SUSAN SHERIDAN, University of Notre Dame

Human remains from the Medieval site of Kulubnarti in Sudanese Nubia have been the focus of intensive biocultural investigation.  The  most frequent skeletal pathology observed in this population is cribra orbitalia which has been attributed to iron-deficiency anemia compounded by weanling diarrhea.

Recent analyses of iron levels in the hair of Kulubnarti children have confirmed that those with cribrotic lesions suffered from anemia.  This study further explores the degree of iron deficiency among Kulubnarti subadults and adults using ICP-AES to determine iron concentrations in femoral midshaft samples.

While highly significant differences in iron levels were found for the subadult segments of the population with and without the lesion, no significant differences were observed between cribrotic and normal adults.  However, when iron levels were regressed by age for each sex, regardless of pathology, striking differences appeared,  While characteristic male iron levels did not change with age, female iron values were lowest during the estimated peak fertility years (20-34), and increased as fertility diminished.  By the postmenopausal years, female, iron levels had reached, but never exceeded, male levels.  Low iron concentrations among reproductive-aged females is a likely result of iron-deficiency anemia exacerbated by the nutritional demands of menstruation, pregnancy, and lactation.  While no skeletal manifestations of this anemia are found in the Kulubnarti adults, elemental analysis provides the means for assessing this condition in adulthood.