Hallie R Buckley

University of Otago · Department of Anatomy

Despite significant research, the direct and indirect causes of a population decline in the eponymous foragers of the Late Jōmon period (c. 4500–2300 BP) in Japan remains undetermined. Here, the authors examine the impact of nutritional stress, using scurvy as a case study, on Middle and a Late/Final Jōmon populations. While an increase in the prev...

Although ancient DNA (aDNA) cannot predict the facial appearance of skeletal human remains, knowing which extant populations are most closely related to the deceased has proven to be invaluable in rectifying two early facial approximations (popularly known as facial reconstruction) undertaken 15 years ago. These concerned two of the crania excavate...

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 development, while enamel peptide analysis allows the identification of chromosomal sex in non-adult...

Many mid‐19th‐century immigrants to New Zealand are presumed to have been in pursuit of a “better life” than was achievable in their origin countries. Here, we utilize histological analyses of internal indicators of enamel growth disruption (accentuated lines [ALs]) in 19 European and Chinese immigrants and five colony‐born children from three 19th...

The Pacific islands have experienced multiple waves of human migrations, providing a case study for exploring the potential of using the microbiome to study human migration. We performed a metagenomic study of archaeological dental calculus from 103 ancient individuals, originating from 12 Pacific islands and spanning a time range of ∼3000 years. O...

The preservation of soft tissue in the archaeological record is a rare phenomenon, especially in temperate contexts. Despite this, brain material is sometimes preserved in temperate climates, even in the absence of other soft tissue survival. However, little has been published on such finds. Archaeologists understandably have minimal experience in...

Objectives: We test the hypothesis that the condition(s) leading to the development of cribra orbitalia at Con Co Ngua, an early seventh millennium sedentary foraging community in Vietnam, effectively reduced the resilience of the population to subsequent health/disease impacts. An assessment of both the implications and potential etiology of crib...

We provide the first application of a quantitative microscopic approach that does not rely on the presence of perikymata for the identification and comprehensive analysis of linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) to a large archaeological sample from Southeast Asia. Additionally, we introduce MicroPolySharp, a new computer program that automates the assess...

Understanding the musculoskeletal anatomy of soft tissues of the head and neck is important for surgical applications, biomechanical modelling and management of injuries, such as whiplash. Additionally, analysing sex and population differences in cervical anatomy can inform how biological sex and population variation may impact these anatomical app...

Toxic metal or element exposure has the potential to cause significant negative health effects in human populations. During the goldrushes of the colonial period, mercury amalgamation was one of the most common methods of extracting gold from alluvial deposits or crushed ore, and exposure to mercury was an occupational health hazard. In this study...

Objective Scurvy in non‐adults was assessed at the Pre‐Neolithic site of Con Co Ngua and the Neolithic site of Man Bac in northern Vietnam to investigate nutritional stress during the agricultural transition in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA). Materials One hundred and four human skeletons under the age of 20 years old were assessed. Methods Lesio...

Remodelling is a fundamental biological process involved in the maintenance of bone physiology and function. We know that a range of health and lifestyle factors can impact this process in living and past societies, but there is a notable gap in bone remodelling data for populations from the Pacific Islands. We conducted the first examination of fe...

This book describes the investigation of St John’s Cemetery near Milton in Otago, southern New Zealand, that was carried out in 2016 as part of a wider study of early settler graves in the region. The cemetery was used between 1860 and 1926 and contains the burials of some of the first European (predominantly British) settlers in the area. In colla...

In 1983 the grave of an unknown man was excavated in the Cromwell Gorge, Otago, New Zealand, as part of the archaeological programme of the Clutha Valley Development Project. This project culminated in the construction of the Clyde Dam, a large hydroelectric dam across the Clutha River. At the time of the excavation it was noted that the grave had...

Evolutionary medicine portrays metabolic diseases as a problem of contemporary obesogenic lifestyles in a globalised world within the context of mismatch to past environments. Over a single generation, there has been a dramatic rise in the global rate of such diseases including type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and obesity affecting high-, medium- and low-inc...

We describe a case of Pott’s disease from the Liao Dynasty of the Khitan Empire (947–1125 A.D.) in Mongolia. A young adult male (AT-840) from the site of Ulaan Kherem, a fortified settlement in Central Mongolia, was assessed for evidence of skeletal pathology. Radiographs were taken of lytic lesions of the thorax to assist with diagnosing the etiol...

