Book reviews

PALAEOPATHOLOGY OF ABORIGINALAUSTRALIANS. HEALTH AND DISEASEACROSS A HUNTER±GATHERERCONTINENT

Stephen Webb, Cambridge University Press, Cam-bridge, 1995. Price US $59.95. ISBN 0-521-460644-1(Hardback)

Stephen Webb's new book joins the growing numberof regional and temporal surveys of biologicalanthropology and palaeopathology. Primarily usinghealth and disease data obtained from his manystudies of late Pleistocene and Holocene (pre-Contact) human remains from Australia, Webb haswritten an informative and synthetic presentation.Where available, he has supplemented his data withappropriate ethnohistoric sources and accounts, aswell as with comparative work in biological anthro-pology.

After presenting basic information on materials andmethods (Chapters 1 and 2), Webb discusses theUpper Pleistocene and Holocene human settlementof Australia, and the pathology identi®ed in asso-ciated skeletal remains, dating to between 50 000 and8000 years BP (Chapters 3 and 4). Following thisintroductory section, Webb devotes a chapter each todescriptions and assessments of stress indicators (e.g.,cribra orbitalia), infectious disease, osteoarthritis,trauma, neoplasms, and congenital malformations(Chapters 5 through to 10 inclusive). The penulti-mate chapter presents Webb's recent study of a pre-Contact skeletal population recovered from a Papuan(New Guinea) site, and the ®nal chapter draws on thepreviously discussed palaeopathological evidence inpresenting regional differences and similarities in pre-Contact health and disease among Australian Abori-ginal peoples.

Webb succeeds at presenting both data andsyntheses. In each chapter, he provides case studiesand an inter-regional comparison as well as a generalsummary of ®ndings. With supporting data onfrequencies contained in numerous detailed tables,the book should be of use to other scholars. Thereare, however, a number of sections where speculativereasoning, informed only minimally by palaeopatho-logical evidence, comprises the text. Although this is

perhaps unavoidable, particularly when trying tomake sense of health and disease patterns of the latePleistocene populations (Chapter 3), the few palaeo-pathology cases from late Pleistocene remains pre-sented in Chapter 4 provide better and moreinteresting bases for interpreting the past. At times,in Chapters 5 through to 10, an unusual case studypresentation overwhelms the tabular data on intra-and interpopulation incidences.

The palaeopathological evidence and differentialdiagnoses are generally presented in a clear andconsistent manner. Most of the photographs clearlyshow the specimens, although some are presented inunusual orientations. Nonetheless, the combinationof text, tabular data, and photographs generallyprovide suf®cient evidence for knowledgeable readersto come to their own conclusions. The diagnosesoffered for observed pathological changes usually ®tthe skeletal and/or dental evidence provided. In oneinstance, however, the unusual diaphyseal bowing inone of the Willandra Lakes specimens is more likelyto be a normal variant than a pathology. For example,Philip Houghton, in his book The First New Zealanders(1980), describes bowing of the ulnar shaft as anormal anatomical ®nding in many Polynesianremains.

Chapter 8, `Trauma', contains a short section onprobable and possible cases of surgery found inAboriginal remains. Webb describes several instancesof trephination, and two cases of probable amputa-tion of limbs. At least one of the trephination cases isambiguous, as Webb points out, the availableevidence supporting differential diagnoses of traumafollowed by infection or (possibly multiple) trephina-tion.

There was an occasional inconsistency in the tablessummarizing incidences of pathological conditions.Table 5.5, for example, documents the frequency ofHarris lines in skeletal remains sorted by geographi-cal area, but sample sizes are conspicuously absent. Inother places, minor distractions occur in the form oftextual references missing from the bibliography, orsmall errors of fact or interpretation. For example, onpage 191, the relatively sedentary Late Woodlandpopulation represented in the Libben Site ossuary(studied by Lovejoy et al., 1977) are described as`hunter±gatherers' and compared with nomadic desert

International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Vol. 7: 190±192 (1997)

CCC 1047±482X/97/020190±03$17.50# 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

people. The palaeopathological study of the Motu-pore population from Papua New Guinea providessome worthwhile comparative data, particularly ascranial and associated infracranial remains wereavailable for examination. The presentation wouldbe strengthened by the inclusion of a map and somephotographs illustrating the observed pseudopathol-ogy, especially that resembling bony changes causedby treponemal disease.

