Palaeohealth at Man Bac

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to review the evidence of adult and subadult health for individuals recovered from the Man Bac site during the 2005 and 2007 excavation seasons. A fuller appreciation of the inhabitants of Man Bac can only be realised through an examination of the nature and patterning of health markers in the context of other bio-variables such as preservation, demographic profile, stature, diet and genetic relationships with contemporaneous, previous and later populations in the region. To this end, the health profile of the Man Bac inhabitants has been developed towards the end of this monograph. The palaeohealth of the ancient inhabitants of what is now Vietnam has been extensively examined and discussed in a number of studies (Oxenham et al., 2005; Oxenham, 2006; Oxenham et al., 2006). With respect to Man Bac specifically, limited examinations of childhood health, using remains from the 2005 season only, have been carried out in the context of broader mortuary archaeological questions (Oxenham, 2006). In this chapter, health variables are limited to two nonspecific signatures of physiological impairment, cribra orbitalia and linear enamel hypoplasia, as well as a range of oral health indicators, including dental caries, alveolar defects (often termed abscesses) and antemortem tooth loss. Subsequent publications will review the evidence for other health variables including trauma and infectious disease.