Bone is dynamic, undergoing metabolic changes in response to behavioral and pathological stimuli. This information can be reconstructed in bioarchaeology using histological methods, providing another avenue to explore the experiences of past peoples. We report histological findings from midshaft femoral cortical bone of an identified individual fro...

As people, animals and materials are transported across increasingly large distances in a globalized world, threats to our biosecurity and food security are rising. Aotearoa New Zealand is an island nation with many endemic species, a strong local agricultural industry, and a need to protect these from pest threats, as well as the economy from frau...

Remodelling is a fundamental biological process involved in the maintenance of bone physiology and function. We know that a range of health and lifestyle factors can impact this process in living and past societies, but there is a notable gap in bone remodelling data for populations from the Pacific Islands. We conducted the first examination of fe...

The New Zealand goldrushes of the mid nineteenth century saw an influx of, mostly, men surging into the Otago region in search of riches. Times were tough and the men had to cope with harsh weather and dangerous work practices to survive. Many lost their lives and most of these men remain anonymous. This paper presents a detailed life-course case s...

Small islands are important model systems for examining the role of people in shaping novel environments and modifying resources through time. Here we report on the vertebrate faunal assemblages recovered from two sites on Ofu and Olosega islands (American Samoa), which were occupied only a few centuries after the initial settlement of the islands....

The processes of human mobility have been well demonstrated to influence the spread of infectious disease globally in the present and the past. However, to date, paleoepidemiological research has focused more on factors of residential mobility and population density as drivers for epidemiological shifts in prehistoric infectious disease patterns. A...

The processes of human mobility have been well demonstrated to influence the spread of infectious disease globally in the present and the past. However, to date, paleoepidemiological research has focused more on factors of residential mobility and population density as drivers for epidemiological shifts in prehistoric infectious disease patterns. A...

The mid-nineteenth century saw extensive diaspora from Europe to the antipodes. New Zealand in particular was marketed to the poor and middle classes of the United Kingdom (UK) as a “Better Britain”; a pastoral utopia of abundant resources and easy living. These campaigns actively targeted young, able-bodied persons with the aim of creating a thriv...

Objectives Con Co Ngua is a complex, sedentary forager site from northern Vietnam dating to the early seventh millennium BP. Prior research identified a calcified Echinococcus granulosis cyst, which causes hydatid disease. Osteolytic lesions consistent with hydatid disease were also present in this individual and others. Hydatid disease is observed...

Experiences of childhood in colonial New Zealand are difficult to reconstruct from the historical record alone. Many of those who came to the colony were illiterate, and the Victorian tendency to avoid discussion of pregnancy and breastfeeding practices restricts our understanding of this important period. Bioarchaeological investigation, however,...

From their time in the womb to the cessation of weaning, infants are subject to complex biosocial processes, interwoven with the relationship between mother and baby. Breastfeeding and weaning practices are integral to the maternal-infant nexus, as well as closely related to questions of subsistence change in prehistory. It is hypothesized that the...

Family can be broadly defined as a community of care, cooperation and shared resources. As we move further into the past, however, our ability to observe these relationships becomes blurred. For most of human history, ethnographic and historical documents are lacking; identity and relationships are therefore inferred through the analyses of mortuar...

Objective We present a clinically diagnosed case of beta-thalassemia major in a deceased 49-year-old Thai female for comparison with paleopathological cases and consideration of age-related changes of anemic skeletal lesions. Methods Dry bone and radiographic descriptions of pathological changes are provided and compared to clinically documented f...

In the mid-late nineteenth century thousands flocked to the newly-established British colony of New Zealand in the hope of improving their fortunes and forging a better life. While historical records give us an overview of where these people came from, in many cases the individual stories of the people who make up early colonial society have been l...

Thalassemias are inherited blood disorders that are found in high prevalences in the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. These diseases provide varying levels of resistance to malaria and are proposed to have emerged as an adaptive response to malaria in these regions. The transition to agriculture in the Holocene has been suggested to h...

Colonial New Zealand was built on the ideal of creating better lives for settlers. Emigrants came looking to escape the shackles of the class system and poor conditions in Industrial Revolution–period Britain. Colonial propaganda claimed that most emigrants achieved their aims, but the lives the colonists actually experienced upon reaching New Zeal...

The colonisation of eastern parts of the Pacific Islands was the last phase in the pre-industrial expansion of the human species. Given the scale and challenges of the endeavour it is unsurprising that scholars have long been interested in understanding the conditions that drove and supported the exploration and settlement of this vast region. Ther...