Like many skeletal biologists working elsewhere inOceania and the world, Webb has had to adapt to thepractical and political realities of repatriation andreburial. The moral and social necessity of givingnative peoples disposition rights over their dead hasput constraints on the possible range of examinationtechniques and degree of data recording in biologicalanthropology. To his credit, Webb has tried here toidentify clearly when such limitations occurred, andhow they affected the results.

Because any reader of Palaeopathology of AboriginalAustralians would require a minimal competency inhuman osteology and training in the recognition ofpalaeopathological conditions, this book will be mostvaluable for professional physical anthropologists,advanced graduate students in physical anthropologyor related disciplines, and specialists in Paci®cprehistory. I can, however, recommend the book asa generally useful addition to departmental and/orinstitutional libraries as a source of valuable compara-tive data; its price is relatively moderate for ahardcover book in biological anthropology.

References

Houghton, P. The First New Zealanders. Auckland:Hodder and Stoughton, 1980.

Lovejoy, C. O., Meindl, R. S., Pryzbeck, T. R.,Barton, T. S., Heiple, K. G. and Kotting, D.Palaeodemography of the Libben Site, OttawaCounty, Ohio. Science, 1977, 198 (4314): 291±293.

Sara CollinsState of HawaiiSHPD/DLNR

EGYPTIAN BOOKSHELF. DISEASE

Joyce Filer, British Museum Press, London, 1995.Price £9.99. ISBN 0-7141-0980-0.

Ever since Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, ancientEgyptian culture has held a fascination that no other

has equalled. The size and scale of the monuments ofthe ancient Egyptians staggered belief, and eventoday it seems almost incomprehensible that, with noother motive force than human musculature, suchimmense projects as the pyramids and the temple atKarnak could have been erected. No wonder thathelp from extraterrestrial beings is frequently invokedto explain them. The pyramids have attracted animmense amount of speculation and a veritableindustry has grown up in the attempt to deciphertheir meaning; one of the latest theories being thatthey represent the stars in Orion's belt, thisconstellation being central to a religious ceremonyinvolving the dead pharaoh.

We know much about the way of life of the ancientEgyptians from the wall paintings in their tombs andfrom the inscriptions in the tombs, on monumentsand in the extant papyri. The picture we get is of ahighly organized, sophisticated, relatively stablesociety with a system of belief in an afterlife forwhich the living most carefully prepared. It is to theirreligion that we owe much of what we have learnedabout the ancient Egyptians. To prepare themselvesfor the afterlife, individuals made tombs covered withscenes of everyday life and depictions of theirrelatives and household, and it was to ®t them forentry into the afterlife that that most evocative of allthe remnants of ancient Egypt, the mummy, wascreated.

There is probably no relict of the past that has soseized the imagination as the mummy. The presenceof mummies in a museum will guarantee attendance;they have spawned a horror movie cult; andanthropologists and palaeopathologists eagerly queueup for the chance to examine them; and a mummywill even be able quickly to have a CAT scan in anNHS hospital Ð which is more than most of uswill Ð as Joyce Filer's delightful little book informsus.

It is somewhat comforting to know, after all, thatthe ancient Egyptians were human, and Filerdescribes their many ailments in a clear, straightfor-ward manner. She gives a short account of theenvironment in which the ancient Egyptians livedand a useful introduction to the sources of evidenceabout their health. The diseases themselves areconsidered in a series of chapters in which they aregrouped under broad aetiological headings Ð con-genital, acquired, trauma, and dental health. All thechapters are accompanied by excellent illustrations, anumber in colour.

Filer's background in Egyptology and her subse-quent training in osteology equip her well to writethis introduction to Egyptian palaeopathology, aimed

Age at Death Estimates 191