Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 50 (1) 2022   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2022.50.1.147-157

Annotation:  Fossil Bone Implements in the Industry of the Early Paleolithic Site Bogatyri/ Sinyaya Balka (Taman Paleoenvironmental Conditions of Neanderthal Habitation in the Altai: Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov Cav Komudvany—a Final Paleolithic Site in the Lower Ob Valley: Geomorphology, Paleontology, Archaeology On the Cultural Geography of the Eastern Caucasus and Southern Caspian in the Mesolithic Ornaments Made from Unio Shells in a Neolithic Burial at Ust-Aleika-5, Barnaul, Southwestern Siberia The Specifics of Japanese Terms Referring to the Jomon Period, Based on Publications by Yamanouchi S A New Andronovo (Fedorovka) Cemetery in the Eastern Irtysh Basin Stone Tools from an Island in Berd Bay, Novosibirsk Reservoir Metal Celts from the Little Sea Coast of Lake Baikal A Group of Large Kurgans in the Suusamyr Valley, Kyrgyzstan Female Burials with Weapons in the Early Nomadic Kurgans in the Southern Urals (Late 5th to 2nd Cent The Chemical Analysis of Glass Samples from Roman Era Cemeteries in the Crimean Piedmont A Set of Clothing Items from the Iyus Hoard Monumental Wooden Statues from the Ust-Voikary Fortifi ed Settlement, Northwestern Siberia: A Multid The Aul-Koshkul-1 Cemetery in the Baraba Forest-Steppe: Findings of a Multidisciplinary Study Chronic Maxillary Sinusitis Recorded in Archaeological Samples: Geographical Distribution and Predis   

Chronic Maxillary Sinusitis Recorded in Archaeological Samples:
Geographical Distribution and Predisposing Factors

A.V. Zubova¹, V.G. Moiseyev¹, N.I. Ananyeva^{2, 3}, I.K. Stulov², and E.V. Andreev²

¹Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya nab. 3, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

²Bekhterev National Medical Research Center of Psychiatry and Neurology, Bekhtereva 3, St. Petersburg, 192019, Russia

³Saint Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya nab. 7–9, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

The study explores social and climatic factors affecting the occurrence of chronic maxillary sinusitis (CMS) in ancient and historical samples of Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Africa. The main database consists of 23 cranial samples. According to the results of univariate (correlation analysis and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test) and multivariate (principal component) analyses, only climatic factors reveal a statistically significant effect on the frequency of CMS. The principal factor is temperature, which shows a negative correlation with CMS at the world level: the higher the mean annual temperature and the maximal temperature of the three hottest months, the lower the occurrence. At the regional level, significant correlation was also found between CMS and the number of rainy days per year. Rather than direct dependence, however, this result suggests that the correlation between climatic variables is different in Europe and North America. None of the socio-economic factors that we analyzed (sex, urban versus rural residence, subsistence strategy) demonstrated significant correlation with the prevalence of CMS at the world level. Assessing the effect of social status evaluated by archaeological criteria was impossible because of the complex nature of stress-inducing factors.

Keywords: Chronic maxillary sinusitis, climate, bioarchaeology, paleopathology, respiratory tract diseases