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Rickets, resorption and revolution: An investigation into the relationship between vitamin D deficiency in childhood and osteoporosis in adulthood in an 18th-19th century population. (2024)
Journal Article
Bowers, A., Gowland, R., & Hind, K. (2024). Rickets, resorption and revolution: An investigation into the relationship between vitamin D deficiency in childhood and osteoporosis in adulthood in an 18th-19th century population. International Journal of Paleopathology, 47, 27-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2024.09.002

This study employs a Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) approach to assess the effect of vitamin D deficiency (VDD) in childhood on the risk of osteoporosis in adulthood in an archaeological sample of skeletons dating from the 18th t... Read More about Rickets, resorption and revolution: An investigation into the relationship between vitamin D deficiency in childhood and osteoporosis in adulthood in an 18th-19th century population..

Vitamin D status in post-medieval Northern England: Insights from dental histology and enamel peptide analysis at Coach Lane, North Shields (AD 1711–1857) (2024)
Journal Article
Snoddy, A. M. E., Shaw, H., Newman, S., Miszkiewicz, J. J., Stewart, N. A., Jakob, T., …Gowland, R. (2024). Vitamin D status in post-medieval Northern England: Insights from dental histology and enamel peptide analysis at Coach Lane, North Shields (AD 1711–1857). PLoS ONE, 19(1), Article e0296203. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296203

Objectives: The post-medieval period in Europe saw a dramatic increase in metabolic bone disease related to vitamin D deficiency (VDD). Recent paleopathological work has utilized interglobular dentin (IGD) as a proxy for poor vitamin D status during... Read More about Vitamin D status in post-medieval Northern England: Insights from dental histology and enamel peptide analysis at Coach Lane, North Shields (AD 1711–1857).

The expendables: Bioarchaeological evidence for pauper apprentices in 19th century England and the health consequences of child labour (2023)
Journal Article
Gowland, R. L., Caffell, A. C., Quade, L., Levene, A., Millard, A. R., Holst, M., Yapp, P., Delaney, S., Brown, C., Nowell, G., Macpherson, C., Shaw, H. A., Stewart, N. A., Robinson, S., Montgomery, J., & Alexander, M. M. (2023). The expendables: Bioarchaeological evidence for pauper apprentices in 19th century England and the health consequences of child labour. PLoS ONE, 18(5), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0284970

Child labour is the most common form of child abuse in the world today, with almost half of child workers employed in hazardous industries. The large-scale employment of children during the rapid industrialisation of the late 18th and early 19th cent... Read More about The expendables: Bioarchaeological evidence for pauper apprentices in 19th century England and the health consequences of child labour.

The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Implications for Paleopathology (2022)
Book Chapter
Gowland, R., & Caldwell, J. L. (2022). The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Implications for Paleopathology. In A. L. Grauer (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Paleopathology (520-540). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003130994

The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis evolved from earlier research by Barker and colleagues in the 1980s, which demonstrated a link between early life adversity and increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in adult... Read More about The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Implications for Paleopathology.

Compounding vulnerabilities: Syndemics and the social determinants of disease in the past (2022)
Journal Article
Perry, M. A., & Gowland, R. L. (2022). Compounding vulnerabilities: Syndemics and the social determinants of disease in the past. International Journal of Paleopathology, 39, 35-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2022.09.002

Objective: This article explores the theory and utility of a syndemic approach for the study of disease in the past. Syndemic principles are examined alongside other theoretical developments within bioarchaeology. Two case studies are provided to ill... Read More about Compounding vulnerabilities: Syndemics and the social determinants of disease in the past.

