Metabolic diseases in Andean paleopathology: Retrospect and prospect

Abstract

John Verano’s 1997 synthesis of Andean paleopathology guided two decades of research and was instrumental in establishing modern Andean paleopathology. This paper reviews the current state and new directions in the study of skeletal metabolic disorders in the Central Andean archaeological record. Key historical, ecological, methodological, and contextual issues intersect with the study of metabolic bone diseases in Andean paleopathology. This paper further examines known temporal and spatial distribution of these disorders, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the record of linear enamel hypoplasias, cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, scurvy, and rickets. Many other metabolic bone diseases have yet to be documented such as pellagra, hypophosphatasia, osteomalacia, and mucopolysaccharidosis among others. This work closes with considerations in the search for these undocumented diseases, but such an effort is only one part of new wave of advancements just on the horizon. The study of metabolic diseases in Andean paleopathology can lead the development of more sophisticated approaches to data collection, analysis, and interpretation – especially regarding theoretical interpretations from various bodies of social theory to the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis, life history approaches, and phenotypic adaptive plasticity and constraint.