the past and in the present (Thrifty Phenotype or Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Hypothesis). Current projects include:
THE ORIGINS OF LOW LEAN MASS AND CHRONIC DISEASE SUSCEPTIBILITY AMONG SOUTH ASIANS:
Low lean (organ and muscle) mass among contemporary South Asian populations is implicated in their particularly high susceptibility to chronic diseases (e.g. type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease). In collaboration with Dr Veena Mushrif (Deccan College Research and Post Graduate Institute, Pune, India), this study is using data from Indian archaeological skeletal collections and a large epidemiological cohort study (APCAPS [apcaps.lshtm.ac.uk/]) to shed new light on when and why this low lean mass originated. The project is funded by the British Academy (2014-2015) and Leverhulme Trust/Isaac Newton Trust (2015-2018).
NEANDERTHAL MORPHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR:
I am the paleoanthropologist at renewed excavations at Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan. Shanidar Cave is one of the most famous Neanderthal sites, yielding the remains of 10 men, women and children in excavations led by Ralph Solecki between 1951 and 1960. The new project, led my Professor Graeme Barker, is using modern archaeological science and techniques to refine our understanding of the chronology and stratigraphy of Solecki’s original excavations, and to provide new insight into behaviour during the Palaeolithic. This has included the discovery of more Neanderthal remains, most notably additional material from Shanidar 5.
BIOARCHAEOLOGY OF A POST_MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL IN GIBRALTAR:
With Dr Kevin Lane (CONICET, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) I co-direct the analysis of over 200 skeletons from Old St Bernard’s Hospital, Gibraltar, in collaboration with Dr Sam Benady, and Dr Jennifer Lett-Grant. The project offers a unique opportunity to study the impact of trade, war and disease on a changing post-medieval community located at a strategic geographic location between the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the nature of healthcare at a time when modern medicine first began to develop and burgeoning global human mobility brought novel health challenges.
Understanding the interaction between morphology, evolutionary history, and environmental conditions has great potential to inform us about the nature of human adaptation and adaptability, and the consequences of economic variation and social interaction for human health and biology. I pursue an interdisciplinary approach combining work with human skeletons from archaeological sites and studies of contemporary populations to offer new insight into human variation. Previous and current projects include research in South America, South Asia and Europe. In particular, my interests centre on the origin and adaptive significance of variation in limb proportions and body composition, and their implications for health in the past and in the present (Thrifty Phenotype or Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Hypothesis). Current projects include:
THE ORIGINS OF LOW LEAN MASS AND CHRONIC DISEASE SUSCEPTIBILITY AMONG SOUTH ASIANS:
Low lean (organ and muscle) mass among contemporary South Asian populations is implicated in their particularly high susceptibility to chronic diseases (e.g. type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease). In collaboration with Dr Veena Mushrif (Deccan College Research and Post Graduate Institute, Pune, India), this study is using data from Indian archaeological skeletal collections and a large epidemiological cohort study (APCAPS [apcaps.lshtm.ac.uk/]) to shed new light on when and why this low lean mass originated. The project is funded by the British Academy (2014-2015) and Leverhulme Trust/Isaac Newton Trust (2015-2018).
NEANDERTHAL MORPHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR:
I am the paleoanthropologist at renewed excavations at Shanidar Cave, Iraqi Kurdistan. Shanidar Cave is one of the most famous Neanderthal sites, yielding the remains of 10 men, women and children in excavations led by Ralph Solecki between 1951 and 1960. The new project, led my Professor Graeme Barker, is using modern archaeological science and techniques to refine our understanding of the chronology and stratigraphy of Solecki’s original excavations, and to provide new insight into behaviour during the Palaeolithic. This has included the discovery of more Neanderthal remains, most notably additional material from Shanidar 5.
BIOARCHAEOLOGY OF A POST_MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL IN GIBRALTAR:
With Dr Kevin Lane (CONICET, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) I co-direct the analysis of over 200 skeletons from Old St Bernard’s Hospital, Gibraltar, in collaboration with Dr Sam Benady, and Dr Jennifer Lett-Grant. The project offers a unique opportunity to study the impact of trade, war and disease on a changing post-medieval community located at a strategic geographic location between the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the nature of healthcare at a time when modern medicine first began to develop and burgeoning global human mobility brought novel health challenges.
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The data not only reaffirm the dietary primacy of marine protein for this period but also show evidence at Paloma of direct access interactions between the coast and highlands, as well as habitual mobility in some parts of society. By locating themselves at the confluence of diverse coastal and terrestrial habitats, the inhabitants of these early villages were able to broaden their use of resources through rounds of seasonal mobility, while simultaneously increasing residential sedentism. Yet they paid little substantial health penalty for their settled lifestyles, as reflected in their osteological markers of stature and stress, compared with their agriculturalist successors even up to five millennia later. Contrasting data for the north coast of Chile indicate locally contingent differences. Considering these data in a wider chronological context contributes to understanding how increasing sedentism and population density laid the foundations here for the emergence of Late Preceramic social complexity.
En el siguiente articulo presentamos datos osteológicos e isótopicos provenientes de restos humanos de los sitios la Paloma, Chilca I, La Yerba III y Morro I. Estas investigaciones ofrecen nueva evidencia sobre la dieta, el estilo de vida y la movilidad habitual entre los primeros pueblos que proliferaron a lo largo de la árida costa del Pacífico de Sudamérica (ca. 6000 cal BP).
Los datos reafirman la primacía dietética de proteínas marinas para este período, pero también muestran evidencia en la Paloma de interacciones de acceso directo entre la costa y la sierra, y de la movilidad habitual por algunos sectores de la sociedad. Al ubicarse en la confluencia de diversos hábitats costeros y terrestres, los habitantes de estas primeras aldeas pudieron ampliar el uso de los recursos a través de rondas de movilidad estacionales, al mismo tiempo que aumentaron su sedentarismo residencial. Sin embargo, pagaron muy poca penalización de salud por sus estilos de vida sedentarios, reflejados en sus marcadores osteológicos de estatura y estrés en comparación con la de sus sucesores agrícolas, incluso hasta cinco milenios después. Los datos contrastantes de la costa norte de Chile indican diferencias contingentes a nivel local. Considerando estos datos en un contexto cronológico más amplio este análisis contribuye a comprender cómo el aumento del sedentarismo y la población sentó las bases para el surgimiento de la complejidad social del Precerámico Tardío.