Creating communities of care: Sex estimation and mobilityhistories of adolescents buried in the cemetery of St. MaryMagdalen leprosarium (Winchester, England) (2022)
Journal Article
Filipek, K., Roberts, C., Montgomery, J., Gowland, R., Moore, J., Tucker, K., & Evans, J. (2022). Creating communities of care: Sex estimation and mobilityhistories of adolescents buried in the cemetery of St. MaryMagdalen leprosarium (Winchester, England). American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 178(1), 108-123. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24498

Objectives: This study examines the biological sex and geographical origins of adolescents buried at the St Mary Magdalen leprosarium (Winchester, UK). The data are combined with archaeological and palaeopathological evidence to broaden the understan... Read More about Creating communities of care: Sex estimation and mobilityhistories of adolescents buried in the cemetery of St. MaryMagdalen leprosarium (Winchester, England).

Health inequality in Britain before 1750 (2021)
Journal Article
Kendall, E. J., Brown, A. T., Doran, T., Gowland, R., & Cookson, R. (2021). Health inequality in Britain before 1750. SSM - Population Health, 16, Article 100957. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100957

Background This study examines the claim that social inequality in health in European populations was absent prior to 1750. This claim is primarily based on comparisons of life expectancy at birth in England between general and ducal (elite aristocra... Read More about Health inequality in Britain before 1750.

Height and health in Roman and Post-Roman Gaul, a life course approach (2021)
Journal Article
Quade, L., & Gowland, R. (2021). Height and health in Roman and Post-Roman Gaul, a life course approach. International Journal of Paleopathology, 35, 49-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2021.10.001

Objective: The present study explores growth and health in Roman (1st-3rd centuries CE) and Post-Roman (4th-7th centuries CE) Gaul, incorporating a life-course approach, to better understand the influence of Roman practices and lifestyles on health,... Read More about Height and health in Roman and Post-Roman Gaul, a life course approach.

Illness and inclusion: Mobility histories of adolescents with leprosy from Anglo‐Scandinavian Norwich (Eastern England) (2021)
Journal Article
Filipek, K. L., Roberts, C. A., Gowland, R. L., Montgomery, J., & Evans, J. A. (2021). Illness and inclusion: Mobility histories of adolescents with leprosy from Anglo‐Scandinavian Norwich (Eastern England). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 31(6), 1180-1191. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3029

Leprosy is one of the most notorious diseases in history, widely associated with social stigma and exclusion. This study builds on previous work to reevaluate the medicohistorical evidence for social stigma in relation to leprosy. This is achieved by... Read More about Illness and inclusion: Mobility histories of adolescents with leprosy from Anglo‐Scandinavian Norwich (Eastern England).

Alloparenting Adolescents: Evaluating the Social and Biological Impacts of Leprosy on Young People in Saxo-Norman England (9th to 12th Centuries AD) through Cross-Disciplinary Models of Care (2021)
Book Chapter
Filipek, K. L., Roberts, C., Gowland, R. L., & Tucker, K. (2021). Alloparenting Adolescents: Evaluating the Social and Biological Impacts of Leprosy on Young People in Saxo-Norman England (9th to 12th Centuries AD) through Cross-Disciplinary Models of Care. In E. J. Kendall, & R. Kendall (Eds.), The Family in Past Perspective: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Familial Relationships Through Time (30-57). Routledge

The majority of historical sources describe past attitudes towards people with leprosy as negative, focussing on ostracism and damnation, and this is thought to have impacted on the care that sufferers received. More recent historical and archaeologi... Read More about Alloparenting Adolescents: Evaluating the Social and Biological Impacts of Leprosy on Young People in Saxo-Norman England (9th to 12th Centuries AD) through Cross-Disciplinary Models of Care.

Poisoned pregnancies: consequences of prenatal lead exposure in relation to infant mortality in the Roman Empire. (2021)
Book Chapter
Moore, J., Williams-Ward, M., Filipek, K., Gowland, R., & Montgomery, J. (2021). Poisoned pregnancies: consequences of prenatal lead exposure in relation to infant mortality in the Roman Empire. In E. J. Kendall, & R. Kendall (Eds.), The Family in Past Perspective: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Familial Relationships Through Time (137-158). Routledge

Large families were often a desired outcome of Roman marriages; laws were even passed to encourage procreation. Despite this, large families were not the norm. The high infant mortality, miscarriage and stillbirth rates throughout this period probabl... Read More about Poisoned pregnancies: consequences of prenatal lead exposure in relation to infant mortality in the Roman Empire..

