Early stress variation reflected in adult vertebral neural canal size within a medieval silver-mining population from...

Previous bioarchaeological and auxological research has indicated that stunting the growth of vertebral measures, specifically those of the vertebral neural canal (VNC), provides a record of stressful early-childhood episodes that persists into adulthood. The main goal of this study was to investigate possible VNC size variation within the specific context of a medieval silver-mining site. Skeletons unearthed recently at Kutná Hora-Sedlec (Czech Republic) represent a population that lived there during its most prosperous era (13th-16th centuries). During this period, Kutná Hora residents could have faced both environmental and cultural conditioned stressors. In a total of 207 individuals examined in this study, we measured anteroposterior (AP) and transverse (TR) vertebral neural canal dimensions together with anterior vertebral body height (BH) in thoracic (Th10-Th12) and lumbar (L1-5) vertebrae, and analysed them for association with sex, age-at-death, and burial context (individual vs mass graves). These intra-site comparisons revealed that: (1) male diameters were consistently larger than female; (2) males with stunted AP and TR diameters were less likely to survive into mature adulthood; (3) the relationship between early life stress and burial context was very weak (in females) or non-existent (in males); and (4) the TR dimension of the vertebral neural canal was more prone to growth disruption than the AP or BH diameters.