Though many ethnohistoric sources in the tropical Pacific recount chiefly feasting events, few describe childhood feeding practices despite the impact childhood under-nutrition may have had on morbidity and early mortality. Bioarchaeological investigation of the Namu burial ground (circa 750–300 BP) on the island of Taumako (southeast Solomon Islan...

Objectives This study aims to assess if inter‐island mobility can be identified during the Namu period (ca. 1,510–1800 AD) using ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr analysis of dental enamel for individuals from the Namu burial ground on Taumako Island in the eastern Solomon Island Chain. Historic evidence from this region suggests that females migrated between the Duff, Re...

During the nineteenth century, New Zealand was promoted as a land of plenty, promising a ‘better life’, to encourage families to settle and develop the growing colony. This paper characterises the life-course of early settlers to New Zealand through historical epidemiological and osteological analyses of the St John’s burial ground in Milton, Otago...

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health threat, infecting one-third of the world's population. Despite this prominence, the age, origin and spread of the disease have been topics of contentious debate. Molecular studies suggest that Mycobacterium tuberculosis ‘sensu stricto’ , the most common strain of TB infecting humans today, originated in Af...

The archipelago of Vanuatu has been at the crossroads of human population movements in the Pacific for the past three millennia. To help address several open questions regarding the history of these movements, we generated genome-wide data for 11 ancient individuals from the island of Efate dating from its earliest settlement to the recent past, in...

The histological identification of interglobular dentine (IGD) in archeological human remains with macroscopic evidence of rickets has opened a promising new avenue for the investigation of metabolic disease in the past. Recent paleopathological studies have shown that histological analysis of archeological human teeth may allow the identification...

The application of strontium isotopes to migration studies is well-documented and has been successful around the world. The main constraint of this is the need for geological and bioavailable baseline data from the region of interest. In New Zealand, human migration has played a major role during pre-European and post-European colonisation. Current...

Ritual tooth ablation, the intentional removal of teeth, is a highly visible form of body modification that can signal group identity and mark certain life events, such as marriage. The widespread occurrence of the practice in Asia appears to have begun in the Neolithic period and in some areas, such as Taiwan, continued until the ethnographic pres...

Skeletal evidence of two probable cases of treponematosis, caused by infection with the bacterium Treponema pallidum, from the northern Vietnamese early Neolithic site of Man Bac (1906–1523 cal B.C.) is described. The presence of nodes of subperiosteal new bone directly associated with superficial focal cavitations in a young adult male and a seven...

The rise of social inequality is a key development in human history and is linked to deteriorating health. These associated health impacts are poorly understood for Iron Age (420 B.C.–A.D. 500) northeast Thailand. To clarify this issue we investigate whether social status differences influence non-specific stress at the site of Non Ban Jak (A.D. 30...

Remote Oceania, which largely consists of islands covered in tropical forests, was the last region on earth to be successfully colonized by humans, beginning 3,000 years ago. We examined human dental calculus from burials in an ancient Lapita culture cemetery to gain insight into the early settlement of this previously untouched tropical environmen...

Objectives Colonial period New Zealand was lauded as a land of plenty, where colonists could improve their station in life and secure a future for their families. Our understanding of colonial experience, however, is often shaped by historical records which communicate a state‐sponsored version of history. This study aims to reconstruct the lives o...

The human skeletal remains buried in the cave of Rima Rau on the island of Atiu, have long been a subject of speculation as to their origins. Oral histories of a massacre, battle, famine and cannibal feast surround the sacred site. The local Atiuan community invited a group of bioarchaeologists from the University of Otago to help shed light on the...

Objectives In this brief communication we discuss issues concerning scientific rigour in palaeopathological publications, particularly studies published in clinical or general science journals, that employ skeletal analysis to elucidate the lives and deaths of historical figures or interpret “mysterious” assemblages or burials. We highlight the rel...

The South Island of New Zealand saw several major waves of migration in the mid-nineteenth century, predominantly from Europe but also with an ethnically distinct Chinese presence. The rural community of Milton, Otago, was a settler community established primarily by immigrants from the United Kingdom in search of a better quality of life. However,...

The aim of this paper is to test the hypothesis that healed traumatic injuries in the pre-Neo-lithic assemblage of Con Co Ngua, northern Vietnam (c. 6800-6200 cal BP) are consistent with large wild animal interactions prior to their domestication. The core sample included 110 adult (aged ~ 18 years) individuals, while comparisons are made with an a...