Death Metal: Evidence for the impact of lead poisoning on childhood health within the Roman Empire (2021)
Journal Article
Moore, J., Filipek, K., Kalenderian, V., Gowland, R., Hamilton, E., Evans, J., & Montgomery, J. (2021). Death Metal: Evidence for the impact of lead poisoning on childhood health within the Roman Empire. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 31(5), 846-856. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.3001

The use of lead was ubiquitous throughout the Roman Empire, including material for water pipes, eating vessels, medicine, and even as a sweetener for wine. The toxicity of lead is well established today, resulting in long-term psychological and neuro... Read More about Death Metal: Evidence for the impact of lead poisoning on childhood health within the Roman Empire.

Assessing pathological conditions in archaeological bone using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) (2021)
Journal Article
Kilburn, N. N., Gowland, R. L., Halldórsdóttir, H. H., Williams, R., & Thompson, T. J. (2021). Assessing pathological conditions in archaeological bone using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 37, Article 102980. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102980

This study aims to investigate the potential of portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) for identifying pathological conditions in archaeological human skeletal remains. Bone element distribution in relation to known disease categories is ana... Read More about Assessing pathological conditions in archaeological bone using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF).

Sex estimation of teeth at different developmental stages using dimorphic enamel peptide analysis (2021)
Journal Article
Gowland, R., Stewart, N. A., Crowder, K. D., Hodson, C., Shaw, H., Gron, K. J., & Montgomery, J. (2021). Sex estimation of teeth at different developmental stages using dimorphic enamel peptide analysis. American journal of physical anthropology, 174(4), 859-869. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24231

Objectives This study tests, for the first time, the applicability of a new method of sex estimation utilizing enamel peptides on a sample of deciduous and permanent teeth at different stages of mineralization, from nonadults of unknown sex, includin... Read More about Sex estimation of teeth at different developmental stages using dimorphic enamel peptide analysis.

Modeling Health during Societal Collapse: Can Recent History Help Our Understanding of Post-Roman Gaul? (2020)
Journal Article
Quade, L., & Gowland, R. (2020). Modeling Health during Societal Collapse: Can Recent History Help Our Understanding of Post-Roman Gaul?. Bioarchaeology international, 4(3-4), 172-190

Societal collapse results in structural breakdowns and instability, which can affect life expectancy and population health. Previous bioarchaeological studies have, however, sometimes struggled to identify correlations between sociopolitical changes... Read More about Modeling Health during Societal Collapse: Can Recent History Help Our Understanding of Post-Roman Gaul?.

Desperately seeking stress: A pilot study of cortisol in archaeological tooth structures (2020)
Journal Article
Quade, L., Chazot, P., & Gowland, R. (2021). Desperately seeking stress: A pilot study of cortisol in archaeological tooth structures. American journal of physical anthropology, 174(3), 532-541. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24157

Objectives: Cortisol is a glucocorticoid hormone produced through activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. It is known as the “stress hormone” for its primary role in the body's stress response and has been the focus of much modern clin... Read More about Desperately seeking stress: A pilot study of cortisol in archaeological tooth structures.

Knock-knees: Identifying genu valgum and understanding its relationship to vitamin D deficiency in 18th to 19th century northern England (2020)
Journal Article
Tschinkel, K., & Gowland, R. (2020). Knock-knees: Identifying genu valgum and understanding its relationship to vitamin D deficiency in 18th to 19th century northern England. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 30(6), 891-902. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2919

Genu valgum is a condition in which a person's knees angle inwards and touch one another creating a ‘knock‐kneed’ appearance during life and potentially causing pain and walking difficulties. The most common cause of genu valgum is medial torsion of... Read More about Knock-knees: Identifying genu valgum and understanding its relationship to vitamin D deficiency in 18th to 19th century northern England.