Bone loss is an important skeletal indicator of environmental stress. Cortical and trabecular bone, however, are differentially affected by various stressors. Peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) potentially addresses this issue by separately calculating cortical and trabecular bone mineral density (BMD). This project had two major goals: evaluate the effectiveness of pQCT in measuring BMD in archaeological specimens, and test the hypothesis that females suffered greater bone loss than males in a socially stressed population. Cortical and trabecular BMD was measured in the radius and femur of skeletons from Point of Pines Pueblo, Arizona. pQCT effectively measured BMD in the sample, but the hypothesis that females suffered greater BMD loss than males was not supported. Females showed no significant BMD loss in the radius, while males experienced no significant changes in cortical density. Sex-specific activities may explain bone maintenance in the female radius, while hormonal differences likely maintained male cortical density.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/311471 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Mountain, Rebecca Vivienne |
| Contributors | Watson, James T., McClelland, John A., Watson, James T., McClelland, John A., Reid, J. Jefferson |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Electronic Thesis |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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