Revisiting osteoarthritis in the Cis-Baikal: Understanding behavioral variability and adaptation among middle Holocene foragers
Résumé
This examination of osteoarthritis (OA) focuses on better understanding behavioral variability among the
middle Holocene foragers of the Cis-Baikal, Siberia, particularly as it pertains to a unique period of
diachronic cultural change in the region. The three cemetery populations considered lie on either side of
an 800e1000 year biocultural ‘hiatus’dcharacterized by a cessation in the use of formal cemeteriesdand
are located in two of the Cis-Baikal's four main micro-regions. Two of the cemetery samples, Lokomotiv
and Shamanka II, represent the pre-hiatus early Neolithic (EN) Kitoi culture (8000e7000/6800 cal. BP),
while the third, Ust'-Ida I, represents the post-hiatus late Neolithiceearly Bronze Age (LNeEBA) Isakovo
eSerovoeGlazkovo (or ISG) cultural complex (6000/5800e4000 cal. BP). Results reveal a dynamic
pattern of variability across both time and space. Of particular interest is an apparent dichotomy between
the two pre-hiatus EN sites, namely considerably higher OA severity at Lokomotiv compared to Shamanka
II. This disparity suggests fundamental behavioral differences between the populations despite
their contemporaneity and cultural continuity, possibly reflecting distinct residential mobility patterns
and population densities in their respective micro-regions. In addition, intra-site analyses reveal that
activity may have differed considerably between the sexes, whether in type, intensity, and/or duration.
Male-dominated logistical foraging on both sides of the hiatus may explain, at least in part, these discrepancies.
Finally, results of intra-joint component analyses of the elbow and knee were similar across
age, sex, and cemetery groups, and largely consistent with those of epidemiological studies. Taken
together, these results add to our growing understanding of pre- and post-hiatus adaptive strategies in
the Cis-Baikal by providing a more detailed picture of the complex and highly variable behavioral and
activity patterns employed by the region's middle Holocene foragers.