Open Access

Human skeletal remains are one of several find categories from archaeological sites. The skeleton constitutes only a small part of a former living organism that was exposed to a variety of environmental factors. As a highly adaptive mineralized tissue, bone – and to a lesser extent also teeth – stores information on an individual’s life. Reading out this information contributes to the historical understanding of individuals and societies from the past. However, obtaining this information can be challenging in many aspects, and, due to the very nature of the archaeological remains, the reconstructed picture of the individual and its society and environment will inevitably always be incomplete. In order to extract as much information from bones and teeth as possible, existing methods must be adapted to specific situations and the diagnostic approaches have to be developed beyond current limitations. The 17 international publications presented in this thesis are addressing the abovementioned goals. They cover a wide range of topics, mainly from the field of bioarchaeology, augmented by some studies on recent and fossil animal remains. The studies are organized in those dealing with metrical data, including sex determination methods and analysis of measurement error, the analysis of normal and abnormal conditions of bone, including paleopathological diagnostics, the impact of diagenetic agents on bone, and the presentation of cases where bioarchaeological analysis contributed to the understanding of the respective find situations. The methods applied in the studies cover a broad spectrum of approaches to study morphological properties of bones and teeth, including metrics, radiographic, and microscopic techniques.

Deutschland ist ein Einwanderungsland, kulturelle Diversität spiegelt sich in vielen Lebensbereichen wider. Im Bereich der Gesundheitsversorgung können kulturell geprägte Erwartungen, Kommunikationsstile und Überzeugungen Behandelnde und Behandelte vor Herausforderungen stellen. Dieses Buch wirft aus Sicht der Gesundheitspsychologie einen Blick auf das Thema Kultur und Gesundheit. In eigenständigen Beiträgen wird dabei thematisiert, welchen Einfluss Kultur auf die Wahrnehmung und Kommunikation von Symptomen, auf Überzeugungen über Krankheitsursachen und auf Risiko- und Schutzfaktoren für Gesundheit haben kann. Es wird dargelegt, wie Migration und Gesundheit im Zusammenhang stehen und welche Aspekte in der Intervention und Prävention in einem Einwanderungsland besondere Aufmerksamkeit erfahren sollten.