The Iron Age of Mainland Southeast Asia began in the fifth century BC and lasted for about a millennium. In coastal regions, the development of trade along the Maritime Silk Road led to the growth of port cities. In the interior, a fall in monsoon rains particularly affected the Mun River valley. This coincided with the construction of moats/reserv...

Paleo diets have been characterized as having foods that we “were born to eat,” and the justification for their healthful nature is based upon the assumption that they reflect the foods our Stone Age ancestors ate: low in sugar and cereals and high in meat and “healthy fats.” Here we critique this assumption by drawing on direct evidence of hominin...

Supplementary Table S1: Visual examples in dry bone of diagnostic and suggestive features within the proposed weighted diagnostic system. These images are intended as guidelines only; the severity of lesion expression may vary between affected individuals.

The past two decades have seen a proliferation in bioarchaeological literature on the identification of scurvy, a disease caused by chronic vitamin C deficiency, in ancient human remains. This condition is one of the few nutritional deficiencies that can result in diagnostic osseous lesions. Scurvy is associated with low dietary diversity and its i...

Measures of population growth can provide significant insights into the health, adaptivity and resilience of ancient communities, particularly the way in which human populations respond to major changes, such as the transition to agriculture. To date, paleodemographic tools have facilitated the evaluation of long term, regional population growth, w...

Large, 'complex' pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherer communities thrived in southern China and northern Vietnam, contemporaneous with the expansion of farming. Research at Con Co Ngua in Vietnam suggests that such huntergatherer populations shared characteristics with early farming communities: high disease loads, pottery, complex mortuary practices and...

Ancient migrations in Southeast Asia The past movements and peopling of Southeast Asia have been poorly represented in ancient DNA studies (see the Perspective by Bellwood). Lipson et al. generated sequences from people inhabiting Southeast Asia from about 1700 to 4100 years ago. Screening of more than a hundred individuals from five sites yielded...

In April 2018 archaeological excavations were undertaken at both the 'old' and 'new' cemeteries of the historic goldfields town of Lawrence in Central Otago, New Zealand. the aim of the excavations was to examine the remains of early goldminers, and in particular Chinese goldminers, in order to determine how they adapted to life on the goldfields f...

The genesis of bioarchaeology in New Zealand as a discipline is entwined with the fates of the indigenous people of the land, the Māori, and influenced by the relatively short period of non-Māori colonisation. The story of how human skeletal remains (Kōiwi tangata), were treated and used in research by colonial curio hunters and adventurers mirror...

Southeast Asia is home to rich human genetic and linguistic diversity, but the details of past population movements in the region are not well known. Here, we report genome-wide ancient DNA data from eighteen Southeast Asian individuals spanning from the Neolithic period through the Iron Age (4100–1700 years ago). Early farmers from Man Bac in Viet...

Recent genomic analyses show that the earliest peoples reaching Remote Oceania-associated with Austronesian-speaking Lapita culture-were almost completely East Asian, without detectable Papuan ancestry. However, Papuan-related genetic ancestry is found across present-day Pacific populations, indicating that peoples from Near Oceania have played a s...

This paper introduces on-going research by presenting the original proposal for this work. This research seeks to combine archaeological and bioarchaeological analyses, as well as theoretical perspectives from these fields, to obtain an integrated and holistic perspective of social change and its effect on health in prehistory. This approach will b...

Southeast Asia is home to rich human genetic and linguistic diversity, but the details of past population movements in the region are not well known. Here, we report genome-wide ancient DNA data from thirteen Southeast Asian individuals spanning from the Neolithic period through the Iron Age (4100–1700 years ago). Early agriculturalists from Man Ba...

Two distinct population models have been put forward to explain present-day human diversity in Southeast Asia. The first model proposes long-term continuity (Regional Continuity model) while the other suggests two waves of dispersal (Two Layer model). Here, we use whole-genome capture in combination with shotgun sequencing to generate 25 ancient hu...

Ancient DNA analysis of three individuals dated to ~3000 years before present (BP) from Vanuatu and one ~2600 BP individual from Tonga has revealed that the first inhabitants of Remote Oceania (“First Remote Oceanians”) were almost entirely of East Asian ancestry, and thus their ancestors passed New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Solomon...

The Teouma skeletal assemblage represents a group of colonists from the earliest phase of the Vanuatu archipelago's prehistory. Previous examinations of the assemblage identified high levels of hyperostosis, which we investigate further here. Based on a differential diagnosis of conditions known to produce ectopic bone formation, we argue that the...

