Childhood skeletal lesions common in prehistory are present in living forager-farmers and predict adult markers of immune function
Porous cranial lesions (cribra cranii and cribra orbitalia) are widely used by archaeologists as skeletal markers of poor child health. However, their use has not been validated with systematic data from contemporary populations, where there has been little evidence of these lesions or their health relevance. Using 375 in vivo computed tomography scans from a cohort-representative sample of adults aged 40+ years from the Bolivian Amazon, among food-limited, high-mortality forager-farmers, we identified cribra cranii on 46 (12.3%) and cribra orbitalia on 23 (6%). Cribra orbitalia was associated with several hallmarks of compromised immune function, including fewer B cells, fewer naïve CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells, a lower CD4<sup>+</sup>/CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell ratio, and higher tuberculosis risk. However, neither lesion type predicted other physician-diagnosed respiratory diseases, other markers of cell-mediated immunity, or hemoglobin values. While cribra orbitalia shows promise as a skeletal indicator of health challenges, our findings do not support the continued practice of using these lesions to infer anemia in adults.
Authors
- Suhail Ghafoor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9070-8920)
- Wendy Jean Mack (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2474-7921)
- Bret Beheim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4653-3155)
- Gregory W. Thomas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5708-8790)
- Amy Anderson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9204-9076)
- Kenneth H. Buetow (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4439-0939)
- Michael I. Miyamoto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8204-2815)
- Daniel Eid Rodríguez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8145-0967)
- Michael Gurven (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5661-527X)
- Randall C. Thompson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4048-8827)
- Aaron D. Blackwell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5871-9865)
- M Linda Sutherland (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6750-5175)
- Jonathan Stieglitz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5985-9643)
- Hillard S Kaplan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7398-7358)
- Benjamin C. Trumble (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3201-0628)
- L. Samüel Wann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5303-9246)
- Caleb E. Finch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7617-3958)
- Andrei Irimia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9254-9388)
- Margaret Gatz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1071-9970)
- J. D. Sutherland (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5619-3938)
- Daniel K. Cummings (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7370-3020)
- Thomas S. Kraft (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0634-9233)
- Paul L. Hooper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4673-7513)
- Chris Rowan
- Adel H. Allam
Institutions
- QB3 (US)
- University of Southern California (US)
- New Mexico Department of Health (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- University of Nevada, Reno (US)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- University of New Mexico (US)
- King's College London (GB)
- Al-Azhar University (EG)
- Chapman University (US)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- University of Utah (US)
- Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center (US)
- Universidad Mayor de San Simón (BO)
- Mission Heritage Medical Group (US)
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE)
- MemorialCare Health System (US)
- Saint Luke's Hospital (US)
- Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (FR)
- Arizona State University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2025-07-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adw3697
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 16.55