CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—Activity throughout life is the key to building strong bones, according to a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Cambridge. Colin Shaw of the Phenotypic Adaptability, Variation and Evolution (PAVE) Research Group and his colleagues x-rayed samples of the heads of human femur bones taken from four archaeological populations, all from the state of Illinois, including 7,000-year-old mobile hunter-gatherers, and 700-year-old sedentary agriculturalists. They found that the hunter-gatherers had more “spongy” bone, which can change shape and direction depending on the loads placed on it, and resist fracture. The thickening of the bone was caused by the constant physical activity required of hunter-gatherers. “We’ve shown that hunter-gatherers fall right in line with primates of a similar body size. Modern human skeletons are not systemically fragile; we are not constrained by our anatomy,” Shaw explained. Hominids that lived 150,000 years ago had even stronger skeletons than the hunter-gatherers. “Something is going on in the distant past to create bone strength that outguns anything in the last 10,000 years,” he said. To read about how hunter-gatherers fared in Sweden, see "Neolithic Farmers Assimilated Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers."
Active Hunter-Gatherers Had Strong Skeletons
News December 23, 2014
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2019
Home on the Plains
Features November/December 2024
Let the Games Begin
How gladiators in ancient Anatolia lived to entertain the masses
Features November/December 2024
The Many Faces of the Kingdom of Shu
Thousands of fantastical bronzes are beginning to reveal the secrets of a legendary Chinese dynasty
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2024
Egyptian Crocodile Hunt
-
Features November/December 2014
The Neolithic Toolkit
How experimental archaeology is showing that Europe's first farmers were also its first carpenters
(Courtesy Rengert Elburg, Landesamt für Archäologie Sachsen) -
Features November/December 2014
The Ongoing Saga of Sutton Hoo
A region long known as a burial place for Anglo-Saxon kings is now yielding a new look at the world they lived in
(© The Trustees of the British Museum/Art Resource) -
Letter From Montana November/December 2014
The Buffalo Chasers
Vast expanses of grassland near the Rocky Mountains bear evidence of an extraordinary ancient buffalo hunting culture
(Maria Nieves Zedeño) -
Artifacts November/December 2014
Ancient Egyptian Ostracon
(Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL, UC15946)