Ancient DNA from Vanuatu and Tonga dating to about 2,900-2,600 years ago (before present, BP) has revealed that the "First Remote Oceanians" associated with the Lapita archaeological culture were directly descended from the population that, beginning around 5000 BP, spread Austronesian languages from Taiwan to the Philippines, western Melanesia, an...

In 2017 two unmarked historic burials were disturbed in the Cromwell Cemetery, Central Otago, and the authors were engaged to assess, excavate and reinter these burials. Both were of adult males, probably buried in the 1890s. Both were simply buried, and showed evidence of past injuries and heavy manual labour. This paper considers the bioarchaeolo...

This paper reintroduces the concept of mass migration into debates concerning the timing and nature of New Zealand’s settlement by Polynesians. Upward revisions of New Zealand’s chronology show that the appearance of humans on the landscape occurred extremely rapidly, and that within decades settlements had been established across the full range of...

p>Biological anthropological research, the study of both modern and past humans, is a burgeoning field in the Indo-Pacific region. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the unique environments of the Indo-Pacific have resulted in an archaeological record that does not necessarily align with those in the northern hemisphere. New, regionally-spec...

A relatively new development to the milieu of archaeological techniques routinely used in the Pacific Island region, the stable isotope analysis of human skeletal and dental remains has provided important insights into diet, methods of subsistence and also intra-population variation in diet that may be related to age, sex or status. This study is a...

Studies of contemporary populations have demonstrated an association between decreased dietary diversity due to resource scarcity or underutilization and an increase in diseases related to poor micronutrient intake. With a reduction of dietary diversity, it is often the women and children in a population who are the first to suffer the effects of p...

Dental calculus studies, though becoming more common for addressing a range of archaeological questions, are still in their infancy. Dental calculus is a mineralised biofilm that forms on the surface of teeth, with the potential to encase anything that comes into contact with the mouth. Dental calculus has provided information on the lifeways of pa...

This article presents archaeological data critical to our understanding of the pre-colonial past along the northeast coast of New Guinea. Two archaeological sites from coastal and offshore Madang, Papua New Guinea, were excavated to establish the timing of colonization by Bel (Austronesian) speakers, and the subsequent emergence of their trade and...

In December 2016 an Otago University team undertook an archaeological excavation on the historic St. John's Cemetery in South Otago, New Zealand. The aim of the project is to study the archaeology and bioarchaeology of an early European settler community to consider details of the lives, health and experience of emigrating to New Zealand. This pape...

The bioarchaeological model of health change predicts a deterioration in population health with the adoption and intensification of agriculture. However, research in mainland Southeast Asia challenges this model, showing no clear pattern of health deterioration associated with the intensification of rice agriculture. Childhood growth, a sensitive i...

div class="title">The Pain Haka burial ground on Flores: Indonesian evidence for a shared Neolithic belief system in Southeast Asia - Volume 90 Issue 354 - Jean-Christophe Galipaud, Rebecca Kinaston, Siân Halcrow, Aimee Foster, Nathaniel Harris, Truman Simanjuntak, Jonathan Javelle, Hallie Buckley

Developmental dental defects, usually manifested as enamel discolouration, are commonly used as indicators of physiological stress in human bioarchaeological research. It is sometimes difficult to ascertain whether discolouration in enamel is a developmental defect or the result of a taphonomic process. Previous research on discolouration of dental...

p>The Reber-Rakival site on Watom Island is of particular significance, as it is the first place where what is now known as Lapita pottery was found, by a German missionary in 1909. It is also significant as a Lapita-era burial site, although there has been much debate about the exact relationship between the burials and the Lapita occupation. In 2...

Vitamin D deficiency has traditionally been viewed as a metabolic bone disease by bioarchaeologists and considered primarily in terms of the development of specific musculoskeletal changes used for diagnosis in paleopathological research. These skeletal manifestations are usually interpreted as representing general ill-health. Clinical research sho...

Objectives: The south coast of New Guinea has a complex prehistory known for its exchange systems that linked distinct cultural groups living along the coast, inland, and on offshore islands. Here we compare the palaeohealth of two relatively contemporaneous skeletal samples from the south coast of New Guinea (850-200 BP) that were from two ecolog...

In recent years the bioarchaeology of Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands has seen enormous progress. This new and exciting research is synthesised, contextualised and expanded upon in The Routledge Handbook of Bioarchaeology in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. The volume is divided into two broad sections, one dealing with mainland and...